“Very few local things in fish markets come off the boats anymore,other than occasionally tuna,” says Jasmine Miller at Browne Trading’s retail seafood counter.“It’s all auction.” The auction means the Fish Exchange on the sprawling waterfront Portland Fish Pier. “It ensures that the fishermen don’t get undercut.The fishermen bring their catch to the auction house,and there are auctions on Tuesday,Wednesday,and Thursday,plus a huge one on Sunday. And people think you can’t get fish on Monday! It’s a real auction—how much will you bid for 50 pounds of haddock? All the fish markets here go to these auctions.” Miller offers an analogy.“It’s a tiered system,similar to wine and beer distribution.” In addition to the busy retail business at Browne,“We’re a distributor of local seafood we get at the auction, plus we import from small-scale,sustainable farmed operations all over the world,like salmon from Scotland and the Faroe Islands,and a land-based salmon farm in Sarasota called Sapphire.It’s bet- ter for the environment.We get salmon from True North in Eastport,too,and there’s a land-based Maine salmon farm in the planning stage.If we want to keep eating fish,we’ve got to figure out ways to raise it.” She adds,“If a Portland restaurant serves caviar—say,Central Provisions,Tipo,or Lio—they prob- ably get it from us.” From The Sea to Your Plate That220-poundtunafromUpstream Truckingbecomesabeautifultunacrudo appetizeratScalesrestaurantnextdoor. Hungry eye 110 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine meaghan maurice; courtesy scales restaurant T here’s plenty of shellfish here, too– oysters, littlenecks, and mussels are heaped on crushed ice. With oysters on so many menus around town, do peo- ple really buy them and take them home to shuck them themselves? “Oh, sure,” Burke says. And if they don’t know how, “We give them a little tutorial” and sell them a shucking knife and protective glove if they need them. Harbor Fish Market seems to have the oyster market cornered, with a zillion vari- eties identified with hand-written signs dug into a vast case of crushed ice. At Browne Trading Company’s sea- food counter, Alex Murphy says, “Atlan- tic salmon is our biggest seller, and tuna. We’ve got great crabmeat from the mid- coast. But you’d be surprised how much local skate, monkfish, cod, and halibut the restaurants buy.” Maybe it’s not that surprising consider- ing Portland chefs’ commitment to the lo- cal and the sustainable, to say nothing of our own endless quests to discover what they do with them. “We smoke a lot of salmon and trout here. We’ve got two smokers—hot and cold, and we cure salmon, too, with no smoke.“Everyone’s into uni pasta sauces,” Murphy says. “The Maine urchin season is when the water’s colder, though, so at this time of year we’re mostly getting it from Ja- pan.” And although it was a very hot menu item in years past, “We don’t have much go- ing on with octopus at the moment.” SECRET SOURCE Upstream Trucking is tucked in a ware- house down the wharf from Scales restau- rant. It has no sign and there is no shop, but they move a lot of seafood. Upstream be- gan 16 years ago as a partnership between George Parr and Dana Street and his part- ners in Street & Company, Fore Street– and, more recently, Scales–restaurants as a means to supply these places with seafood. “That’s how it started, anyway,” says Parr, “but I keep picking up new accounts. They find me. I’m supplying Eventide with 10,000 pounds of oysters a week. Emelitsa comes down, Petite Jacqueline, Izakaya Mi- nato, Mr. Tuna. Paolo [Laboa] walks down from Solo [Italiano]. And 555 and 188, and Cara Stadler’s [Bao Bao and Lio in Port- land, and Tao Yuan in Brunswick] are here almost every day; she’s great. Anybody who owns three restaurants in town comes here. Some of these accounts are fairly small, but they’re very particular about their seafood. I’m honored to supply these young artists. It’s what really makes the whole food scene. “I only get a few things directly off the boat. In winter, a scalloper can tie up right here,” says Parr, stepping out the west side of his warehouse and indicating a per- fect spot to dock with a view of the harbor and the patios of the Porthole and Boone’s. “Don’t I have the best office in town?” “Guys like Bangs Island Mussels who “Some of my accounts are fairly small, but they’re very particular about their seafood.” –George Parr, Upstream Trucking