Seafood

I try and bleed all the fish that I take home with me. I think the bleeding makes the meat cleaner–both when you go to fillet the fish and when you cook it. It’s a quick ritual that I do on the deck of my boat, a few seconds with a knife. The trick to […]

I don’t attend many trade shows, maybe one or two every few years. This last one in mid-March was a seafood show at the Convention Center in Boston. Big seafood. International as well as domestic. I walked the aisles aimlessly, no map, no plan, passing vendor booths from all over the world, each one of […]

A butterfish on deck in a tote with ice, slushed down in sea water–it’s almost heaven. White flesh full of fat, the good sea fat not the potato chip kind. They’ve got beautiful silver bodies, flattened like a frisbee, tiny scales. And the fish are nearly spineless, except for a micro-spine at the base of […]

The herring’s definition, the scales, are everywhere–on the fisherman’s boots, the shovels and brooms, the edges of wood and steel. The herring’s definition is on the nets, the wires, the working rigging of the boat. Go ask a herring fishermen, “Do you taste the fish’s scales on your lips?”

Here some photos from a recent fishing trip I went on. I just tagged along, went for a boat ride. It’s something I feel the need to do every once in a while. Mix it up. Brian Loftes, owner and captain of the 65-foot Evan Christine took me out. It was a day trip, left […]

Photos: Abner Kingman Story: JP Lee Dominic Papetti and his wife Karen set nets for herring in San Francisco Bay. They set along the Embarcadero, the shores in Sausalito. They set near the Bay Bridge and the ferry docks. It’s the roe they want, the eggs. In Japan, where most of the California roe goes, […]