{"id":15157,"date":"2018-07-16T18:23:43","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T22:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=15157"},"modified":"2018-07-16T18:23:43","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T22:23:43","slug":"getting-fresh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/getting-fresh\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Fresh"},"content":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2018 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a difference <\/strong>between fresh fish and \u201cfresh fish.\u201d Especially for the resourceful locals who know the secrets of where and when<\/strong> to go!<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"JA-18-Hungry-Eye\"P<\/strong><\/span>roof\u2013if you even need it\u2013that Portland is a seafood paradise requires just a stroll around town. The high count of seafood markets, seafood shacks, sushi restaurants, and uber seafood restaurants is something truly impressive. We are one lucky city. But are we fresh? One measure is, the faster the turnover, the fresher the fish.<\/span><\/p>\n

TO MARKET<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Snoop into the fish markets to check out summer best sellers.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

Cullen Burke manages Free Range Fish and Seafood<\/strong> on Commercial Street, at the far western edge of the Old Port. \u201cIn the summer, we\u2019re selling 400 to 500 pounds of haddock a day. Salmon, tuna, and sword are the big summer grillers\u2013everyone wants to grill fish at this time of year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/strong>here\u2019s plenty of shellfish here, too\u2013oysters, littlenecks, and mussels are heaped on crushed ice. With oysters on so many menus around town, do people really buy them and take them home to shuck them themselves? \u201cOh, sure,\u201d Burke says. And if they don\u2019t know how, \u201cWe give them a little tutorial\u201d and sell them a shucking knife and protective glove if they need them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harbor Fish Market<\/strong> seems to have the oyster market cornered, with a zillion varieties identified with hand-written signs dug into a vast case of crushed ice. <\/span><\/p>\n

At Browne Trading Company\u2019s <\/strong>seafood counter, Alex Murphy says, \u201cAtlantic salmon is our biggest seller, and tuna. We\u2019ve got great crabmeat from the midcoast. But you\u2019d be surprised how much local skate, monkfish, cod, and halibut the restaurants buy.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s not that surprising considering Portland chefs\u2019 commitment to the local and the sustainable, to say nothing of our own endless quests to discover what they do with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe smoke a lot of salmon and trout here. We\u2019ve got two smokers\u2014hot and cold, and we cure salmon, too, with no smoke.\u201cEveryone\u2019s into uni pasta sauces,\u201d Murphy says. \u201cThe Maine urchin season is when the water\u2019s colder, though, so at this time of year we\u2019re mostly getting it from Japan.\u201d And although it was a very hot menu item in years past, \u201cWe don\u2019t have much going on with octopus at the moment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

SECRET SOURCE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Upstream Trucking<\/strong> is tucked in a warehouse down the wharf from Scales restaurant. It has no sign and there is no shop, but they move a lot of seafood. Upstream began 16 years ago as a partnership between George Parr and Dana Street and his partners in Street & Company, Fore Street\u2013and, more recently, Scales\u2013restaurants as a means to supply these places with seafood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how it started<\/em>, anyway,\u201d says Parr, \u201cbut I keep picking up new accounts. They find me. I\u2019m supplying Eventide with 10,000 pounds of oysters a week. Emelitsa comes down, Petite Jacqueline, Izakaya Minato, Mr. Tuna. Paolo [Laboa] walks down from Solo [Italiano]. And 555 and 188, and Cara Stadler\u2019s [Bao Bao and Lio in Portland, and Tao Yuan in Brunswick] are here almost every day; she\u2019s great. Anybody who owns three restaurants in town comes here. Some of these accounts are fairly small, but they\u2019re very particular about their seafood. I\u2019m honored to supply these young artists. It\u2019s what really makes the whole food scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI only get a few things directly off the boat. In winter, a scalloper can tie up right here,\u201d says Parr, stepping out the west side of his warehouse and indicating a perfect spot to dock with a view of the harbor and the patios of the Porthole and Boone\u2019s. \u201cDon\u2019t I have the best office in town?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGuys like Bangs Island Mussels<\/strong> who deliver direct come by truck, not boat. And the mackerel, squid, and bluefish I get from the Richmond Island fish weir come by truck, too. I go to the auction here, and I go to Boston twice a week.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike Browne Trading, Harbor Fish Market, and Free Range, Upstream has no retail market. \u201cYet,\u201d says Parr, leading the way to a bright room where a market is planned.<\/span><\/p>\n

TIME TO EAT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A<\/em><\/strong>bout that octopus\u2026 It\u2019s best if you have more than one line of position to make a fix.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

We enter Scales<\/strong>, a shining, shipshape place of golden evening summer sunlight. A bustling wait-staff transports drinks and platters. The first thing to catch our eye is a huge octopus in a bin of crushed ice, its tentacles dramatically arranged.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Scales, octopus is going on. \u201cI think it\u2019s our most popular hot appetizer,\u201d one of the cooks says as he plates plump pieces of grilled tentacle and chorizo glistening with sauce. Octopus is that popular?<\/span><\/p>\n

Chef Fred Eliot walks by, so we ask him. \u201cYes, it is,\u201d he says with a smile, and confirms the provenance of the beast on the ice: \u201cPortugal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss the salt cod croquettes, here, either. They\u2019re crisp, crumb-coated, and fried, served on a spicy pool of roasted red pepper aioli, a perfect cocktail bite.<\/span><\/p>\n

ON THE STREET<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It never hurts to be flexible.<\/em> Across Commercial Street, we\u2019re checking the Smoked Salmon BLT with lemon\/dill mayo on the menu posted outside the Old Port Sea Grill<\/strong> when we spy a food cart in a prime spot in front of the Custom House.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Mr. Tuna<\/strong>, the mobile sushi cart manned by chef Graham Botto. He deftly assembles bits of spicy raw tuna, umeboshi pickled plum paste, seasoned sushi rice, and matchsticks of cucumber, all of which he rolls into a slim cone of dried nori seaweed and dusts with crunchy tempura flakes. It\u2019s a $6 masterpiece.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was a sous-chef at Back Bay Grill,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019m happier doing this than being in any kitchen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A few days later, we find Mr. Tuna\u2019s cart in the patio seating area outside Sagamore Hill<\/strong>, the new cocktail bar in the Lafayette building at the corner of Congress and Park streets. Botto is joined by Mr. Tuna owner, Jordan Rubin, who makes us a roll of spicy salmon with avocado, scallions, and sweet chili sauce that\u2019s got sweet\/salty\/spicy in irresistible balance.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are in fact three Mr. Tunas manning the carts around town\u2013Rubin, Botto, and Kyle Reynolds. The enterprise will soon have a space in the Public Market House on the first floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI went to Johnson & Wales,\u201d Rubin says. \u201cI learned sushi at Uni in Boston [one of chef Ken Oringer\u2019s spots in the Eliot Hotel]. That\u2019s where I met Chris Gould [who owns Central Provisions with his wife, Paige]. Kyle and Graham and I met at Central Provisions\u2013we all cooked there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the clever sushi cones that eliminate the need for chopsticks, he says, \u201cIn bigger cities like Boston and New York, these hand-rolls are everywhere.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Tuna\u2019s edge comes from Rubin\u2019s custom recipes\u2013bright combinations of sauces and garnishes\u2013that showcase each type of seafood. You\u2019ll never miss the wasabi, pickled ginger, and soy-dipping.<\/span><\/p>\n

EXOTIC LITTLE BITES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Really, it\u2019s who you know<\/em>. There\u2019s a delicious fillet served as an appetizer at Izakaya Minato<\/strong> on Washington Avenue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have Aburi Shime Saba whenever our guy in Cape Elizabeth can bring us mackerel,\u201d says Elaine Alden, who owns Minato with her husband, chef Thomas Takashi Cooke. \u201cSaba is Japanese for mackerel, shime means we vinegar-cure it, and Aburi means it\u2019s torched,\u201d to crisp the skin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThomas does something similar with Portuguese sardines when we can get them from Browne Trading,\u201d Alden says. \u201cBut he also double-fries the bones and serves them on the side for crunch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

SUMMER SPECIALS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It never hurts to compare experiences and increase your bandwidth<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bolster, Snow & Co.\u2019s<\/strong> summer menu has a lobster crostini on the appetizer roster, along with an even more jazzy app of \u201cjust-poached lobster,\u201d says Anthony DeLois, who co-owns the restaurant and the Francis hotel that houses it with his two brothers. \u201cThe meat\u2019s minced and formed into an egg-shaped quenelle. This sits on a pool of sauce made of Aji Amarillo pepper with mango and yuzu,\u201d and it\u2019s topped with a lacy house-made cracker.<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/strong>he hotel bar here is a great cocktail-hour destination, and from 4 to 7 p.m., oysters and shrimp are $1 each. Bartender Andrew Thompson suggests a glass of dry white Austrian wine on special. The other bar patrons are hotel guests, and it\u2019s always fun to hear what visitors are doing here. A young man and woman to my right from Long Island have a goblet of local craft beer and a dozen Mookie Blue oysters from Damariscotta in front of each of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis trip is an oyster mission,\u201d she says, and she sounds serious. \u201cWe\u2019ve been to Eventide, Hot Suppa, and the Oyster Shop for oysters, and we\u2019re not done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

DRIFT WITH THE SEASONS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

W<\/em><\/strong><\/span>hat\u2019s the secret of fresh seafood? Timing<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI moved here almost three years ago and learned very quickly the ephemerality of the growing season and bounty of warmer weather seafood,\u201d says chef Ben Jackson at Drifters Wife<\/strong>. \u201cI like to pair things happening at the same time, land or sea. And I like the odd bits\u2026say, marinated bluefish with cucumbers and mint, or smoked mackerel with potatoes and ramp remoulade. We smoke the fish in-house and cure the smaller fish for use in vinaigrettes and whatnot. We save other fish scraps, belly and trim, to poach in olive oil and make mayo.\u201d Jackson is a chef who can make you love turnips, so trust him with that fish mayo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, Drifter\u2019s Wife has offered \u201csteamer clams with garlic scapes and rye bread; halibut with nettle broth and periwinkles; and frisee lettuce with smoked alewife vinaigrette and soft egg. Everything deserves a chance to shine.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July\/August 2018
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