Archive for the ‘Markets’ Category

Source like a Chef – December 2011

Monday, December 5th, 2011

In light of the well-documented, seemingly rampant issue of seafood mislabeling, the team at Seafood for the Future reached out to our partner chefs to help concerned consumers source like a pro. In this monthly series, Seafood for the Future partner chefs will share with you their tips for sourcing seasonal, responsibly harvested seafood.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…for sardine lovers that is! December marks the beginning of Pacific sardine harvesting season and a great opportunity swap those not-so-great tasting Omega-3 pills for these tasty and responsibly harvested fish. Pacific sardines, or “petite bass” (as partner Chef Andrew Gruel of SlapFish likes to call them) are found from Baja California to southeastern Alaska and harvested December-February. This fishery is well-managed by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan and has a high biomass that is not overfished and with no overfishing occurring. Choosing these little guys at your local fish market (may we suggest some of our partners Catalina Offshore or Santa Monica Seafood) helps to diversify seafood consumption and relieve pressure off of some of the more popular stocks (salmon and tuna for example). It’s also a great way to support your local fishermen who are abiding by strict regulations to bring you high quality, fresh fish without the heavy toll on the environment.

Eating Pacific sardines is not only good for the health of our oceans— it’s also good for your health! A new study shows that eating fish once a week can decrease your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease, largely in part due to the Omega-3’s. These little guys are packed with Omega-3 fatty acids and are an excellent source of protein as well as essential nutrients like vitamins B12, E, and D, selenium, phosphorous, and antioxidants that promote healthy heart and brain function and even improve your skin. The question is, how do you choose the best quality sardines? And most importantly, how do you prepare them?

To answer these questions, we paid a visit to our friend and partner, Chef Chad White, executive chef and co-owner of Sea Rocket Bistro in San Diego. Chef Chad White is dedicated to utilizing local, responsibly harvested seafood and works so closely with local fishermen that Sea Rocket Bistro was tapped to host the Meet your Fishermen Mixer & Dinner in November. The event celebrated two days of meetings with fishermen and groups from around the country learning from one another the best ways to promote local seafood. The North Park bistro provides a hip and environmentally conscious dining experience where patrons go to enjoy local, responsibly sourced, and creatively prepared seafood. At the end of the video, you’ll see the school of fish made from recycled packaging that proudly hangs from the ceiling at Sea Rocket Bistro Sea Rocket Bistro applies local, environmental stewardship throughout the restaurant, serving grass-fed California meats, Southern California produce, San Diego craft beers, California wine and even have this awesome school of fish hanging from the ceiling, all made from recycled packaging. Take a look at this video to learn how Chef Chad White chooses his sardines and how you can prepare a simple and nutritious, yet tasty sardine entrée at home.


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Where do I purchase seafood in Southern California?

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

With recent media coverage over mis-labeling, the question we are asked most frequently here at Seafood for the Future is “Where can I purchase seafood that I can trust to be well-managed, correctly labeled, AND fresh?”

Today, yet another article raising concerns over seafood mis-labeling was published by Time Magazine entitled, “Fish Labeled as Eco-Friendly Chilean Sea Bass May Not Be”. Consumers have been told that if they cannot live without their beloved Patagonian Toothfish (aka Chilean Sea Bass), that they were in luck! A fishery off the coast of South Georgia Island was evaluated and deemed sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council or (MSC). However, a study by Peter Marko, a professor of biological sciences at Clemson University, took samples of the fish in 2008 and compared it with 2001 fish samples. His findings were as follows:

“…according to DNA analysis by Clemson University researchers, 15% of Chilean sea bass labeled as sustainable and sold at U.S. grocers did not come from the certified fishery. What’s more, 8% of sustainable Chilean sea bass were of a different species entirely.”

There could be several reasons for these findings, but this study indicates that over 20% of the MSC certified Chilean Sea Bass sampled was not MSC Certified Chilean Sea Bass. This article is merely the cherry on top of a summer sundae filled with giant scoops of alarming seafood concerns. What’s most troubling for us here at Seafood for the Future is that people are already confused about seafood sustainability, mercury content, whether fish-farming is good or bad, and now they don’t even know if they’ve really been eating $30 tilapia all this time.  When findings suggest that even MSC Certified fish isn’t safe from the seafood market’s apparent love affair with mis-labeling, it can dissuade even those who really enjoy seafood from getting their recommended serving. We want to be clear, we do not believe this information discredits MSC, MSC has put checks and regulations in place to prevent this from happening. However, it’s obvious from reports surfacing this summer that mis-labeling is rampant in the market itself. It is just an excellent reminder to diversify the types of seafood you eat and learn about fishery management and responsible farming practices. When you learn what makes a fishery or a farm well-managed, you can begin to do your own due diligence and decide what qualifies as sustainable in your book.

It’s official, seafood is the new milk. And it does a body even better - if you’ve been keeping up with us on Facebook or on Twitter you know that among the health benefits of consuming Omega-3s are reduced inflammation, reduced anxiety, higher brain function, and superior cardiovascular health.

So, what’s a sustainable seafood lover and Omega-3 enthusiast to do?

1)  Eat Seafood! 

No we’re not crazy, seafood is just too important for your health not to! In fact, we know that if you’re the average American, you probably aren’t eating enough seafood.  According to the American Heart Association, you should consume seafood at least twice a week. Another great website for tracking your seafood consumption and seeing the benefits of your seafood choices is How Much Fish.

2)  Do your homework.

Check out our Recommendations. Diversify the types of seafood you eat. If you like one type of seafood, chances are there is another one you’ll love. Learn about responsibly farmed seafood and ask for them by name. Research your favorite types of fish. What do they look like whole? What does a fillet look like? Where does it typically come from? Ask your fishmonger these questions and inspect the fish yourself. At the very least, your vendor should be able to tell you whether the fish was wild or farmed and where it is from. If something seems fishy, skip your first choice and test them on another fish. If something still seems fishy, it’s probably time for a new, more informative vendor. 

3) Buy from reputable sellers.

In Southern California, we have 3 recommendations that are completely worth the trip! 

Our first pick is Santa Monica Seafood. They have 2 retail locations – Santa Monica and Costa Mesa. They’ve addressed mis-labeling head-on on their blog. What’s more is that you’ll be in the good company of the discerning chefs and purchasers behind these very reputable establishments. As Santa Monica Seafood’s blog on seafood mis-labeling mentions, chefs often know more about the characteristics of seafood than consumers like you and me. The same fish you can dine on at the Ritz Carlton or Le Monde by Joel Robuchon can be on your dining room table tonight. Plus, we at SFF have worked with the VP of Purchasing at Santa Monica Seafood. He is very active in the sustainable seafood community, an ardent advocate for community supported fisheries, practically a walking encyclopedia of fish, and is probably going to say we were too kind in writing this. You’d be hard pressed to find a more trustworthy seafood supplier with two convenient locations in Southern California and so many high quality options to choose from. If it’s a weeknight and you’re totally pooped from work, they’ll even cook it for you!

If you’re in LA, McCall’s Meat & Fish is another top-notch place to pick up the latest and greatest in the highest quality, locally sourced and responsibly farmed seafood. Nathan McCall hand selects all of their fish and it is so unbelievably fresh that every week there is a brand new offering of fish in their seafood case. You can keep up with their weekly offerings on their Facebook page before making the trip to Los Feliz. Speaking from experience, you can ask Chef Nathan 100 questions about the seafood and he’ll have the answer for every one. If you are an omnivore, good luck trying to escape without surf AND turf! The meats are sourced as meticulously as the fish and Nathan probably has to wipe drool from the front of the case several times a day.

We love a good farmers’ market. The sights, sounds, smells, and the happy feelings evoked from supporting our local farmers are just too much for us to resist. We especially love Orange Home Grown and the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market. You might run into some of our partner restaurant chefs like Chef Greg Daniels of Haven Gastropub picking up produce on Saturday morning at Orange Home Grown. You’ll also find one our Branded Products partners Carlsbad Aquafarm selling their mussels and oysters directly to the public at both of these amazing markets. If you haven’t had an opportunity to try their shellfish, the good folks at Carlsbad Aquafarm will happily give you a sample at the market!

4) Stay tuned to our Seafood for the Future updates. We want to help you fight mis-labeling, so we’ll start a chef/purchasing series giving you advise on how to be a discerning fish buyer! Let us know which fish you need help with & we’ll be sure to get it covered together with our network of responsible chefs and distributors.

Seafood for the Future

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Posted in health, Markets, Sustainability | 2 Comments »

Frozen Seafood

Saturday, June 12th, 2010


I recently wrote a post for the Goodeater Collaborative. Goodeater.org is a mulit-author blog hosting dialogue and debate on how to truely eat “good food”. My post titled How Fresh Is That Fish You Are Eating explores the truth behind consumer perception of what makes seafood fresh, as wells as offers tips on how to buy the “freshest” seafood. The post has received a bounty of wonderful comments and stories so it would be a shame for this go unnoticed. In the interest of keeping our readers as informed as possible, I figured I would link to one great fresh versus frozen story here.

I recently wrote a post for the
Helen Rennie, who has offered many great comments on the site, runs a wonderful website called Beyond Salmon. The subtitle “everything you ever wanted to know about fish and other musings on all things yummy” does a very accurate job of summing up her website as the stories are both mouthwatering and informative. In one of her posts she freezes and thaws various market bought fish species in order to determine how well they hold up post-freezing. Below is an exercpt from the article (click here to read the entire article):

“There is nothing I hate more than being wrong. That’s why I research things to death to make sure that I am not wrong too often. When it does happen though, it’s a great learning experience, like the one I just got on freezing fin fish.

I kept procrastinating posting my frozen fish findings, but a question that Matthew Amster-Burton, a columnist on Culinate.com has just posted on my How to store fish story has inspired me to finally get off my lazy butt and write up my frozen fish experiments.

I used to be of the conviction that frozen fish was ALWAYS worse than fresh. I know, I know — Whole Foods and many fish cookbooks like to tell you that previously frozen fish can be even fresher than not previously frozen fish because it was frozen at the peak of freshness. Just so that I don’t have to use the “not previously frozen” terminology (that just takes too long to type), I’ll use the word “fresh” to refer to fish that did not undergo the freezing process. The question I’ll try to answer is whether previously frozen fish can taste as good as fresh, not whether it’s as safe to eat.”

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Ned’s coffee

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

If you know me (Dave), you know that I don’t like to give my real name when ordering coffee.  Instead, I like to give the same name as the person in front of me.  Honestly, it’s not that I like to create confusion in the Starbucks queue – it’s just that I don’t see any reason to be on a first-name basis with some random teenage barista.Neds-coffee

I’m sitting here in the middle of Santa Monica – temporarily posing as Ned – sipping a latte on the 3rd street promenade, waiting for Andrew who is stuck in traffic on the 405.  I have been thinking about the amount of hubris required to assemble a sustainability advisory program.  Am I really paid to tell other people what they are doing wrong?  The potential for hypocrisy is unending.  For example, here is the view I see every day on my way to work in Long Beach:

LA Harbor

LA Harbor

This is Terminal Island, which is located in the center of Los Angeles Harbor.  In this view, you can’t even see the acres of grain storage buildings, or expansive parking lots for brand new cars covered with protective white panels.  Up until the 1940′s , Terminal Island was a small, dusty Japanese fishing village where my grandfather lived as a young man.  His stories about swimming clear, blue water with large fish (in what is now the inner harbor) are almost unimaginable to me.

My question is, am I really going to condemn (to name one example) some shrimp farm in Asia for transforming their mangroves into shrimp ponds?  Really?  Are we really going to take Atlantic salmon farms to task for putting fish poo in the ocean?  Here’s my thought on the subject: it’s time to stop throwing stones.  Because I guarantee you that any human endeavor can be criticized as unsustainable in one way or another.  You name it and I can tear it down.  But that’s not productive.  It’s time to focus on the good things that people around the world are doing to contribute to the health of the oceans, rather than trying to nitpick each other.  Let’s move the world through inspiration, rather than condemnation.

There are plenty of chefs out there who are interested in the origin and quality of their meat, seafood, and vegetables. They are the ones who serve the fish and shellfish that come from responsible sources.  Such awareness is also encouraged by groups like Real Food Challenge, Slow Foods, and FLO foods (fair, local, organic).  All of us benefit: quality local ingredients translate into great meals, healthy food and a better dining experience for everyone.

And that brings us back to where I’m sitting in the story: at the Santa Monica farmer’s market.  Many chefs in the area (and even in Long Beach) prefer to get their vegetables from fresh, local sources because of the better quality.  It’s also a chance for chefs to become familiar with the sources of their produce, to talk to the farmers and learn about how their food is produced.Tomaotes

So even though I have no desire to know the guy who fixes my coffee, I do applaud the chefs who make an effort to know where their ingredients come from.  (See below, Andrew scrutinizing fennel at the Santa Monica farmer’s market).

Fennel

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