In the Can

What is this?

This is a rich sardine.

Not too long ago I had a sardine sandwich. At a restaurant. It was a very nice restaurant in Williamsburg, New York, the Roebling Tea Room. The Roebling Tea Room is a sensible place – sensibly excellent bread, sensibly savvy wine and beer list, sensibly comfort-worn – and not at all fussy, as the name implies.

Finding typically maligned foods such as sardines and liverwurst on a menu ups the mercury on my thermometer, so I warmed to the place instantly. Honestly, sardines are so rarely served around here, I had to have them. Anything that is delectable straight out of the can is improved upon immensely with simplicity. The sardines on my sandwich shared their buttered bread with radishes and eggs. Old fashioned modernity. Uh huh.

Foraging for fish? Fish in a tin? Look! For the Cupboard, Fish in Tins, Just Waiting for a Fork. These are the folks who bring it: Cole’s

The Times does not have a corner on the cravin’-dines market. The Washington Post has a hankering for Cole’s sardines, too.

I feel friendly towards sardines. They are tin can pals. All you need is a bit of bread, any old bread. There are nice ones out there, just looking for a good home. They aren’t noisy, won’t wreck your furniture, and they don’t take up much area in the pantry. The tins click into a satisfying stack on their deeply grooved edge.