Locally Available Seafood

[BubbaGourmet]

As I mentioned in another post somewhere, I am working on 2 cookbooks. One of these is a seafood cookbook. Now, I live on the coast of NC and have a lot of local "fresh" seafood available that is NOT readily available in other parts of the country. Now, since the goal of this book is to make preparing seafood easier for ANYONE who uses it (recent survey- 80% of respondents do NOT cook seafood because they are afraid of ruining it) I would like to know what seafood items are commonly available in other parts of the US and Canada. Your help is GREATLY appreciated!

[Alix]

Bubba, I live on the prairies in Canada, and to be frank the only FRESH seafood I have had is when I visit the coast. If I go to the asian market I can get some things live (dungeoness crab and lobster). I am sure there are more that are available, like tilapia and some others, but I rarely buy them because the cost is prohibitive.

Do you have a short list of seafood that you could give me to check on? I would take it with me to the market and let you know what is there.

[marmalady]

Hey, Bubba, from the SC coast, so we're probably pretty similar in what's here. Shrimp, crab, clams, oysters; flounder, grouper, mahi-mahi, red snapper, sea bass, croakers and whiting, drum, are probably the most common here in the 'Holy CIty'.

Have you thought about going to the local fishermen's organizations to get some help (maybe backing :) )?

[Ishbel]

The UK is such a little island that it is said that nowhere is more than 72 miles (or is it 74?) from the sea... We are SO lucky!

[ironchef]

Bubba, we can get pretty much anything and everything in Los Angeles.

[licia]

We get lots of seafood in Florida - but I don't know just what all is available. We also have lots of lakes and rivers so fish of all sorts is available too.

[amber]

I'm in Maine, so the commonly available fish in my market are lobster, sea scallops, mussells, quahogs and cherry stone clams, shrimp, haddock, cod, sometimes soul and flounder, salmon, swordfish, tuna, tilapia, squid sometimes. I'm sure I've forgotten some, but thats the commonly sold fish and shell fish here in Maine. As with any place, fish has it's "season" where it's least expensive. Good luck on the cookbook. Do you have someone that will publish it?

[kitchenelf]

I'm on the other end of the state and can get a wide variety of frozen but fresh (and some of these were previously forzen) we get oysters, clams, mussels, orange roughy, scallops, mahi mahi, tilapia, tuna, sashimi tuna, sea bass, flounder, catfish, salmon, I'm sure there's more but like you said, I don't normally step outside my box.

[Dove]

Bubba !!! We've missed you! I have been concerned about you because of the last hurricane season..looked like it came over the top of you.
Marge~Dove

[Claire]

Good Grief! Most who answered live on one of the coasts, so let me chime in here.

I live in the Midwest, in a small town. What people have to realize that even in a good fishmarket in a coastal town, most of the seafood you buy is actually THAWED. They freeze it right on the boats in some cases. If you live more than an hour from a big airport, trust me, it isn't fresh. The best advice I can give is to buy frozen. Why should you buy something that has been frozen and thawed, when you can buy it frozen and thaw it yourself?

My personal favorites are IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) for shrimp and scallops. Be honest but nice to your provider. Here's one exchange. I'd asked for a dozen of their wonderful IQF scallops (a staple for us). My butcher (we live in a very small town, the grocery store butcher mans the seafood counter as well, and WAS a butcher before a chain took over) replied, look over here, we have fresh. I just laughed and said, "oh, come on ... those were frozen once, too." He simply laughed in response, looked a bit abashed, and sold me the IQF scallops.

What I'm getting at here is please don't insult your readers with "buy only fresh" when you know darned good and well that most, even those living on the coasts, are not able to buy fresh. IQF is the way to go for most people. Sure is a heck of a lot better than something that was thawed this morning and has been sitting in its juices for 6-10 hours.

Even when I did live on the coast (did, often) ... well, nothing tasted as fresh as what I got used to in Hawaii, so IQF is the way to go.