My mom used to fry smelt in her electric frying pan. They stunk the whole house up. I'll admit I ate em. The thought of smelt now makes my stomach turn. Just the name "smelt" is gross rolling off my tongue. Have you ever seen smelt sushi? Catfish sushi?
What in the hell are smelt and why don't I see them in the store anymore? Are they toxic? Is that why I have a green hue?
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Do you like salmon? Salmon eat smelt, so you sort of do too, with one degree of separation.
There is also a group sport called "Smelt Dipping", sort of like skinny dipping, in that you go into water in the middle of the night. But in one you come out with fish, in the other...well...I guess you come out with smelt.
As Dave says, "smelts aren't food, they're what food eats". I think they run once a year in the spring, so that's when you can find them.
If you close your eyes and go back in time, you will most likely get a picture of Bubbie popping fried smelt after fried smelt into her mouth right from the frying pan. They were rolled in some kind of cornmeal-y breading, I think.
I once asked Bubbie about the fact that she was eating the heads of these little critters. She just agreed and said that, yes, she was. It wasn't until now that I realize she was eating craniums, grey matter, and all the rest of the horrifying stuff that is crammed into the heads of smelt.
Yum yum.
If that was her secret to living until almost 90 I will eat the hell outta smelt.
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