The other day I was cruising the aisles at Safeway when I noticed they had gourmet frozen salmon on hand. So I decided to do something I've never done at Safeway before - buy salmon. They had a couple varieties of salmon to choose from (and Pacific cod too), but I opted for the sockeye. The other choice 'Pacific salmon' sounded like a euphemism for pink or worse yet dog salmon. Clearly all the choices were wild caught. And it looked like they were flash frozen and packaged well. I checked the wrappers and they were packaged by Lucerne foods for Safeway under the 'Waterfront Bistro' moniker. A little on the pricey side, 12 bucks for 12 ounces, but, hey, finally some good quality frozen wild salmon in the supermarket.
Last year when we visited our family in Maine I checked out the wild pacific salmon for sale in the local supermarkets. All that I found was either canned (and poor quality stuff), or fresh lying on ice next to the farm raised Atlantic Salmon. And I hate to admit it - the farm raised stuff looked much fresher and more appetizing (and cheaper to boot). So enter this new product - wild flash frozen pacific salmon - and you can see why I am excited.
But how did it taste? Back home I thawed it out in the fridge and noted that it was really well sealed in individual vacuum packs. To be honest it looked better than the stuff I package for myself. Zoya noted that it had a nice recipe to try on the back. And last night when we did eat it - it was good. No fishy smell, and I could tell that the salmon had been bled before it was filleted. Really the only difference between the store bought salmon and my own is price. I am not likely to buy salmon at 1 dollar an ounce.
And the price brings up an interesting point because I am likely to buy canned salmon in the future. I've noticed that at $2.99 a can that the Field's Brand Wild Salmon (see post from late December) is cheaper than what I can can myself. And the funny thing is that these days Zoya and I seem to prefer canned to frozen salmon anyway. It's just much easier to deal with and far more versatile.
But it is good to see the 'Waterfront Bistro' frozen salmon on the super market shelves. Perhaps it will expand the market for Kodiak's fish. At least people down south will be able to buy 'fresh' salmon year-round. I just wish it was cheaper. Now if the canneries made a good canned product. .... ...Patrick
2 comments:
I used to work in the seafood department at Whole Foods in San Francisco. It was an interesting experience, especially after growing up in a Kodiak fishing family. I find it unfortunate that consumers in the lower 48 generally think of frozen fish product as inferior to fresh. Despite the distributors guarantee that there was 48 hours or less between the dock to the store, the "fresh" salmon and halibut we received tended to taste a bit like a refrigerator. My home pack stash of frozen halibut often tasted better and sweeter than the fish I brought home from the store.
Waltzing Pika, I agree with you. Why the hangup over frozen fish?
I don't think fish is fresh unless it died less than 3 hours ago and was bled and put on ice immediately! I've had people give me 'fresh' fish here in Kodiak that was in terrible condition. Freshly caught does not equal fresh.
Well-frozen and correctly thawed fish is very close to as good as it gets and far better than any of that stuff you see on ice in lower 48 supermarkets.
I think part of the problem people have with frozen fish is that they probably try to thaw it too quickly. I find if you let it thaw slowly in the fridge it ends up far moister in the frying pan.
Patrick
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