Trickling out the fish

This is an off-island report, a home cook’s tour of that big, noisy, glitzy, event in Boston I went to a couple of months ago. Now the Boston Seafood Show has gotten so big that the small fisheries producers among us have to sell their firstborn to afford a tiny booth, so that eliminates all but the most desperate who want to show what they have.

Most of those producers don’t show up to show off their fish products to New Englanders, who already eat more fish than other folks or at least seem to eat as much as they want to (or can afford) at present. They seem to be there to show off to buyers for the big grocery chains, hospitals, college cafeterias, and increasingly, the one or two big companies who run the kitchens in all those places. It is no place at all for the earnest guy with a pile of quality mussels to sell or the Mainer with a bunch of frozen lobsters. It is no place for the home cook, either. Still, I came home with one new idea which I will pass along.

Now if you live in Maine where people don’t overstate stuff much, if you like fish, and you catch it or distribute it as a fisheries product, you probably can’t quite get into the fish-hype groove as easily as some others do.

Take those cheerful salmon raisers from Idaho I talked with, the boys from Boise. Idaho, for lord’s sakes – what kind of a place is that for salmon as seafood to come from? Those guys were having the time of their life. They were happily selling kryovac-packed slabs of pre-cooked grilled salmon with dill. Slap that sucker into a microwave, and it’s Seafood Tonight. They had a chef on hand, or at least one them in chef’s whites with toque to lend some kind of flavor respectability to the fairly insipid salmon. “This is the future, Sandy.” (They didn’t really know me, they were just reading my name tag.) I fervently hoped it wasn’t, but am half afraid they are right. Still, it was that cheerful, dare I say Western, gung-ho optimism that struck me.

Or the stroll past the Contessa booth, which was more like a city block. It had two stories and lots of sale reps in tuxedos. The second floor was rigged out with chairs and tables and, I guess, Important Buyers were admitted to this level to work their deals for several tons of shrimp or pre-mixed and frozen scallop stir-fry, or beef and chicken (???!!!). There was a DJ up there, too, and he was playing very loud, thumping music. It was so loud that the people who had the misfortune to be Contessa’s booth neighbors could scarcely talk with customers above the racket. But really, no one was paying any attention to them anyway.

It wasn’t the seafood at the Contessa booth that was so attractive: it was the five or so long-haired, long-legged blond beauties who were passing out shrimp and sex appeal. In very high heels and fishnet stockings, tied into black strapless, shiny corsets with tiny skirts, laced up the back, their plump little breasts pushed up like snowy little scallops perched on the half-shell. Camera-toting Taiwanese, Cambodian and Japanese gentlemen took each others’ pictures with a pair of girls who tactfully scooched down so that those scallops weren’t exactly at the gents’ nose level. Most of the rest of crowd wandered aimlessly around the booth with silly grins.

Compared to this circus, Maine’s fishery producers come off dignified, but also a little glum. I’d feel glum, too. Mostly we were all regaled with smoked salmon and lots of deep fried seafood, a lot of that farm raised. It is hard to tell at the Boston Seafood Show that most Americans still don’t eat much fish compared to all the rest of meat we eat. It is hard to tell that the fisheries might even be in trouble.

Mainly I came home with the idea that fish products compete primarily with chicken as a low fat food. That fish producers think we don’t like fish so they have to trick it out so we never have to face it in its natural state. That they are growing more farm-raised fish around the world than anyone wants to eat, and they are pretty desperate to get rid of the stuff.

Here is the recipe I got from the show. It is for fish tacos. At the show, the woman demonstrating was making them with fish sticks, which I guess you could use if you wanted, but you might use a sweet little piece of whatever fish you like.

Tacos:

A package of corn tortillas

(small round)

Jack cheese

Grated cole slaw made with a vinegar dressing

Fish (a piece an inch wide and about four inches long)

To make a sauce, whirl up in a blender:

sour cream

salsa (your choice of heat level)

Cook your fish until the pieces are done. Set aside and keep them warm. Next, lightly oil a griddle, and lay the tortillas on it, allowing them to warm through and toast a little on one side. Flip them over. It is better if they are a little soft to fold. Sprinkle a little cheese (as much as you like) on each tortilla, and let it heat until it melts. Place a spoonful of cole slaw on the cheese, then the piece of fish on that. Give it a dollop of sauce, or just salsa alone, fold it over and serve.