fried seafood sampler

This is just a small variety of things picked up here and there and frozen. I could have kept on going scrounging around for more seafood things, but enough is enough, in'nit. I took the pieces out early with the intention of shallow frying while still mostly frozen but by the time I got around to them they were completely thawed.  They were all lightly dusted at once with the same seasoned flour and then quick-fried in shallow oil. As God is my witness, and all the saints, and the full array of celestial intelligences arranged by their orders in their vast concourses, attendant upon this non-sacred scene, probably as a simple matter of anthropologic interest as occurs in my mind, these pieces fried for no more than 30 seconds, it is just that fast. 

The light flour coating consisted of a few favorite things as I rummaged through a cabinet loaded with spices. Looks like this:

Except now it's messier with a lot more little bottles, and there is another cabinet that looks the same and loaded similarly, and another storage tub crammed with restaurant-size containers that refills these things, but all that is beside the point. The thing is, I took out a few favorite things, mixed them with soy sauce, water, more of the usual liquid suspects, corn starch, put it all in a jar, shook it, microwaved it for less than a minute to thicken, then poured the result into a tiny bowl. It needed adjustment, more sweetener, so I added a touch of sugar and stirred it in. And that's how a bloke such as myself tosses together a careless sauce that suits ourself just fine but that we wouldn't even think about serving to anybody else lest we poison somebody. 

Had I made a batter then the coating would have been thicker and the fish more protected from the hot oil by a thin buffering protective layer of air between the batter and fish. In that case, the fish would deep-fry slightly longer than by being merely lightly dusted with seasoned flour. You can see the difference. Had I cooked this for a minute, then the fish would have firmed more completely and for my tastes then would have been overcooked. 

The salad dressing is simply olive oil and rice vinegar. Salt/pepper. 

Would you like to hear a story? This is a true story, the incidental data points can be easily verified via simple internet searches.

I live on Broadway next to the Art Museum and another block from the main Library as I have mentioned many times. I've been plying the neighborhood walkways making mental notes of nearby restaurants, poking my head in local businesses, asking whoever is there, "What up?", checking out galleries, noting all the political offices scattered around, seeing what people are doing, seeing for myself how friendly people are, looking at the names of law firms, (the day before yesterday I noticed a law firm located in a rough-looking wooden house down by the main Post Office and next to a row of  bail bondsmen because they are also near the Justice Center and the downtown Denver Jail, the law firm is named "Chesler" which caused me to burst out laughing right as I passed a woman walking in the other direction. She looked back and I could tell she deemed me a loon.) 

Anyway as I continued along making mental notes of cafés and clubs, the breeze was scented with the perfume of flowers and of trees. Then exactly two short blocks west of Broadway from my home, suddenly the air smelled like a skunk. Really really badly too. The contrast was so sharp it nearly make my hair curl. This was right in front a business named Pure, which seemed to me very odd indeed. Pure is right next to small restaurant with tables set out onto the sidewalk with people sitting outside chatting it up. I stopped short. Looked around for a skunk. How could a skunk be downtown? Would it have come up a full mile from the railroad tracks? I did see a small brown bunny in a parking lot just then that same day so the question of odd little mammals in the city isn't entirely bizarre. But that skunk, OMG, it was awful. So I opened the door to Pure and walked inside to report that skunk. 

I found myself in a bright shiny clean and open reception room surprisingly larger than it needed to be. There were chairs placed around but nobody sitting in them. A deplorable original oil triptych decorated the wall. Behind a counter built into a corner and glassed to the ceiling so that it could be closed off, sat a young woman and a young man who both together chirped a cheerful "Hello there!"  I said, "Hello," and walked up to them, now we were face-to-face across the counter, they sitting, me standing.  "I was just walking by. Outside the air is filled with the most wonderful summer perfume scents, until I got to your building and then abruptly it smelled like a skunk." See? That's how direct I am sometimes. Can you imagine that by way of icebreaker? The man was cleaning out a jar. He grinned playfully and said, "Oh, that's us." I go, "Ha ha ha ha ha. No seriously. It smells exactly like an animal skunk walked by or else is hanging around here." The man said, "I'm serious too. It's probably our product. If you'd smell this jar, you'd know what I mean." Now that I thought on it, it did smell a bit like skunk inside there too. "We can give you a tour, if you'd like." I go, "What? A skunk tour?" He said, "Yes, exactly." The man disappeared then reappeared through another door. "Come'on back here. I'll show your our product." The product turned out to be a long display case of various types of marijuana buds in jars, and the place smelled like a live skunk, the overwhelming smell that accosted my nostrils was also exhausted to the outside. I did not know until that moment that pure high quality marijuana buds, no leaves or seeds mind you, huge and fascinating various colors and named exotically, smells exactly like a skunk. If you go there then you can have a little tour too. All of this is legal in Colorado. Further, I learned qualifying individuals, and anybody can qualify, can purchase up to two ounces a day and they can own six plants with no more than three adult plants at a time. I also learned that the law is continuously changing as city and state managers work out unexpected problems that arose from the stronger than anticipated response to legalization.