No Bones About It: Unzip Your Fish, Vol. 1

One of the most memorable scenes in the film Office Space (okay, other than Stephen Root's brilliant Milton character) is when Peter, the main character, slices and guts a fish in a single move (and then throws the innards onto a pile of company reports). How'd he do that? The answer comes from another Peter (Stellas) who shows viewers here in painstaking detail how to clean, de-bone, and fillet the six most commonly-caught fish in North America: salmon, walleye pike, bass, trout, perch, and catfish. Starting at the cleaning station near a boat dock, Stellas scales, guts and cleans a fish using a variety of inexpensive tools, before heading for the kitchen, where (using a technique he learned from a Hawaiian supermarket fish cutter) he demonstrates the delicate process of filleting a delicious-looking salmon (using two blades--a steak knife and a fillet knife--to remove the rib bones, the pin bone, and the backbone). Sporting good close-ups throughout (with an image so clear you can see the almost-transparent vertebrae), and solid techniques and tips (watch out for those tough-and-poisonous catfish spines!) from a knowledgeable, friendly host, this is recommended. [Note: also available, No Bones About It: Unzip Your Fish, Vol. 2, at the same price.] Aud: P. (C. Block)