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Category Archives: Seafood

Fishing For Celebrated Copper River Salmon

Posted on July 22, 2008 by foodgal 4 comments

CORDOVA, Alaska – In this misty, mountain-flanked town, there are no traffic lights, there is no movie theater, and there is only one produce delivery by plane a week for the handful of restaurants, where a vegetarian omelet is, understandably, “a mix of what we have left at the time.”

There are no roads in or out. The only way to get here is by boat or plane. And in the summer, when the sun shines brightly, you’ll need the Ray-Bans 24-7, as it never sets.

This is Cordova, population 2,000 – on a good day, as one local joked. It’s a place where the high school graduating class is all of 40 students; and the liquor store, which has an espresso bar in it, is owned by the same woman who operates the Bible store next door. This small fishing village sits in South Central Alaska on the Orca Inlet in Prince William Sound. And it is renowned as the home of the famed Copper River salmon, and to some of the hardest working fishermen around.

That’s why I am here after three plane rides and nearly 10 hours of traveling from San Jose last week. Along with a couple of other food writers and chefs from around the country, I was invited by the Copper River/Prince William Sound Marketing Association (funded by the local fishermen) to get a first-hand look at the fishing industry here.

Pink salmon

Salmon is revered in these parts. Indeed, Alaska is the only state in the nation in which salmon is protected in the state constitution.Â

Four canneries operate here, cleaning, gutting, smoking and flash-freezing fresh salmon to be shipped all over the world. Everyone you meet here is or was, or is related to a fisherman. Surprisingly, a good number who fish are in their 20s — sons and daughters of fishermen who followed their parents and grand-parents into this difficult line of work.

Each year, about 500 licensed commercial boats fish for Chinook, Coho, Sockeye and other salmon varieties that migrate up river from saltwater to the Gulf of Alaska to spawn in streams feeding the Copper River. Looking like the foam skimmed off the top of a mug of cocoa, the Copper River is one of the siltiest on Earth. It deposits 214 billion pounds of silt annually.

View of silty the Copper River from a float plane

Fishermen catch the salmon after the fish have fattened up, but before they make the arduous upriver swim. That’s what makes Copper River salmon so prized – its rich, velvety, super lush flesh. It is the way salmon should taste.Â Read more

A Mackerel Match Made In Heaven

Posted on May 27, 2008 by foodgal 3 comments

My husband can attest to the fact that mackerel is not one of my fave fishes. In fact, usually when I get a slice in an assortment of sushi or sashimi, it always ends up on his plate instead.

Stuart Brioza knows it’s a hard-sell, too, even if mackerel (wild-caught king and Spanish) is one of the best seafood choices on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Guide. Nevertheless, Brioza, the executive chef of Rubicon in San Francisco, made many a convert when he cooked a fabulous honey, soy, and beer broiled mackerel with sesame-lime glaze at the recent “Cooking For Solutions” gala at the aquarium. The usual strong taste of the mackerel was tempered by the marriage of the other sweet, aromatic, and citrusy ingredients. The result was like a less sweet unagi. And it was scrumptious.

Speaking of marriage, Brioza and his longtime girlfriend, Nicole Krasinski, Rubicon’s pastry chef, will finally be tying the knot. The couple, who met 13 years ago in a photography class at De Anza College in Cupertino, will be getting hitched on a friend’s farm in Hilo in September. Krasinski, who’s not fond of cake (say what?), plans on serving their guests exotic citrus tarts instead.

It’s shaping up to be quite a year for Brioza, who grew up in Cupertino and Danville, and Krasinski, who is a Los Gatos native. In the July issue of Food & Wine magazine, the couple will be featured in a story about the peach tree they adopt every year at Mas Masamoto’s renowned peach farm just outside of Fresno. Look for mouth-watering sweet and savory peach recipes.

The happy couple in front of the jellyfish exhibit.

And for those of you who love mackerel — and those of you who don’t quite yet — here’s Brioza’s recipe that’s guaranteed to please.

Honey, Soy and Beer Broiled Mackerel with Sesame-Lime Glaze

Take Five With the Food Network’s Alton Brown

Posted on May 21, 2008 by foodgal Leave a comment

At first thought, the Food Network’s wacky wizard of food, Alton Brown, might seem an unlikely choice to be a host at this past weekend’s “Cooking For Solutions” event at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

But Brown, an avid scuba diver and father of an 8-year-old daughter, knows full well the challenges we face now and in the future in sustaining the ecosystems of our oceans. At the “Cooking For Solutions” event, which gatheredÂ chefs, scientists, and food producers to examine ways to preserve the health of the planet, Brown summed up his philosophy as only he can.

When it comes to seafood, he said, “My motto comes from the side of the old Los Angeles police cars: Serve and Protect.”

I chatted with the energetic, surprisingly frank 46-year-old megastar, whose “Good Eats” show, which he directs and writes most of the scripts for, debuted on the Food Network in 1999. A graduate of both the University of Georgia and the New England Culinary Institute, he now lives in Marietta, Ga. with his wife, DeAnna, and daughter, Zoey. Brown also is the commentator for “Iron Chef America,” host of the “Next Iron Chef,” and star of “Feasting on Asphalt.” Additionally, he has his own production company, Be Square Production.

He wasn’t always a natural at science. Nor was he always a foodie. In fact, previously he was a cinematographer and video director. You can see his work in R.E.M.’s “The One I Love” video.

Q: So science wasn’t something you were always passionate about?

A: No, not at all. I flunked chemistry twice in high school, mostly because it didn’t matter. It was all numbers and formulas, and ‘let’s cut up a rat.’

Q: So how did you come up with the concept for “Good Eats,” which is all about explaining the science of cooking?

A: I wanted to give people a practicality they could build on. In culinary school, I realized I wasn’t a very good cook. To figure out how to do it better, I realized science was the answer.

Q: When did sustainability become so important to you?

A: When I became a father. I began to relive my life through my daughter when I was that same age of 8 years old. I became so aware that so much had changed. We no longer place much value on our food; we value cheapness.

My Mom grew up very poor. They grew their own food, they had their own chickens. We’ve made it now so that poor people can’t grow food so easily, and they can’t keep chickens. There are all these regulations. We’ve made it so that with poverty in America, there’s no self-respect.

Q: How else did becoming a father change your viewpoints?

News for Sushi Lovers

Posted on May 21, 2008 by foodgal Leave a comment

$James Shimuzu, IMP Foods\' best fillet person, prepares to cut a Kindai tuna.$

If you’re a connoisseur of toro, the richest, silkiest and fattiest part of the belly of a bluefin tuna, you’ll want to know about a new tuna, Kindai, that’s being served at a handful of the Bay Area’s top restaurants, including the French Laundry in Yountville, Manresa in Los Gatos, and the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco.

Wild bluefin tuna has been severely overfished in the past decades. But Kindai is the first farmed tuna raised in captivity from eggs. And it’s the result of 32 years of research by Kinki University’s Fisheries Laboratory in Japan.

Only one shipment comes in each week from Japan. And the Bay Area is one of the few places that gets it. The Kindai tuna is distributed in this area by Hayward’s IMP Foods, Inc., which supplies seafood to the Bay Area’s best sushi bars. Read more about Kindai tuna in my story today in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Food section.