Pacific Pampano

This morning I was surprised to see a basket of tiny fresh Pacific Pompano at the wharf.  These tiny silver iridescent fish were once quite a delicacy with the local Italian fishing community.  Unfortunately, along with many other small-bony fish, pompano have lost their local popularity and are now sold almost exclusively to Asian markets in the city. It is likely that this was such a small catch it didn't warrant the fisherman taking it to the city - so I jumped at the opportunity to bring a large bag of these tiny fish back to Sierra Mar for tonight's amuse course.  We fileted each fish and fried the backbone, head and filet serving them with licorice pickled mango and sea beans.