to the fishes in the deep blue sea

Yesterday my friend Mourad said, "I am always meaning to ask you: if you are a fish what kind of fish are you?" Barely pausing I said that I was all the fishes in the sea, and lakes and rivers too. But, he replied with his softly accented voice, "You don't seem like a scallop!"

I voraciously read the 'food issue' of The New Yorker recently and there was an article about a serious fisherman-chef named David Pasternack. {September 5, 2005. If you've not gotten hold of it yet, do. Especially if you love well written, well researched, well edited stories about food and the amazing people all over the world creating/harvesting/eating incredible yums.} Mark Singer, the journalist, asked Mr. Pasternack's friends, family and the chef himself, the very same question.

I haven't met as many fishes as Mr. Pasternack, and it may be that I never will.

This past weekend I went to The Green Expo and picked up the latest Seafood Watch West Coast Guide 2005, a wallet sized accordion guide for making more informed choices about the fish you eat, order in restaurants and buy at the market. If you are feeling outspoken it may be a resource for you to address the restaurants you eat in regularly about the choices of fish they choose to buy and prepare.

( A number of years ago I inquired as to why a local "sustainable-agriculture-promoting" restaurant was serving swordfish, a fish long known to be on an endangered list. The waiter, after speaking with the chef, explained to me that they had been told by their purveyor that this swordfish had been caught "by accident." My grandfather used to catch them. The line needs to be run by a motor because these fish are so strong, so powerful and so deadly, (ever wonder why they are called swordfish?!), when caught that a human being holding the line would never make it through the long and violent ordeal unharmed.)

Some fishes and seafood to "avoid" {the red column}: Monkfish, Atlantic Cod, Salmon (farmed, including Atlantic), Caviar (wild caught) and Bluefin Tuna.

Some fishes and seafood that would be the "best choices" {green column}: Crab: Dungeness, Salmon (wild-caught from Alaska), Oysters (farmed), Shrimp (trap-caught) and Sardines. [This list is much longer than the red column.]

And "good alternatives" {the yellow column [the longest list]}: Scallops (Bay, Sea), Lingcod, Squid, Sanddabs: Pacific, Mahi mahi/Dolphinfish/Dorado, and Crab: King from Alaska or Snow from the United States.

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The cooks who interact with fish everyday are the people I tend to feel allied with most in kitchens. To understand a fish's delicate body and treat them with the respect they require is a quiet art. Methodical, detail-oriented, passionate, astute and sensitive, these are the qualities possessed by the poissoinier.

Sometimes when I am feeling fanatical I wish that those restaurants specializing in seafood had a license to do so. Because fish is oftentimes the most expensive protein in the walk-in you would think that little to none would be thrown away, or portions would be well thought out, or only cooks trained to understand the fragility of this once overabundant species would be able to work that station. But these things are not always so.

If you are looking for a Seafood Watch Guide for your area just go to www.seafoodwatch.org  It's an effective way of keeping up with the mostly confusing news we hear about the environmental, political and human health issues surrounding aquaculture.

Comments

[Luisa]

That issue was fabulous - I agree. I kept it, and I usually never keep any of the old New Yorker issues.

I haven't read that article, but now I will. I love reading your writing. Can't you just be a mermaid?

[michael]

I say take a pass on fish all together for a bit and let the deep blue seas catch up

[Myream]

I just want to thank you for writing about this issue. It has opened my eyes to something I never gave much thought to.