Once seen as a staple of the American poor, sardines have hit their gill-ded age.
TikTok’s tinned fish trend has hit a fever pitch; #Sardine and #Sardines have a combined 831 million views as plenty of canned food enthusiasts brag about being “Sardine Satisfied” while munching on the slippery suckers.
And just in time for an explosion of “Girl Dinner” and “Sardinecore,” an acclaimed Portuguese sardine monger has touched down in NYC to sate the ever-growing canned fish craving — with boutique seafood including fish adorned with gold.
Those willing to take the bait can visit the Fantastic World of the Portuguese Sardine on the corner of Broadway and 48th Street, the flagship US store in a Portuguese chain with 20 outlets.
The Post visited the preserved seafood merchant, which opened last Friday, to see if it was truly the sardine gold standard.
“One of our goals with our trip to the US is to kind of bring the Americans our fresh food,” Joana Quaresma, the Fantastic World’s project manager and Lisbon native, told The Post of their mission.
The epicurean ambassador added that she wanted to spread her native delicacy of sardines in olive oil to the “amazing stage” of Times Square, where tourists are infamously always packed in like sardines.
An embarrassment of fishes
Walking into the venue, still in its soft opening stage, is like stepping into an epicurean toybox stuck out of time: There are painted figurines, staffers in old-timey sailor’s outfits, and of course, two stories of shelves — the upper tier are accessed via sliding library ladder — bearing multihued sardine cans like a veritable Fort Knox of fish.
Cans — which run $15 for four ounces — are arranged “chronologically” from 1916 to the present and feature events and famous birthdays for that year.
But don’t worry, Quaresma assures us those weren’t the actual years they were tinned — they “don’t want to put customers in danger,” she says — but rather a way to “get people’s attention.”
In fact, most expire after around seven years so, jettisoning any dreams of hunkering down at “Fantastic World” come a nuclear apocalypse or enjoying “Lazy Girl Meals” until the end of time.
Inside are scrumptious filets of sardine baptized in copious olive oil and compiled at a factory in Alvaro that’s been around since 1952 — allegedly the only place in Portugal that still preps and packs the fish “by hand.”
The aforementioned date trend aims to spread this haute cuisine to the US, where unlike in Europe, sardines have long been synonymous with “low-end eating.”
Sardine-core
“Fantastic World” couldn’t have come at a better time: Sardines have taken social media by storm with tin-fluencers such as Danielle Matzon amassing millions of views by binging on this upwardly mobile eat-on-camera.
The soaring demand for this so-called “hot girl food” as dubbed on Reddit even caused a nationwide tinned seafood shortage in January.
“It becomes this gourmet snack that literally took five minutes to put together,” Matzon claimed while describing the food’s appeal.
Of course, tinned fish have been a fixture in Europe for some time — perhaps this is another instance of Zoomers “discovering” things that have been around forever.
In fact, the seafood obsession has jumped from the food to the fashion sphere with the arrival of Bottega Veneta’s Sardine handbag and celebrities from Ana de Armas to Lily Allen rocking nautical-themed attire over the past year.
Goldfish
Seemingly with Instagram in mind, Fantastic World offers a special “Ouro Portugues,” a $44 gold ingot-shaped (this shape is patented) tin with three ounces of sardines flecked with edible gold flakes of the variety found in Goldschläger. It evokes Willy Wonka’s golden ticket bars but for fish-philes.
“We usually recommend this for a special occasion,” said Quaresma. “This is not for everyday, obviously this is very good for a gift, but you want to show some dedication and that you want people to have a special moment with this.”
After trying this ritzy “goldfish” first-hand, it’s delicious but not vastly different from the standard date-bearing versions, only that it’s meticulously skinned and deboned and perhaps a bit lighter and airier. It was a cool gimmick that ultimately felt a bit like throwing rims on a Volvo: more stylish but with the same destination.
The highlight was watching my 7-year-old sister “pan” for gold flakes with a Carr water cracker.
One of the best offerings is the moist and smoky “Sardinia Asada” with sweet peppers and onions, a canned version of the charcoal-grilled sardines traditionally eaten at Lisbon’s Santo Antonio festival on June 12 — aptly dubbed the Festival of Sardines.
This was the fishmonger’s way of condensing this vibrant experience in a brightly decorated can, which features scenes from said festival on the cover, for New Yorkers.
Fin-tastic selection
Along with sardines, the Fantastic World also does Bacalhau, the flaky and savory dried and salted cod that is a staple of Portuguese cooking.
Next week, the fishmonger will have all 18 varieties of tinned fish, including sole, salmon, octopus, whelk, mussels and “Mediterranean sea bass” (actually branzino, a white-fleshed fish that’s ubiquitous at Greek and Italian restaurants in NYC).
They even have a cookbook detailing how to pair sardines with every type of cuisine from Portuguese to Chinese.
One downside is the steep prices at Fantastic World, whose lease is up in ten years.
At the very least, the store presents a rare boutique beacon in the kitschy labyrinth of Elmo impersonators and “I Love NY” T-shirt vendors that Times Square is comprised of.
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