Happy Friday — we’re back with more Hot Bones and a city-wide pat on the back. For the third time in five years, Charlottesville has been named Best Adventure Town by Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine. Good stuff.

We won the mid-size-city category, and I’d like to think it was because of new offerings like the hiking and mtn biking trails at Biscuit Run, the cold-plunge saunas at the Rivanna River Co, and a Wegman’s parking lot so vast, you can watch the supermoon rising as you get into your Subaru.

Do one long thumb scroll for more Cville-specific updates like local events, cool houses, and pets to adopt.

🐶 Speaking of: Jethro! This laid-back dude is looking for the simple pleasures in life: a good walk, a new scent, and someone to rub his ears (hound, 3 years, 55 lbs).

Last week, G and I were gathering our tennis gear at the net after a nice match when I told her I had a surprise dinner planned when we got home. She looked excited.

“Three surprise dinners in fact!” I said.

Her look indicated this was suspicious. I never cook dinner.

“Oh no, is this for Hot Bones?”

“Well, can it be for both?”

“It depends what we’re having? Please say it’s not something bug related again.”

“No! It’s…”

Her face scrunched. Bracing.

“Tinned fish!”

No reply. She moves away from the net.

“Tonight: a lovely bed of couscous and cherry tomatoes with tinned trout on top.”

“I don’t want to do this.”

“Tomorrow: savory pasta in a red sauce infused with anchovies.”

She’s walking toward the baseline.

“And then sardines and beans!” I yelled across the court. “Tinned fish is the new superfood!”

She’s opening the entrance gate.

“This is going to be the best week of your life! No cooking!”

We went out to dinner that night.

“You can’t spring that news on me. Trout couscous on a Monday just isn’t right,” G said while we waited for our handcrafted Italian pastas, far removed from any sardines, trout, or anchovies.

“I think you have some fish hangups, G. Look at what I was going to make.”

I showed her a picture of the anchovy recipe.

“Ok well that’s not so bad.”

“It looks not unlike our current meal. And I have wine pairings too.”

She nodded.

So the HB tinned fish experiment was back on.

Eating fish is good for our health, but mercury in tuna, as well as high levels of chemicals and antibiotics in farmed Atlantic salmon (two of the main fish Americans eat) make the calculus a little less appetizing. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, especially if we want to start talking about illegal fishing practices next.

The good news is that “forage fish” are getting a major rebrand. These are the sardines of your childhood, the anchovies you pushed off your salad, the herring your grandmother cooked and you hid in your napkin. They’ve gotten cool again. And they’re better for the planet too because they’re more plentiful (so less chance of overfishing), there’s no refrigeration needed (so less energy expended), and there’s less food waste (because they have a longer shelf life).

If you’re of the internet age, you probably already know this via something the youths briefly called “sardinecore” and the declaration a few years back that tinned fish were the ultimate hot girl food (high protein, low carbs, nutrient dense).

If you’re new to the scene, forage fish aka tinned fish are having a renaissance. Books like Tin to Table are widening the appeal of the little guys, and brands like Fishwife and Patagonia Provisions are bringing a bit of bougie spiff to a food category typically associated with gray Bumble Bee tins that still require an actual can opener.

As a sucker for excellent branding, new sustainable solutions, and ways to make quick meals that don’t involve touching raw meat, I wanted to give it a try.

Here are the three tinned fish meals G and I made in the past week. Peaks and valleys for sure.

📚 Recipe link: here

💰 Cost: 3 tins of Fishwish’s smoked trout run $34 online (here). I bought ours on Martie for about $9 each, and we only used 2.

⏱️ Time: This took me 30 minutes and I’m a slow, terrible cook.

🐟 General reactions: Bad. It was extremely fishy and I couldn’t make it past three bites. I watched G politely suffer for a few more seconds, her face getting sourer and sourer.

“This is bad. I can’t finish it,” I said.

“Very much.”

We stared at our bowls.

“3 2 1 game-time decision. Let's throw this away and make eggs and toast.”

“And let’s open a window too.”

🧠 G’s hot take: “Honestly, the fish was not the problem. It was a hurdle to overcome, but it wasn’t the problem. It was the pepperoncini that was the issue. And the fact that you didn’t add any of the herbs from the recipe.”

This is true, Wegman’s was out. Don’t sleep on load-bearing ingredients, I’ve learned! And don’t mess with pepperoncini.

🔁 Repeat performance? Not on your life.

🍷 Oh, the wine: Mid-range Beaujolais did the trick for both the trout and the eggs.

📚 Recipe link: here

💰 Cost: 3 tins of anchovies from Fishwife clock in at $27, or $9 each. We used 1 tin.

⏱️ Time: 15 minutes, including pasta cooking

🐟 General reactions: Pretty darn good.

We had a tough first round but this recipe was a nice palette cleanser. G had taken the cooking helm, thank god, which no doubt improved the odds of liking a fish-based meal (harsh words from last recipe, when I cooked: “it’s not your fault the dinner was bad, but it’s not not your fault either”).

🧠 G’s hot take: “It’s a great sauce with a little kick and a little extra protein.”

🔁 Repeat performance? Yes, we’re fans. In fact, believe it or not but we both agreed we could even add a second tin of anchovies next time, to bring out the flavor a little more.

🍷 The wine: a somewhat fancy Chianti

📚 Recipe link: No formal recipe (feeling BOLD!)

💰 Cost: Each tin of Patagonia Provisions sardines and beans is $8.

Patagonia started their food line over a decade ago, but they’ve really found their groove recently with three heavy hitters: beer, crackers, and tinned fish. Their reason for getting into food services sounds odd until it isn’t: You might buy a new sustainably made jacket once every few years, but you eat every day. Food is a huge way to make a positive impact on the planet.

⏱️ Time: I just heated these bad boys up in a saucepan, so less than 5 minutes. Then I popped them on a bed of rice and added sliced cherry tomatoes and parsley.

🐟 General reactions: We had soup in the fridge as backup just in case the ‘dines and beans were too much, but no need. It was good! The copious white rice also helped dilute the fishiness.

🧠 G’s hot take: “I wouldn’t add it to our regular rotation like the anchovy pasta, but it would be great for camping or biking since you can eat it basically right from the tin.”

🔁 Repeat performance? Probably not, but maybe that’s because we’re kinda sick of fish by this point.

🍷 The wine: Txakoli for G’s version, which was sardines with white beans. I had the black beans, corn, and salsa option.

This newsletter edition could easily have been titled “The one where my wife wins a Nobel Peace Prize.” So I’d like to say here, very much in public, thank you for being so game, G! And for cooking after I failed on recipe 1.

Please accept the half-eaten jar of pepperoncini in our fridge as a thank you gift.

Forget shark week, it’s little fish week.

💨 Tickets are going fast: The fourth annual Two Up Wine Down festival is next Saturday afternoon (tastings, curators, live music, an incredible line-up of Virginia wines).

🎙️ Bop of the week: Dawes is playing at the Jefferson this Saturday. Doors open at 7pm. Listen to When My Time Comes to take you back to 2009.

🏡 Is now a good time to buy? Three adorable and arguably overpriced cottages for ya:

🏠 Meanwhile, a not overpriced rental of the week: Pets allowed in this bungalow on one of the best streets in Fry’s Spring (2 beds, 1 bath, $2,350/month)

📚 Long read if you dare: Spider mega-city discovered. No need to say more, nor do I wish to.

💼 Remote job of the week: Greenlight America is hiring for multiple clean energy roles, including Senior Digital Associate in their comms department ($60k - $85k).

Have an event or rec you’d like to share? Hiring? Interested in advertising?

Share any and all info here.