Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

As you know, I have a harem of women that catches fish for me. Or something like that. Anyway, whatever the source, we have a freezer full of freshly caught young marlin from which I've been trying a slightly different recipe every day.

First of all, since you're probably wondering why, being at least in general vegan, I'd be willing to eat marlin at all: On an ethical level, I don't have a big problem eating fish because they have really primitive brain structures. On an environmental level, catching a fish on a line and eating it is far less destructive and costly here than importing vegetables, and does positive things economically… And I also believe that when you hunt your own food, you have an increased empathy for and relationship with animals and the environment.

So…

This was the first meal I made and is just marlin steaks cooked in sesame oil and garlic, along with week-old couscous (it was crunchy) and cactus… I think I may have made a chile pepper powder and fresh lime for it too but I can't remember.

Marlin steaks again, this time cooked in a sweet and spicy sauce of ground sesame seeds, brown sugar, cascabel and other chiles, sesame oil, and apple cider vinegar. They're cooked with cactus, fresh green chiles, and chick peas.

This is a pair of blackened marlin fillets. Cooked in a super hot dry pan, they're dipped in olive oil and then in a spice powder of ground cascabel, peppercorn, garlic, and salt, mixed with whole sesame seeds. The side vegetables (red onion and zucchini) are lightly cooked with garlic.

I could literally cook a meal like this every half hour, all day long. I really love cooking and eating… One of the shows that Rachel and I watch is Starved, a sitcom about four friends with eating disorders (and one's an alcoholic). It's a really brilliant show about the nature of addiction that you should consider checking out if you don't know it. Anyway, in the last episode one of the characters becomes vegan to curb his weight “problem”.

I don't think I've mentioned this publicly before, but for most of my life I've been a compulsive overeater bulimic (yeah, laugh it up) — hence my weight fluctuating between 170 and 260… Switching to being vegan was the single most effective way to stabilize and normalize my weight (because, within reason, you can still overeat), and once you get into cooking for yourself (it's harder to eat junk food and pre-prepared dishes as a vegan) it's actually quite enjoyable and it goes farther to correct eating disorders than anything else I've experienced.

Anyway, BMEvideo got updated this morning and another BME update will go up later tonight.

We had a great day out on the boat… a long day full of swimming, a ton of sun, drinks, schools of pilot whales, schools of dolphins, manta rays, sea lions, marlin, and more… Pretty tired out now but here are a few quick photos.

My two lovely dates for the day, Rachel and Heather.		A school of dolphins in the Sea of Cortez.
There was a killer current so we had to drag Heather back to the boat with a tow-line.		A school of pilot whales. I'd have better pictures but the zoom button is broken on my camera!
Rachel and Heather pulling in a striped Marlin.		The fish they caught (about eighty pounds). It's currently on the BBQ.
How I spent my day.		The coast as we cruised back.

PS. I did not get eaten by a squid.

So right about now, Clive and Gillian ought to be at the Bomba Shack for this month's full moon party (mushroom tea anyone?)… Reading their pages about living in the British Virgin Islands makes me really miss the Caribbean, and I've spend comparably zero time there… But it's really one of the nicest, prettiest places I've been. Our place on the Pacific Coast of the Baja is really nice as well but it's not as lush, and living in this part of Mexico the greenery is one thing you really get to miss.

Rachel (who my business manager as well as my wife) tells me that I can have all my dreams along those lines come true if I just work really hard for a few more years, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

If you want to help Clive and Gillian make it by the way, she's looking for more web design work — she recently built Total's Teflon jewelry company's website, Tuflon.com. Anyway, if you like the look of that page or her other work, it's definitely a contract where you know the money is going to improve a couple lives in really nice ways (not that supporting small business in general shouldn't always feel that way).

Other than that, I'll leak a couple more details about my still wholly-fictional resort. It's built around the same general concept as various overwater ocean-bungalow resorts like you see in the Maldives and Tahiti, but built using spherical semi-submerged monolithic concrete bungalows, with the sleeping quarters inside an underwater alcove with a giant picture window. The top story can be dived off of, and the units are connected by docks or causeway. I should post some pictures because my description isn't doing it justice…

On the mainland part of the resort are buildings of a similar construction for the restaurant and main facilities, and the whole thing is wind and solar powered, and most of the food can be produced on site — a small organic farm is contained on the grounds, and coupled with fresh fish this can provide nearly all the core food and drink. The concept is an eco-resort that's incredibly luxurious, with amazing food, self-sufficiency, and total resistance to hurricanes and other disasters.

I've just got to come up with $10 million in seed capital, or find someone wealthy that believes in the idea enough to help… But I think it could work…