I’ve been in search of better anchovies recently and can report on two very good options. I’ve tried many other brands that are available locally including Ortiz and the two I’m recommending are several steps above.
Jay Miller recommended the Don Bocarte anchovies from Despana. I ordered some and they are extremely good, though the price is high and Despana wants to express ship them since they are refrigerated. I guess these may need to be kept cold due to lower salt content, but I’m not certain.
BTW don’t throw away the olive oil that these are packed in. It’s very good on bread.
Another very good option is Donostia:
These are a bit saltier than the ones above but less so than store brands. The texture is excellent. Donostia ships free for orders over $70-ish so these end up less than 50% of the Despana cost for me.
I may continue to order both of the above. I’d use the Donostia fish in anything since the cost isn’t that high. I would prefer to eat the Don Bocartes by themselves as it shows off their texture and flavor.
I recently purchased a 500g flat of Anchoa, Serie Oro, Gold Series Anchovies in Olive Oil from Regalis foods. They are brown, flat packaged in layers and much firmer than any jarred anchovy. Perfect eaten on a slice of grilled ciabatta
Also, some hazelnuts from Gustiamo were a revelation, I don’t think I realized until tasting them that it had been years since I’d had a hazelnut that wasn’t at least starting to turn rancid.
Hat tip to Nathan V. (VLM) for introducing me to Gustiamo.
I use salt-packed anchovies that are repackaged for sale by my local market, so I don’t know what brand it is. Regardless, I recommend salt-packed over those kept in oil because I find the flavor to be far less fishy.
They’re all salty, but some of the supermarket brands are intensely so. The salt packed ones can be soaked so you can modulate the saltiness quite a bit.
As for fishiness, I think we all want our fish to taste like fish, but we don’t want them to taste “fishy”