Salmon tartar on shrimp chips - Tartar de somon pe chipsuri de creveti

**** Special note - thank you to my dear dear dear talented daughter, Clara, who took the the photo above and the one below. I think she did a wonderful job and made me so proud to have them in my post. She has being trying her hand with the camera latelly just to amaze us how good she is for a 9 years old./ Vreau sa-i multumesc scumpei dragei mele talentate fetite, Clara, care a facut poza de mai sus si pe cea de mai jos, de care sunt atat de mandra. In ultima perioada ne-a uimit cat de minunata e cu aparatul de fotografiat, pentru un copil de 9 ani.****

For this post I made Bea's recipe from here, followed her plating idea, and while my photos have a long way to be anywhere close to hers and since I have no merrit whatsoever for this recipe (please refer to her blog for it), I can come up with a story only.
Since I found her post, I've been craving to make this. As I told you, I love raw fish. But this time the attraction was not the salmon, or the nice combination with apples and radishes, but the shrimp chips as I call them, or prawn crackers as Bea refers to them.
When I was a kid, these boxes of shrimp crackers/chips were one of the only 4-5 items that you could find in a grocery store in my town any single day without staying in line for it. For Romanians this will not sound strange, but for anybody else, please be assured I am not exagerating or making this up. It was during communism, we had monthly cards for all the food allowed by the state to be given to us, everything was rationalized like during the World War, we had to stay in line when and if the stores were getting anything. And for a while on the shelves of the grocery store located on the first floor of my building, this, some brown toilet paper, Bulgarian tomato juice and chestnut puree were pretty much all you could find when you were going in.

My mom was making them Saturday nights when we were watching THE MOVIE, and it was our junk food.

I looked for this since I saw Bea's post and I finally found them in a small store in China town. And tonight I was very happy to eat them with the salmon tartar ( made them much better) and I realized they are not as "spectacular" as I remembered them. I mean, I still ate them, quite a few and kind of fast, but not the same way as I did when I was 9.

I made the tartar following Bea's recipe, I used apple, radishes, chives, ginger, lemon juice and soy sauce. I didn't have coriander/cilantro, and I know it would have worked perfectly, and substituted the lime with lemon. And I put on top some Tobiko Wasabi - flying fish roe, and black sesame.

Can I tell you again how much I liked it .................... it was light, elegant, and tasty.

NB: for those who don't like or find sushi grade fish, I think smoked salmon makes a nice substitution.

Subiectul acesta este despre reteta lui Bea, i-am urmat exemplul cum sa asez mancarea, si pentru ca pozele mele sunt mult inferioare pozelor ei, si pentru ca nici reteta nu e a mea, ramane povestea. Va mai aduceti cumva aminte de cand eram copii si pe toate rafturile alimentarilor erau numai cutii de "creveti" si inca alte trei lucruri? In orasul meu, Valcea, la alimentara de la parterul blocului meu cam asta imi aduc eu aminte sa fi vazut (ma refer la ce gasea in fiecare zi, fara sa stai la coada sau sa iei pe cartela sau cu pile. L anoi erau chipusirle astea, suc de rosii bulgaresc, piure de castane si hartie igienica din aceea bej. Nu o luati ca pe o plangere sau exagerare. Nu e cazul. Aveam aproape 13 ani la revolutie, si nu am simtit greul prea mult. Eram copil, si nu vezi lucrurile la fel cum el vad acum in perspectiva. stiu cum si ce a fost greu si rau, dar atunci, ai mei stiau, eu nu prea.
Mama ne facea chipsuri din astea sambata seara cand ne uitam la film. Ii rontaiam repede si erau mancarea noastra nesanatoasa.

De cand am vazut reteta lui Bea am cautat sa cumpar su in sfarsit i-am gasit in China Town.
Am urmat reteta ei, folosind somon, mar si ridiche taiat bastonase, o linguritza ghimbir ras, 1 lingura zeama de lamaie, o lingura sos de soia si ceapa verde tocata marunt (chives). Nu am avut coriandru, desi imi place am uitat sa cumpar, si am folosit lamaie in loc de limeta. Si deasupra am pus niste icre de peste cu wasabi, hreanul japonez verde, de unde si culoarea, si susan negru.
Nici nu pot spune cat de mult mi-a placut combinatia de texturi, e foarte usor, delicat, elegant si gustos.
NB: sunt absolut sigura ca merge la fel de bine cu somon afumat in loc de somon crud, in caz ca nu va place sau nu gasiti din cel "super foarte" proaspat.