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Upon a Sunday outing with my fiancee to Mitsuwa Market, we stopped in Palatine at Renee Gourmet, a Russian smoked fish market at Northwest Highway and Smith Street. This looked, smelled and tasted heavenly, nicely oily. The countergirl didn't know the name in English.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Renee Gourmet
124 Northwest Highway
Palatine
773-775-7700
another location: 6427 N. Milwaukee, Niles
Thurs.-Sun.: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.



Cheers,
Wade

Just a guess, but it looks like either smoked sturgeon or Sable (black cod) to me. A very good price too if it's sturgeon, as smoked sturgeon can run you as much as $44 a lb in some parts.

I think the tag says "captain" (kapitan). I tried to look it up at fishbase.org, but the database went south on me.

HI,

The Russian transliteration is: Capitan.

Trixie Pea's idea of sturgeon looks reasonable. Years ago, I could regularly buy smoked sturgeon and salmon in Moscow. It does have the white meat with the wide panels (or whatever they may be called).

Unfortunately the common name of Capitan means nothing.

Regards,

The cross-section certainly resembles sturgeon, but I think Sturgeon are much larger fish. Sturgeon is pronounced "osetra" in Russian. I looked up the russian name "Kapitan" at http://www.fishbase.org and there was nothing listed. However, under the english translation of "captain" there were several results. Here is a link to a page with pictures of fish with 'captain' in the name. Click on the latin name to see a detailed description of the fish. The African Threadfins are fished commercially. The Threadfin labeled 'Captain Plexiglass' (how new wave!) is sold dried or smoked, and seems to be the same shape and size as the fish in the picture.

I will ask my russian mother if she has ever heard of a "captain" fish.

Captain – Cold-smoked Captain Fish, also called Sea Bass, is light gold in amber in color, very delicate and piquant in flavor.

http://www.russianfoods.com/showroom/pr ... efault.asp

That makes sense. Sea bass can refer to several different fish, many of which are types of grouper. I asked my Russian mom if she heard of "Kapitan". She said she thought it was a type of "rock fish" (meaning a fish that lives in rocks at the bottom of the ocean). I found that rock fish could sometimes refer to striped bass. There is actually a variety of grouper called rock sea bass. In South Africa, groupers are also called "Captain".

Great thread!

When I first saw the picture I too thought sturgeon. Lotsa great resources out there!

Now, of course, I have to try the deli mentioned in this tread. In fact, what do people think are the best Russian stores?

I have just been looking at the Russian Foods webstite that polster linked in his post above. Very cool . It has some really great and authentic recipes of various regions (Ukraine, Belorussia, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakh etc.). It even has a recipe horoscope, that tells you what dishes to cook based on the zodiac signs of your guests .

I found this menu very interesting, it was the coronation dinner for Czar Alexander III. I wonder how close one could get to duplicating it?

1. Pearl-barley soup. Pechony pirozhki (baked pies)
2. Sterlets with pickles
3. Crayfish in aspic (holodets)
4. Ruffs in aspic (zalivnoe)
5. Quails with mashed peas. Boiled beef.
6. Hazel-hens with sour cream.
7. Appetizers with roast – pickled cucumbers, pickled mushrooms, pickled cranberries and cowberries. Pickled apples.
8. Sweets: peas in the pod. “Tsaregradskie” pods. Babashki with poppy seeds, pryaniki vyazemskie, and gorodetskie
9. Tea
And wines were served to all tastes – French, Spanish, Italian, German and Hungarian (Tokay) ones.

I also love this quotation from the website:
“Don’t turn up your nose at served dishes, if you don’t like something, pretend not to notice it and go on eating things you like. Just don’t argue, don’t show off, don’t oppose. Keep silence and devour. " - V.V. Pokhlebkin (1923-2000) from “Culinary art of the century”

Looks like I found a quote for my signature block.

I had missed this thread until today and it is interesting. Just to add to the possibities, it should be noted that one species of the grey mullet is known in Spanish as 'capitán'. These fish are found in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, as well as in the Atlantic. Alas, a Russian name for grey mullet I do not know.

Antonius

Wow, visited this place today (the Chicago location--note, the address above sez Niles, but you are still safely in Chicago.)

What a place, and surely a place for someone with a camera. It's almost like a fish wholesaler or a fish thrift shop. There are just piles of fish everywhere. No artsy Fox & Obel presentation. Here a bunch of cold smoked salmon, then the captain, rolled tied sturgeon, stacks of hot smoked trouts, a row of chubs, whitefish, red caviar, heerings in brine. The only thing non-fish, huge rounds of Russian rye bread the size of their hats over there and tons of bottles of (very) cheap French brandy--but VSOP, well a few other bottles of off-brand booze as well.

You want something. Well, a tiny sign, the only sign in English in the whole store sez you need to be a member, but the one person who speaks English sez that is meaningless. What do you want. In fact the next thing I knew she was giving me some captain, and I was off to the races. Nothing is sliced to order. You get it in the chunk, the wedge, the whole thing depending on the fish, yet is is amazingly cheap. My bill came to a bit over $20 for a of fish. Nicely, the woman at the counter knew only enough English to ask, "credit or debit".

For all your gastronomic and ethnic needs, there is a very good, very, very good Andy's Polish market a few blocks south on Milwaukee.

PS
I edited the thread title to include the place name.

Never been to Renee Gourmet, though it sounds like a place I will be visiting soon. I have, however, been to Andy's Deli a number of times, and think highly of the store.

In particular I like Andy's fresh Polish sausage for the smoker, 2-3-hours low and slow does magic to an already tasty sausage.


Enjoy,
Gary

Andy's Deli
5442 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
773-631-7304

It seems to be sable/sablefish/black cod.

All I can say is that this is the best smoked fish that I've ever tasted. I've had smoked sable before (at up to $19/lb.) but hardly recognized it in its incarnation here: sweet, moist, smoky, buttery-oily, rich, skinless and boneless.

I highly recommend this source. It was $8.99/lb. on Friday.

Here is the Capitan on their Russian bread, toasted, with cream cheese, sea salt, and dill.



Cheers,
Wade

Chickpea is a nice place to dine, remarked in that thread, but the pleasure is accentuated by the Renee Gourmet location a few doors down. Renee Gourmet is a great addition to Chicago area shopping, with its low prices and better than decent quality of smoked fish and other Russian foods. The Renee Gourmet on Chicago experience was enhanced by the droll man behind the counter.

"You kidz in the neighborhood no usually like this kinda food"

"Generations of Europeans have lived on this and bread," referring to the Russian version of lardo

"Best honey in the vorld...smell"

"No von makes jams like this. Try" [You get a lot of jelly at $4.99/lb]

"Look at this", holding up spoon showing sour cream defies gravity.

"We eat like this. You mix the [farmer's cheese], sour cream, jam, you don't have to eat the rest of the day."

"Try"

"Try"

OK, if that all is not enough, I love the way everything comes. Want some smoked Capitan. Well, no slices for you. Just a big hunk. Same with salami. Then instead of careful wrapping in paper, it gets tossed in big plastic bags. Also, it's all left on the counter. You then have to go gather up your stuff and meet him at the register. When the material is tallied, the experience is complete.