Eating Local Fish

A few years ago I completed a lifelong coast to coast journey by moving to coastal California (I was born in Massachusetts and have spent many vacations on the Maine coast).  I was so excited to get back to great local seafood.  Living on Monterey Bay I would certainly be surrounded by it. The first time I went to the grocery store I was so excited to see the fish department but found myself looking at little different than in a good Midwestern grocery store.  I tried a couple mom-and-pop fish shops only to find fish from all over the world and relatively little from my own backyard.  Seems just about the only local fish to be found was seasonal salmon, squid and crab.  Occasionally I might find sanddabs.  This just didn’t seem right.  I wandered out on the local piers and found locals catching mackerel and ling cod.  I saw whales and massive flocks of birds when the anchovies and sardines were back.  I saw the proof that there were other fish to eat.  But why is it not in the stores?  Why is there not a simple, little fried fish stand by the beach selling baskets of fish from the ocean out back?

In recent weeks I have come across a few news items pushing Paul Greenberg’s American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood, including an interview with Terri Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air.  (http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/07/01/327248504/the-great-fish-swap-how-america-is-downgrading-its-seafood-supply)  He reports that the rest of the world is eating proportionally more seafood than Americans, including a huge proportion of the fish we catch in our waters.  Further, we eat a narrow selection of the fish we catch and import a great deal of some of the very same species from Asian fish farms.  90% of the fish we eat here is imported, even for those of us living close to the sea. Our fishermen are making much more money in foreign markets than they can dream of making at home because Americans simply don’t eat many species.  In particular, we don’t eat fish with strong flavors such as mackerel and sardines.  But these are abundant and inexpensive.  I happen to think they’re also interesting.  In fact, just a few weeks ago I was on the Rio del Mar pier, and people we hauling in mackerel left and right.  I saw a few men with multiple five-gallon buckets filled with mackerel.  Folks, that’s free food for their families – local, seasonal and flavorful.  Nor do we eat fish that don’t cut into neat filets – we are looking for ease of preparation.  But what are we losing?    

There are solutions if we want to change this.  We can search out restaurants that serve local, seasonal fish.  We can join a Community Supported Fishery, the aquatic equivalent of a CSA.  We can check out www.localcatch.org and see what we can find near us.  We can drop by the local mom-and-pops and the grocery stores and ask for species we want to see.  Granted, when I asked at my local grocery chain for sardines I was looked at like I was nuts and was told nobody had ever asked for them.  The local mom-and-pop needed a couple days’ leeway, but assured me they could get them.  You can look up a Trash Fish Dinner sponsored by the Chefs Collaborative.  When you find an interesting species, but enough to share, have some friends over and turn them on to something new.  If you live in the Mississippi, Ohio or Missouri Valleys, ask your local conservation agents about getting your hands on some Asian Flying Carp.  They’re invasive, destructive and make a great fish stew.  Walk into your local restaurants and ask what they serve that’s local and seasonal. 

If we are going to change this, we have to step up and ask for it.  There’s a world of new flavors and textures to try, and doing so will only be good for our local economies and our neighbors.  And our taste buds and appetites.

PS - Just this past Sunday, October 11 CBS Sunday Morning ran a segment about Lionfish.  Check it out at http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lionfish-from-malicious-to-delicious/ 

Can you find a good Jewish Deli anymore?

When I was a little kid living in the Worcester, Massachusetts area a treasured outing with my grandmother was a trip to Weintraub’s Jewish Deli on Water Street.  When we moved away, any return trip was incomplete until we had made a pilgrimage for pastrami and corned beef.  Sometime in the 80s the place was sold and something seemed to change.  The staff that knew my grandmother by name retired.  Quality seemed to suffer some.  I traveled in search of other delis.  Posh Nosh and Pumpernickles in St. Louis, The Gaiety, Katz’ and Carnegie in NYC, Manny’s in Chicago all came close to those childhood memories.  But somehow my childhood memories of Weintraub’s was of sandwiches that had just the right amount of meat, not mountains bigger than my mouth, spicy brown mustard, a commitment to kosher rules, Dr. Brown’s sodas, and killer half sour pickles.  Don’t get me wrong, the NYC delis held up to their legendary status and Manny’s is amazing, but none of them were Weintraub’s to me.

 

That feeling of comfort and tradition is at the heart of the deli, as described in David Sax’s book, Save the Deli.  Any lover of community and food, Jewish culture, or traditional mom-and-pop dining will devour this book.  Sax summarizes the history of the Jewish community in New York City and its Jewish delis and then sets out on a six week journey across North America examining the state of the deli today.   Along the way he traces numerous themes in recent American history, particularly suburbanization, gentrification, the costs of quality ingredients, and the challenges posed by lowest-common-denominator, mass market chain restaurants.  He pulls no punches, essentially telling us that Florida and the Bay Area have lost all their Jewish deli authenticity, charm and joy, while Chicago still has passion, but hasn’t yet found the successful formula to save the deli, and that Los Angeles is the now de facto American capital of deli.  He wraps up his North American tour glowing about the dining in Montreal and bringing us back to NYC with the re-opening of the 2^nd Street Deli.  Finally, Sax travels to Europe where Jewish cuisine takes on an entirely different set of influences, yielding fascinating results.  

I know many people who have no clue what I am looking for when I say I want a good Jewish deli.  Perhaps they can point me to an Italian or German deli, but have never set foot in a Jewish one.  Maybe their experience with corned beef or pastrami is little beyond their local grocery store.  These great delis have been dying for 40 years, but there are a few holding on and even a few opening (you will have to read the book).  Those who grew up with them and love them must promote them.  David Sax’s book, web page and Facebook page are just what we need.  Check them out…  http://www.savethedeli.com/ and  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2239313755/    

Loco Hawaii

Last February my family and I visited Hawaii.  We spent our entire time on the Big Island, exploring volcanos, wildlife, beaches, and of course, cuisine.  Fortunately we had a local guide, my sister-in-law, who worked on the island doing bird conservation work.  When you get to travel with people who live in the locale you get an opportunity to see things differently.  I find one of the biggest advantages this affords is getting direction for great grocery shopping.  In Hilo, she directed us to KTA Superstore, a Big Island chain.  I fell in love.  All sorts of fish, dozens of jerkies, fruit I have never seen and two aisles of all sorts of East Asian goods.  We ended up with that Hawaiian favorite, Spam.  Fried and mixed with some macaroni and cheese and had our first lunch on the island.

During the rest of the week we ate incredible (and amazingly priced) sushi at Ocean Sushi in Hilo, poke (essentially marinated, raw fish) in Kona at Da Poke Shack, saimin (Hawaiian raman) in a Kona food court and delicious pub grub at Kona Brewing.  But the highlight for me was a dish that somehow epitomizes much of what I saw of Hawaiian cuisine.  

Let me explain a little.  Initially, I knew nothing about Hawaiian cuisine beyond Spam, pineapple, macadamia nuts and an assumed love of fish.  What I did not realize was how Hawaiian eating has been so heavily influenced by its surrounding cultures, specifically Japanese and post-WWII American.  Most world cuisines have influences from other lands.  The Italian use of the tomato was only possible after the Columbia Exchange of the 16^th century.  The Irish had no access to the potato until the same time.  American soldiers in WWI brought back French fries from Belgium.  The fortune cookie is actually American, but ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants here.  The food world is my favorite place to witness historical globalization.  But in Hawaii it more resembles current events.  Hawaiian food has evolved dramatically in the last 70 years.  The Japanese and maritime traditions seem obvious if you just look at the map.  A basic understanding of American history and Hawaiian statehood explains the American influences.  But those American influences are heavily-flavored by the US military presence – compact, long-lasting, easy to prepare, filling and durable.  

At three places I sampled Loco Moco, the ultimate blending of influences.  I found my favorite at a diner not far from the Hilo Airport, local favorite, Ken's House of Pancakes.  If you go looking around online or on cooking shows you will find many variations of this Hawaiian staple, but the most common, most pure form is loco-simple.  A few scoops of sticky rice, topped with a hamburger patty, topped with basic brown gravy with a sunny side up egg gently laid on top so you can let the yolk seep around it.  Imagine that for a moment….  Now, how can diner food be any more perfect?  Ken’s has an overwhelming menu, lightning fast service with a smile and many variations of loco moco, but the basic is really all you need in my opinion.  You will find fish, fancy burger patties, from-scratch sauces, but I say keep it simple and traditional.  Want to go seriously loco – try the sumo – 6 scoops of rice, 2 patties and 3 eggs.  They’ll bang the gong when you order and likely call 911 if you finish it, as a heart attack is immanent.  

So the other day I tried this at home…and kept it really simple.  One cup of rice, a frozen hamburger patty, a packet of brown gravy and an egg.  Simple, cheap, traditional and made of military-grade durable ingredients.  Three pans and a rice cooker, this dish done this way requires no skill but for whisking a packet of brown gravy and turning on a stove.  This turned out as good as anything I had in Hawaii.  I do not think I would change anything.  Maybe some hot sauce, horseradish or spicy mustard would be good.  Of course you could switch up the meat with the appropriate sauces.  But the original in this form is a flawless diner comfort food.  Mahalo and aloha!