Chef on a Shoestring has been good to us, so we’re sticking with it. This week, it’s Boston Cod With an Exotic Twist and, as Chubby Checker said, “Let’s Twist Again!” Here’s the menu:
A salad of Zucchini Ribbons with Peas & Prosciutto;
Roast Cod on Charred Tomatoes w/ Dukkah Crumbs;
Strawberry Almond Cream Tart
“Boston Cod” reminds me of another old joke, one that does not require you to affect a Mickey Mouse falsetto should you choose to retell it, but you gots to be able to do a believable Boston cabbie.
Guy gets off a really long international flight from Manchester, UK to Boston Logan. All the while in Merrie Olde England he’s been enjoying the Fish ‘n’ Chips, newspaper wrap and all, malt vinegar, the works, but it don’t quite cut it. Mr. World Traveler has been workin' up one of those world class Joneses, like some of us Midwesterners get for an onion steamed White Castle - but nobody in the UK has ever heard of “scrod.”
Nobody knows for sure what this fish might be - and chances are, if you walk into any fishmongers' outside a clearly defined area of New England, your culinary references to it will be greeted with blank stares. Mr. Traveler knows that, but Boston is safe country and he’s counting the minutes as the 747 zeroes in on Logan. So, by the time the plane taxies to the landing gate, he's got drool running down his chin.
He rushes off the plane, breezes through customs, and runs out dragging his luggage to the taxi lane. A cab pulls up, and they throw his luggage in the trunk. He gets in back, and the cabbie gets in and looks in the rear view mirror.
“Where to, mister?”
“I’ve been in England three years,” our well-traveled friend responds, “and I’ve eaten all kinds of things you never dreamed of here – Steak and kidney pie. Black pudding, spotted dick, Cornish pasties, but any place I went, I couldn’t get scrod. Forget the hotel, I don't need to rest, take me some place I can get scrod!”
The cabbie sizes up our friend in the mirror, looks down at the meter, then in the mirror again, and pushes up the brim of his cap with a thumb.
“You know, mister, being a cabbie here, nearly 20 years, I get that request a lot, just about every night, but I swear to God this is the first time I ever heard anybody ask it in the past pluperfect conjunctive tense…”
5:50:28 PM 
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