food museum blog

While We Await Primary Results, Pelicans Hang Around Fish Dispensing Guy's Box

  Pelicans, those long jawed feathered diving machines, are a particular delight to observe here in Florida, whether gobbling their food, perching on docks or skimming low over the waters of the Gulf.  "A wonderful bird is the pelican, his bill can hold more than his belican...," as the Dixon Merritt limerick begins. Pelicans eat fish, of course, but also shellfish, amphibians, and as they are described as "opportunist feeders," teacup dogs on waterfront walkies should beware...

We suppose someone somewhere must have eaten a roast pelican--one would surely overflow even a hefty turky roasting pan, but have found no actual evidence of same. Shipwrecked sailors? And a birding blog reference suggests that elephant seals might well dine on pelicans.

But, in any case, the usual pelican thing is fish eating. Here's a look at some of the tamer p'cans, rallying round the feeding guy's box on The Pier, a magnificent construct that stretches a quarter of a mile from the palm-lined promenade of St. Petersburg out into Tampa Bay.

Which Fish?

Having finally found two reputable fish markets near my rental in St. Pete, FL, now I stand paralyzed in front of their numerous offerings. We all knew about mercury in fish, right, but largely ignored it? Recent articles on mercury, by Marian Burros in the NYTimes, among others, have poked us into researching what fish we can eat, either on an eco-friendly basis or a health basis.

Char, bass, trout, croaker? Wild Pacific halibut? Striped bass? None of my personal faves in that list, save pink trout.  Then there's klip, a delicious firm, white fish we had last week. A rockfish from S. Africa, Google tells me. OY. NG.  Croaker? One website tells me this fish is "full-flavored." This could be an iffy choice, then. Char, too, is apparently "strong."

Clearly I need to find a local fisherperson and grill her/him as to what's coming out of FL waters. With a tad of butter and Meyer lemon from our own small tree.

Lettuce-Loving Sirens

O the sirens of Florida, the graceful behemoths that lie like gray logs just under the surface of the water. We recently examined manatees up close at the Tampa Zoo, where those under repair and rest after injury from boat propellers and other human hazards, chomp down barrels-full of lettuces. They and their gizzard-possessing fish friends, the local leaping mullet, are vegetarians of reknown.

From manatees.net--"Manatees eat over 60 different species of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants. Their diet includes manatee grass, turtle grass, various species of algae, mangrove leaves, and water hyacinths. They may consume 10% of their body weight daily in vegetation. Their digestive system allows the bacterial breakdown of cellulose in the hind-gut. To accommodate the great volume of high-fiber food they eat, manatatees have intestines up to 150 feet long."

So When Is A Fish Too "Fishy?"

The other night I bought sea trout at the local fish market, a steal at $3.99 a pound. A friend had suggested it, having had some once, well-seasoned and tomatoed and cooked fresh from the water. I cooked it in an iron skillet, with lots of chopped garlic, some oil and butter,  a dash of white wine....cooked just right, dare I say, in terms of texture and so on.  It was a somewhat "assertive" fish said one guest, yet very tasty. But another found it way too "fishy." So much so that she ate only one bite.

Mind you, by "fishy" here we mean with more inherent flavor. A fish that stinks is not a fresh fish, period! Fishy fish are more oily than, say flounder or halibut, and usually cost less than the rest--mackerel is a good example. Smoked mack is $7.99, smoked salmon, $15.99 at Ted Peters Smokehouse.

It had been so long since I dived into the uber fishy I wasn't even sure how I felt about sea trout. I think it would be better a second time with a real tomato-rich Provencal style of preparation.  Sea trout definitely did not remind me of the ( dreaded) catfish, a critter that too me always has a bizarre texture and a "soapy" aftertaste.

Tiptoeing Into The Cuban Thing

Recently we wandered into a storefront Cuban eatery on 49th street North in St Pete to explore its black beans and rice, Cuban coffee and so on.

The waitress, NOT Cuban, as she told us, rolling her eyes, said all the beans contained meat, but you could try the white rice and tostones???  Hmmm. All veggie Son of Foodie wanted beans and rice...well, he ordered a cafe con leche and salty, dry as pressed wood, plantain cakes, while I leapt on the fish sandwich, having been told by the same waitress that the owner/cook caught his own, and at only $7.95 each.  Tatsy fish, lightly seasoned, was cooked just right, albeit smashed in the Cuban sandwich manner between two large slices of bread.

As I removed the bread casing, I found zero sauce, oil, nada, between fish and bread. And no garni of any kind on the plate. So the fish really rather resembled aquatic roadkill. When I got to talking with Cuban-born Nelson Guerra of The Cuban Delight Cafe, he said that the stark presentation was "the way we always do it," and then elaborated on the differences between Tampa Cuban bread--authentic!--and Miami Cuban bread--Not!  Apparently the earliest immigrants brought their traditional breadmaking ways to Ybor City, the cigar-making section of Tampa I have blogged about before and Fidel crushed this bread style once he took power in Cuba. Huh? Really? Did it represent freedom and rebellion?  ( Will research further. Miami Cuban bread is loaded with lard, apparently.)

Anyway, when I asked about the grouper, and was it REALLY grouper ??, Nelson said that he had been among the whistle-blowers on the Chinese catfish-sold-as-Florida grouper story of recent months. "So this fish I ate today was real grouper you caught? " "Not exactly," said he.  While he has negotiated with a distributor to buy only verifiable grouper, that fish family is large and widespread and, in fact, the fish I had just eaten was South American.

So what about the whole sustainable fish thing? Nelson shrugged: "My customers want and expect grouper." But neither they nor I check piscatory passports, most likely.

(The non-Cuban waitress not only tried to sell us the false fresh-caught by Nelson fish story, she also misinformed us about the beans--the black ones, as we figured,  never have meat.)

( Photo by Bob Croslin of roast pork plate appeared in the St Pete Times review of this cafe, probably before Nelson took over...http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/05/Weekend/Home_cooking__Cuban_s.shtml)

Eat Loads of Tuna? Sushi? Get Tested for Mercury Poisoning

An amusing progressive radio talk show host, Stephanie Miller, had been mentioning on air her terrible insomnia over the past few weeks. Then, suddenly, a blood test revealed she had severe mercury poisoning. Evidently Stephanie had long been a tuna and crackers for lunch person, with sushi her regular dinner choice. Now she is off fish, obviously, and taking a wide range of supplements and meds in order to draw the mercury from her body.

Now we've all heard the warnings about too much swordfish, too much big fish eating of any kind, but we probably figured the mercury thing was only a concern for pregnant women and kids. Not so.

The symptoms? Pins and needles, short term memory loss, lack of coordination, among others. ( The insomnia may NOT be a part of the mercury profile, but, not all is fully known.)

The mercury topic has two parts--one, eating the affected fish on a regular basis decidedly is not good for humans. Two, environmental concerns. 80% of the mercury in the air is caused by coal-fired power plants. The rest is generated by fertilizers and the burning of solid waste.

This is another in a long line of concerns regarding what we eat, what we should and should not eat---it's a subject that is becoming increasingly depressing!  Yesterday I was searching for a decent, frozen fish that was not a product of China--after tossing aside several offerings I chose whiting from Canada and when I semi-defrosted two pieces, one of them smelled fishy, in that definitive way that means not-so-fresh-when-frozen. Damn. I gave that  piece to the dog.....

For info on healthy and unhealthy fish choices see this: http://www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=bestandworst

Food History Finds Us Again in Florida

Out for an evening swim in the Gulf, we wandered into an older nifty strip of beach called Pass-A-Grille, described by some as an" artsy, bohemian community"---after a fine half hour of bobbing and floating, we saw the monstrous black clouds rolling in for their usual summer afternoon  lightning show and soon buckets of rain were billowing down as we headed back to St. Petersburg. 

Google then quickly informed us that P-A-G Beach was most likely dubbed that in quasi English by fishermen who stopped there to grill and eat some of their catch before heading on.

Food history is all around us, children, if we but pay attention. Remember The FOOD Museum's motto, courtesy of M.F.K.Fisher?  "First we eat, then we do everything else."

Ain't it the truth!

( Thanks to this site for P-A-G postcard: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/fl/pinellas/postcards/ppcs-pinellas.html)

Summertime In Florida And The Food Is Expensive

Chatting with a long-time fish guy at the local Publix supermarket in St. Petersburg yesterday, we veered away from the fish topic---the fish on sale has country of origin labels!--I learned that the high prices of the lackluster-looking veggies and fruit, in part is because Florida trucks 90 percent of its produce outside the state.

And the growers markets here don't begin until October.....back in NM, the growers markets are now filling up with everything--corn, tomatoes, squash and melons, and green chiles, already being roasted, an aroma once sniffed, never forgotten.

Making Many Clams from a Fried Mollusk

At the end of our little east coast jaunt recently, we were strolling past some cars parked at the Jersey shore when we spotted one with a flaming red bumper sticker reading "Woodman's of Essex--Inventor of the Fried Clam 1916."  Google led me to the Woodman's website and then to Rhonda Woodman, married to one of the clamming Woodman's, who rang me up in response to an email request for more info about this invention.  Could this be true? The first ever?

It all started with Lawrence and Bessie Woodman who in 1914 began a weekend business from a stand selling homemade potato chips, chewing gum, and fresh clams, dug each day. Apparently July 3, 1916 was a slow day for trade and a passing fisherman jokingly told "Chubby" --he doesn't look fat at all-- Woodman he ought to toss some clams into the hot oil--suggesting that if the clams were as tasty as the chips, he'd have a winner. 

Of course nobody tosses a clam into hot oil!! Come on! But-- out of the shell, perhaps...Bessie and Lawrence worked together to come up with a good batter, tossed the shucked clams into it, then fried them up and served them to the locals. Naturally, the clams were sublime--and the little stand on Main Street in Essex, Massachusetts did a glorious amount of business the next day, on the Glorious Fourth.

And Woodman's of Essex was off and running. Howard Johnson came to them to learn how to fry clams, for Pete's sake. Once I learned that, I was convinced of the Woodman's claim. ( HoJo's was my childhood icon, the ultimate in road food...fried clams, fresh fried oni0n rings, iced tea and mocha chip ice cream.)

   They still dip the clams in milk and then corn meal at Woodman's and while most of the clams are the prized Ipswich variety from the area, at times they must buy from mollusk moguls in Maine, or Maryland or even Washington State.

The bones of Chubby and Bessie's original building are still there though Woodman's today is a much bigger institution--always informal and friendly and fast-paced. New England Clambakes and lobsters can be had anywhere in the country from Woodman's, for a price. ( Clambake for two starts at $124.95 with free shipping.)

Rhonda Woodman told us that in coming months their website will be completely revised and the company will kick off a new tradition--get a Woodman's bumper sticker and photograph it in an exotic spot, then post it on the website. Prizes may well be involved...

Bean-Fed Fish

The U.S. has evidently signed a major contract with the Chinese who will purchase $3 billion worth of soybeans from American farmers, with more purchases to come.  As the soybean is one of the few beans that is NOT native to the US, this may sound implausible. But one of  the biggest Chinese food businesses is now aquaculture--feeding fish stocks to fish being farm raised is getting too expensive, and fish stocks are being rapidly depleted--so aqua growers are substituting soy protein for the food that comes naturally to most fish--other fish.

Does anyone know what this will mean for the fish, or for those who eat them?

( Logo is from the combined American Soybean Association and the United Soybean Board--for further info click on this: http://www.soyaqua.org/quickfacts.html)