Posts Tagged ‘Seafood with Integrity’

The Home Port ~ Martha’s Vineyard

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Posted 16 Aug 2011 — by S.E.
Category Full Service, Travel, Warms My Heart

You would think that sustainable seafood is a focus on Martha’s Vineyard but it isn’t, at least not to the extent it should be. Some restaurants, more than a few in fact, offer a sustainable choice or two but there are few if any as dedicated to sustainable seafood as The Home Port restaurant in the sleepy little fishing village of Menemsha located on the lower west side of this triangle shaped island. Don’t get me wrong, there are good restaurants on the island and some of them offer a sustainable seafood choice or two but none have integrated sustainable seafood into the operation in a manner that even comes close to The Home Port.

The Home Port Restaurant Back Deck, Menemsha, MA

The Home Port is an institution. In business since 1930, it’s a beloved landmark and family dining destination. Situated just on the eastern side of Menemsha harbor The Home Port faces south west offering deck side diners a view of one of the nicest sunsets on the east coast. My first visit here was twenty years ago and nothing about the restaurant has changed….except the menu.

Dining Room with Blue Glasses

I arrive in a group of four and a smiling college-age server leads us over to a table along the far wall along a bank of windows. She takes a quick beverage order (The Home Port is BYOB) and departs for a few seconds while we settle in. The sun is hanging low over the horizon painting the interior of the restaurant in light orange and yellow. Tables are hard pine and maple as are the walls and trim that compliment solid wooden chairs with just the right patina for a restaurant this old. The flatware and china are simple and you won’t find table linens or cloth napkins here.  This is the type of place where, when eating a lobster, you wear a goofy plastic bib printed with a step-by-step set of instructions for how to eat it (you know the one). No pretension here. Dozens of fish, well preserved by a taxidermist, line an entire wooden wall.  It’s such a wonderful, bright, warm and inviting dining room and I love being here.

Customers Under Taxidermied Fish

For years the Mayhew family (a Vineyard institution in and of themselves) ran The Home Port. More recently, for 32 years until 2009 to be precise, Will Holtham owned and operated the restaurant. Holtham, author of the just released Home Port Cookbook, decided to sell in 2009 and the Town of Chilmark proposed purchasing it for cool $2,000,000 so they could demolish it in the name of progress…a parking lot and public bathrooms. Enter a counter offer from Bob and Sara Nixon, owners of the Menesha and Beach Plum Inns. After a quick vote by the residents of the Town of Chilmark, the Nixon’s saved The Home Port and Holtham was on his way into retirement, cash, recipes and cookbook deal in hand.

Oysters on the Back Deck

After becoming involved with the local Fisherman’s Association Sara announced on May 27th, 2011 that The Home Port would only serve locally caught fish. By locally caught, she means fish that are caught in the coastal waters surrounding the island and landed on local docks.  I love it (go Sarah)! No one on the island is as deeply committed to sustainable seafood as Sarah and Bob and they changed their business model to prove it. This is why I am here.

Server With Specials

My server is back and she presents the table with a medium sized chalk board that lists all the specials for the evening. The Cherry Stones and Little Necks are from Menemsha (delicious), the Oysters are from Katama (exquisite), the Fluke, Bluefish and Squid are from Menemsha too. I order the bluefish with creamed corn just to give it a shot. To my delight, the fish is absolutely delicious and perfectly cooked. Bluefish is great but is has to be perfectly fresh, the fish has no shelf life. It’s best when seared or broiled hot with the skin intact, scales removed, since the flesh cooks quickly and falls apart easily. My fish had the skin intact, was crispy on the top and moist in the middle. Most people think of bluefish as a trash fish but when served correctly like this, it’s wonderful. I also have a taste of the local fluke and, although presented
simply (almost too simply) it too is perfectly cooked and well seasoned if not a bit ugly.

Blue Fish Looking at You

As I said before, The Home Port serves simple food. You won’t find the latest culinary trend or the most outrageous presentations in the world but you will find good and, better yet, local fish served properly cooked and well seasoned. Arrive just before sunset, sit on the back deck, bring your own booze and order one of the local sustainable seafood items. Enjoy!

Sautéed Fluke with Lemon Brown Butter, Kale and Local
Tomatoes, Boiled Potatoes

Broiled Bluefish with Parsley Butter and Local Creamed Corn

Menemsha Sunset

The Home Port Restaurant

512 North Road

Menemsha, MA 02252

(508) 645-2679

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Quince Restaurant, San Francisco

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Posted 11 May 2011 — by S.E.
Category Fine Dining

Michael Tusk is an experienced professional chef who, for a multitude of reasons, deserves the James Beard award he won two nights ago (best chef Pacific). Perhaps it’s the Italian inspired menu at Quince or the tremendous wine offerings or the outstanding décor and artwork in the restaurant or the well-heeled staff that gracefully provides service or the cool-cat bartenders who are quick with a joke and loose with a pour. To me all these aspects of Quince make it worthy of the accolades but the key inspiration is chef Tusk and his food.

I am sitting at the very end of the bar at Quince contemplating whether to grab a table and settle in or have a few courses and then head out into the sea of fantastic restaurants that make San Francisco such an outrageous food city. One of the bartenders senses my indecision and suggests that I take on a five course tasting menu and a flight of wines right at the bar. Good idea, I am not in the mood to sit at a table, nor in the mood to wander off into the Jackson Square neighborhood where Quince is located. My bartender is a real pro and our conversation continues comfortably.

The kitchen at Quince is located right up against the street in a two storey glass storefront. At night the kitchen radiates light and bustles with activity. Cooks in dark blue bibbed aprons work facing the street just on the other side of the glass. Chef Tusk stands at the far side of the hot kitchens island suite, back to the street expediting. Work in this kitchen flows smoothly.

My five course menu includes turbot, pasta with sea urchin roe, lobster with sun-choke and Dungeness crab. Tusk is known for his inventive pasta preparations and his heavy Italian influence. His menu is extremely seasonal and local and not overly modernistic in technique. While observing the kitchen from the  curb I noticed lots of old-school copper in use, traditional techniques being executed, and plenty of olive oil and butter being used. Chef Tusk’s time with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse comes through in his cooking. He handles seafood adeptly and my culinary experience is excellent.

 

Twice Baked Dungeness Crab and Oyster Souffle, Salsify and Red Endive Salad

 

Caramelle of Lobster and Sunchoke

 

Mancini Artisan Spaghetti, Sea Urchin, Fennel and Controne Chile

 

Turbot, Stuffed Artichoke, Artichoke Puree, Carrot and Red Onion

 

Meyer Lemon Tartlet, Meringue, Confit and Caramel

 

Financier, Chocolate, Blood Orange Gelee

 Quince
470 Pacific Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-775-8500

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American Mussel Harvesters, North Kingstown, Rhode Island

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Posted 05 May 2011 — by S.E.
Category Fine Dining, In Case You Missed It!, Travel, Uncategorized

When Bill Silkes approaches me he is smiling and, as a shellfish lover he has much to smile about. Silkes is president of American Mussel Harvesters, Inc., and he’s a fish guy. More specifically, Bill is a shellfish guy whose office window view is the pristine waters of Allen Harbor just off Davisville, Rhode Island. American Mussel Harvesters, Inc., is one of the largest producers of mussels in North America and a major distributor of oysters and clams as well. In addition to farming mussels, oysters, and clams, Silke’s company also markets and distributes nearly three dozen varieties of oysters from the east and west coast of the United States and shellfish from several provinces in Canada. The company is headed toward total sales of over 10,000,000 pounds of shellfish.

A dozen workers in orange colored rubber overalls are working to pack pallets of oysters and mussels as we tour the cold and damp packing floor. Although the room is chilly, the sweet, clean aroma of fresh shellfish gently touches my nose. I too am a shellfish lover (and a fish guy at heart) and the smell of such pristine, high-quality shellfish is more than enticing; it’s intoxicating. Slikes shows me the massive hydraulic pumps that drive the fresh seawater circulating in the thousand pound totes full of shellfish stacked at one end of the floor. Although American Mussel doesn’t grow every product it sells, it does prep and purge a good portion of its inventory on any given day.

As the oysters and clams sit inside these massive totes full of circulating salt water they filter and purge while gaining strength. Silkes has designed the system so that circulating water passes through a massive ultra-violet sanitizing process assuring that the sterile salt water arriving out the pipe at the top of the system is absolutely free of bacteria. In turn, the shellfish in the totes become happy little buggers, plumping up to peak freshness while purging sand, grit, and trace bacteria prior to being packed and shipped as “restaurant ready” product. The process is brilliant and a perfect example of the food-safety solutions so needed in the global food supply-chain.

Now we are sitting in Silkes conference room with a big pile of fresh shellfish (Raspberry Point Oysters from Canada and Quonset Point Oysters from Rhode Island, mussels and little-neck clams from Narragansett Bay, )

Raspberry Point Oysters, Canada

These meaty, briny, cold water oysters are farmed in the shallows off the rocky coast of Prince Edward Island. It’s not unusual for icebergs broken free from the arctic to float buy in sight of where these oysters are grown and the cold water (along with other factors that Silkes can share) are why it takes 5-7 years for Raspberry Points to grow to market size. They have a beautiful briny flavor with an above-average  saltiness, good density and texture, and an outstanding clean, sweet aftertaste.

Quonset Point Oysters, Rhode Island

The Quonset’s are a bit saltier than the Raspberry Points and have a meatier texture and composition. They grow faster than their cousins from Canada and take just 2-3 years to reach market size. According to Silkes the plankton levels in the bay are high right now and this impacts the flavor and texture of the Quonsets. I guess we came at the right time because the taste  is perfect with an almost crunchy texture they are so fresh.

Little Neck Clams, Narragansett Bay Rhode Island

If you are a clam lover, there is nothing like a perfect Narragensett Bay little neck clam that is ice cold and just shucked. The ones I sampled were perfectly pale orange in color, plump, healthy and fresh with a mild saltiness, great clam flavor and minimal iodine aftertaste (which I like by the way). These clams are what put the “Ocean” in Ocean State.

Restaurant Ready Whitewater Mussels, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island

For years I have been spiking the sauces I serve over fish with reduced mussel broth. There is nothing nicer than the rich, deep, seafood flavor of mussel broth when the salt level in the mussels used to make the broth is mild. These Whitewater Mussels were mild in salt, sweet and, like the other products I sampled, distinguished by their ultra-fresh state and perfect flavor. Makes you want to pull this photo off the screen and eat it doesn’t it!

American Mussel Harvesters, Inc.

Salt Water Farms, LLc.

165 Tidal Drive

North Kingstown, Rhode Island 02852

 

USA

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2011 Top Five Emerging Food Trends

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Posted 30 Dec 2010 — by S.E.
Category Food Alert Trends

1.     Modernist or Molecular Techniques in Cooking

Molecular gastronomy has gained traction over the past decade and nearly all of the fine dining restaurants I visited (approximately 80%) employed at least one molecular technique (usually a stabilized foam). In 2011 modernist techniques will gain greater momentum based on several factors. Major academic institutions gave the modernist movement further momentum beginning with MIT’s hosting of the TEDx Cambridge conference “How do you Eat” which featured presentations on multiple modernist topics. Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science followed last autumn with an 11 part series on science and cooking that featured globally renowned chefs including Ferran Adria.  Attention from Harvard and MIT elevated the modernist movement to a new level but it’s Nathan Myhrvold’s epic work “Modernist Cuisine” due out in March 2011, that will give even greater momentum to scientifically based cooking and will assure that by 2012 the science behind cooking and food will become central to how young cooks learn their craft and force old cooks to learn anew. The science of food and cooking, otherwise known as molecular or modernist cuisine, will blossom in 2011 and reach full bloom in 2012. I predict that culinary schools will be abuzz with curriculum changes in the coming year in reaction to this seismic shift in how we think about food and cooking. We should all thank Nathan Myhrvold for his great intellectual (not to mention financial) commitment to advancing our knowledge of food.

2.     Seafood with Integrity

Simply put, pressure will be ongoing to assure that seafood, whether farmed or wild, will have integrity. With so many varying types of eco-labeling and certification programs (including MSC, ASC, ISO, Friends of the Sea, Global Aquaculture Alliance) in use, chefs lack a reliable way of determining whether the seafood they serve has integrity. This has resulted in a shift toward hyper-local sourcing of seafood (in some cases) and chef driven source and supply chain verification to assure sustainability and integrity in farming  or wild catch practices, wholesomeness, freshness, and the technologies used to increased yield and improve shelf life. Writer Paul Greenberg hinted at the concerns many chefs have is in his excellent book “Four Fish” and I suspect that chefs and consumers will grow increasingly concerned with the integrity of the fish they serve and eat and emerging issues such as genetic manipulation of farmed fish and advances in modified atmosphere shipping and packaging (including the use of carbon monoxide). The higher the degree of seafood integrity at a restaurant, the better the restaurant will do. Consider Legal Seafoods as the trend leader.

3.     Café Cuisine and Culture

In 2011 America will experience a resurgence of café cuisine and culture as an extension of the smart casual shift in fine dining of the past three years. As I traveled the country in 2010 I noticed this shift although it started the year before. Late in 2009 the New York Times described the trend as smart casual. While fast food restaurants shifted upscale in quality (not price) to fast casual, fine dining shifted down from formal to smart casual without losing focus on food quality. The smart casual movement provided consumers with great quality fine food in a casual dining environment that was more approachable and comfortable but didn’t tip too far to the casual side. Today smart casual is shifting again to a more complicated café cuisine reminiscent of the quality you can find in local full service restaurants in continental Europe. Chef Francisco Migoya added momentum to the café cuisine trend by publishing a fantastic book titled The Modern Café (John Wiley & Sons) in 2010. Migoya is a one of the leading chefs in the country and the hands (along with some others) behind the outstanding food and service at Apple Pie Bakery at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. I consider Migoya one of the catalysts behind the café cuisine trend. For an example of café cuisine in real-time visit the Apple Pie Bakery.

4.     The Necessity of Social Media and Custom Apple/Android Apps

Chefs and foodservice operators better be social media savvy and offer valued customers a custom application that works on both Apple and Android formats by the end of 2011. Having spent the past six months investigating the workings of applications for hand-held devices, it is clear to me now that we are experiencing the beginning of what will be a much larger movement in years to come. I particularly enjoy Zagat’s NRU, Yelp,  Open Table, Epicurious, and Urbanspoon as examples. In addition to applications for mobile devices chefs and restaurateurs will increasingly use social media and digital communications to build their customer base and increase customer loyalty. Facebook will lead the way (this is not new news) along with savvy email campaigns and direct to consumer promotions and loyalty programs. Companies like Campbell’s (see the Campbell’s Kitchen App) are mapping the way for restaurants and other food manufacturers to participate in mobile marketing and social networking (yes Campbell’s is a leader) in innovative and new ways while restaurants spend more time and resources than ever engaged in social networking and digital communications.

5.     Source Mapping and Transparency

In 2011 restaurants will continue to focus on the integrity of their products with an emphasis on supply chain and source management. It is likely that food purveyors, manufacturers, distributors, and restaurant operators will engage in increased source transparency and use technology to do so. Leo Bonnati, a researcher at the Media Lab at MIT, has developed a source tracking system and established sourcemap.org as an open source platform for tracking products through the supply chain and estimating their carbon footprint. In the coming year mapping technology will be applied in a larger scale and savvy restaurateurs will be proactive and ready to disclose where their products come from by mapping from source to table digitally and making this data available to the public. 2011 will be a year of expanded source mapping and transparency. Look to Stonyfield Farm as a leader.

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