By Bruce Rutledge
Sushi chef Shiro Kashiba (http://www.shiros.com/) came to Seattle in 1966 on a mission to introduce the city’s denizens to sushi as it was served on the Ginza, where he was trained. Diners here eventually took to it en masse, and now the greater Seattle area is said to have around 300 sushi restaurants.
But something happened to the classically trained sushi chef during his forty-plus years preparing meals for Seattle diners: He fell in love with the food of the Pacific Northwest. “There is no greater joy for me than to be able to live in this wonderful environment,” he says. “That’s why I want to introduce local seafood to the people.”
He is not alone. Chefs and seafood industry experts across the region rave about the bounty of the Pacific Northwest, from its salmon and albacore to its sardines and ocean smelt.
But that bounty may not last forever. There is a growing awareness among chefs, fishermen, wholesalers and savvy consumers that we are exhausting our supply of fish and we need to be better stewards of the ocean.
At Mutual Fish (http://www.mutualfish.com/), a family-run market opened in 1947, the fish comes labeled with grades issued by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a leader in the sustainable seafood movement. The true cod, troll-caught king salmon and catfish are labeled “best choice;” the rockfish, mahi mahi and scallops are “good” choices. Why the labels? “Our customers demand it,” says Kevin Yoshimura, grandson of the market’s founder.
At Uwajimaya (http://www.uwajimaya.com/) supermarket’s flagship store in Seattle’s International District, seafood buyer Ken Hewitt is feeling the same pressure. He looks at the standards set by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for his buying cues. The market has more than 500 varieties of seafood on sale, and “most of it is local,” Hewitt says.
Hajime Sato, chef and owner of the region’s only sustainable sushi restaurant, Mashiko (http://www.sushiwhore.com/) in West Seattle, says being a good steward and being an adventurous eater go hand in hand. Instead of insisting on a piece of the endangered unagi eel or bluefin tuna, open your mind and try the catfish he uses at his store or the succulent sea urchin he sources from a boat in Port Angeles. You eat more variety with sustainable sushi, he says. “There’s plenty of fish out there to eat, but we’re targeting the wrong fish.”
The fishmongers at Pike Place Fish Market have gotten the message too. They are going 100% sustainable and teaming with Mashiko and the Monterey Bay Aquarium to raise awareness and educate consumers.
For most of us, the choices can be confusing, even if we want to do the right thing. Is wild always better than farmed? Does local always trump imported? Where did the fish at the local supermarket come from, and is a shrimp made on a farm in Thailand better or worse for the environment (and our bodies) than one pulled from the Gulf of Mexico?
“It’s the responsibility of chefs and educators to explain to the consumers,” says culinary specialist Naomi Kakiuchi. “It’s a continuing discussion. We’re always finding out more.”
Ibuki talked to chefs, nutritionists, wholesalers, activists and consumers about the seafood of the Pacific Northwest.
The top photo: Photo of local spot prawns by Ann Norton, www.annnortonphotos.com
from Shiro, a cookbook and memoir from Chin Music Press to be released this summer.
Making Healthy Choices
Fish can play a vital role in a healthy diet. “Fish is rich in protein, low in saturated fat and fairly low in calories,” explains Naomi Kakiuchi, founder of NuCulinary, a Seattle company specializing in cooking classes and workshops. “It’s also a natural source for omega 3, which is good for the heart and good for brain functions.”
What exactly is omega 3? It’s an unsaturated fat, which means it is a liquid at room temperature (as opposed to saturated fat such as butter, which is solid). Omega 3 has to be eaten or ingested because the body doesn’t make it. It’s important in reducing inflammation and it’s vital to fetal development, so pregnant moms are expected to eat a lot of it. Omega 3 also helps reduce blood clots and increase your good cholesterol. Some studies are indicating that it helps in joint lubrication too, says Kakiuchi.
While you can get your omega 3 through flaxseed and fish oil pills, there’s nothing like getting it from fresh seafood. How to know what fish has the highest content? “The oilier the fish, the more likely it is high in omega 3,” says Ken Hewitt, head of the Uwajimaya seafood department in Seattle. For example, with salmon, the sockeye is beautiful but lean. The oilier king salmon will have a higher omega 3 content.
Nature’s Catch (http://www.naturescatchjerky.com/), a company in Blaine, WA, makes smoked salmon jerky with wild Alaskan salmon. “Fish is full of omega 3s and 6s,” says Arnold Yuki, the company’s marketing director. “We stay away from artificial preservatives and coloring too.” The healthy snack may have a shorter shelf life than jerky packed with preservatives, but it’s healthier and just as flavorful, Yuki says.
One of the dangers associated with eating fish is that some fish – even wild fish – have high levels of mercury. This is something pregnant women should keep in mind, says Kevin Yoshimura of Mutual Fish, but for others, you’d have to eat a lot of fish to raise your mercury levels. When in doubt, check out the Natural Resources Defense Council website, where you will find a nifty little “mercury calculator.” Enter your body weight and the fish you ate last week, and it will give you an estimate of the amount of mercury you ingested. The calculator can be found here: http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/protect.asp
Or if you can’t be bothered with that, take the advice of Mashiko owner and chef Hajime Sato: “Eat smaller fish. Typically, the smaller the fish, the lower the mercury.” As bigger fish eat smaller fish, they ingest and retain more mercury, meaning big fish such as swordfish and tuna often have the highest mercury counts. “Mercury percolates up the food chain,” says Casson Trenor, proprietor of two sustainable sushi restaurants called Tataki in San Francisco.
Local oysters are a staple feature at Seattle sushi restaurants. Photo by Ann Norton.
Finding Seasonal Fish at Peak Flavor
The Japanese word “旬 shun” has been the guiding light for Yoshinori Nishizawa, the chief chef at a restaurant called Shun (http://shunrestaurant.com/) in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood. The word means “in season.” Despite a food distribution system that has us eating our favorite fruits and vegetables all year round, local, seasonal dishes still burst with extra flavor and nutrition, Nishizawa explains. From lingcod to squid, the variety of local seafood available is often a surprise to diners.
Around mid-May, salmon season begins in the Northwest, and consumers will pay top dollar for fish found in the Copper River. But Uwajimaya’s Ken Hewitt says there are better deals to be had. “Copper River is good at marketing,” he says, but salmon pulled from the Yukon and Columbia rivers can be just as tasty and not nearly as expensive. “White king is my favorite,” he adds.
Shiro Kashiba explains how to identify a fresh fish in the market: First, look at the whole body and the fin, which should be shiny. Then, the eyes should be clear, not cloudy. Then touch a gill – if it’s a little bloody and red, that’s a good sign too.
But beware of judging a fish by its color alone. “The US is one of the few countries left that allows the coloring of fish,” explains Hajime Sato of Mashiko. “That means you can take cheap tuna, for example, stick it in a CO2 chamber and color it with gas. It’s really scary. “
How to know when the fish has been artificially colored? Ask your local fishmonger. If he or she responds vaguely or is unsure, take your business elsewhere. A vague answer is not a good sign, because, as Hewitt points out, the fish being sold in stores is traceable. “Everything is traceable back to the boat that caught it,” he says. “Pretty soon, we’ll also know the names of the crew.”
One effect of climate change is that as waters warm, seasons change for certain fish. The season for albacore used to begin in late August, Hewitt explains, but lately it’s been beginning in early July.
Sustainability
Casson Trenor, author of the 2009 book Sustainable Sushi, pulls no punches when he talks about the dangers of overfishing. “If we lose our top-level predators, the ocean will fall apart like a house of sticks.” Bluefin tuna is one such top-level predator that is in danger of extinction. Environmental groups are pushing hard to get sushi restaurants to pull the fish from their menus. Ken Hewitt of the Uwajimaya fish department says the Japanese American grocery chain “is taking a hard look at the issue” ever since NOAA put the fish on its endangered list.
In fact, the global love affair with sushi has stretched fish supplies thin. “Think about it: the (top-selling) things in a sushi bar are typically irresponsibly farmed or unsustainable,” says NuCulinary’s Naomi Kakiuchi (http://www.nuculinary.com/).
Hajime Sato of Mashiko says the seafood in the most danger are toro (bluefin tuna), hamachi (yellowtail) and unagi (eel). He adds that shrimp from farms in Southeast Asia are often raised at great ecological expense. Sato was so taken with Trenor’s work on sustainability that he converted Mashiko (http://www.sushiwhore.com/) to a sustainable restaurant in 2009. Sato has since become one of the leading voices in the sustainability movement. In February 2008, Trenor opened Tataki (http://www.tatakisushibar.com), the world’s first sustainable sushi shop, in San Francisco. He now has a second shop in the Bay Area and the wait to get in the original Tataki is often more than an hour, proving that not all sushi fans need bluefin and eel.
The movement is gaining traction. Costco recently announced that it would pull endangered seafood from its shelves, and the Pike Place Fish Market has also taken great strides – it will soon offer only sustainable fish. The sustainability movement is sparking innovation as chefs look for tasty alternatives, whether it’s the catfish “unagi” at Mashiko or the ocean smelt at Shiro’s. “For sustainable sushi to make sense, it has to vary geographically and seasonally, and it has to adhere to the core principals of sushi,” says Trenor.
Anchovies, fresh smelt and catfish are just a few of the unusual delicacies you’ll find on the menu at Mashiko, a sushi bar in West Seattle. Since 2009 Chef Hajime Sato has turned his restaurant into one of only a handful of sustainable sushi shops in the country.
Don’t Forget the Little Guys
You never heard a fishermen brag about catching a little fish, but some of the smaller creatures in the Puget Sound and Pacific Ocean make for some of the most healthy and tasty eating.
Take the Dungeness crab, for instance, named after the coastal town on the Olympic Peninsula where it was first commercially harvested. The crabs, which grow to be about 20cm wide not including their five pairs of legs, have a slightly sweet, delicate taste. Or the ocean smelt, a little fish you can gut and clean with one finger. Chef Shiro Kashiba was so taken with this fish that he once served a 10-course meal with every course containing smelt. Smelt has a bad name among older Japanese Americans because that’s one of the main dishes they were served in the internment camps. But they mostly ate river smelt, which is softer than the silvery ocean smelt. Ocean smelt is good as sushi, deep-fried and even in a sandwich. And while our beloved Northwest oysters get lots of attention, the delicious local sardines, anchovies, spot prawns, sanma (pike mackerel) and scallops often get overlooked. Experts say that when we eat lower on the food chain, we’re at less risk of mercury poisoning and the fish are more likely to be sustainable. While Americans tend to go for bigger filets, Japanese households often serve smaller grilled fish like mackerel or aji (horse mackerel). So next time you’re about to reach for that swordfish steak or farm-raised salmon, why not take a chance on the smaller fish in the sea?
Ocean smelt is an often overlooked local treat. Photo by Ann Norton.
Photos by Ann Norton, www.annnortonphotos.com
from Shiro, a cookbook and memoir from Chin Music Press to be released this year.
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