Sardine Spread

This is more than a food blog. Once and a while, you get a delicious dose of health advice too. When it comes to vitamin D deficiency, you have to be convinced that sardine will do right for you.

Not only that, a can of sardine is easy to carry. In fact, our friend J pulled out a can of sardine from his pocket and offered it to the three of us. We were on a quad chair-lift riding up to the peak of a ski mountain. No bread or crackers, just sardine. No one hesitated. We are baby boomers: hardy and up for everything. We shared one can of some no-name sardine on the chairlift in the dead of winter.

Undoubtedly, we got more than our daily allowance of vitamin D that day, with the help of full sun and the canned sardine. Since there was no immediate need to stop at the base for food, we had more time in the sun and more skiing. A double whammy and a good day on the mountain.

If I can package a sardine spread in a can, this recipe from David Lebovitz comes close to a perfect formula. Packed with ingredients like: cream cheese, butter, scallions, capers, lime juice, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, and sardine, of course, you’ll be ready to roll with a can of this spread, wherever you are.

sardine spread on a slice of sourdough country bread

Please visit Cook-the-book-fridays to see how the online group, a community of engaging home cooks and lovely people, who are working through David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen, is liking this recipe.

This post is dispatched from Kyoto, Japan. Whole sardines are a common sight in the fresh fish cases in markets in Japan. I cannot think of any fish that is cheaper than sardines in Japan. A pack of 6-10 costs as low as 100 yen (1 US dollar). Inexpensive and so good for you, served fresh, grilled or canned.