Saveur Magazine's Seafood Issue

As previously mentioned, Saveur is probably my favorite magazine on earth. While technically a popular food magazine, its slant towards the history and ethnography of food both internationally and in the tiniest hamlets of the United States, combined with photography to blow your eyes away, makes it a read far beyond your basic cooking magazine. This month, (the April issue) Saveur is going even nearer and dearer to my heart by doing a special issue on seafood. You can see some of the recipes online, but to me, Saveur has always been more about the articles, about which they are coy, sharing only a couple on the web. It's an issue that will enlighten on so many fronts, including crawfish (who knew the shellfish in Manhattan's Zabar's lobster salad was exposed as crawfish?), an appreciation (that I still lack, despite many trips to Monterey) of sardines, home cooking in the villages along Croatia's Dalmatian coast, a lesson in remoulade styles, and a primer on the fish and ales to be found on the Oregon coast. There's also an article on the seafood of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, two teeny islands off the Atlantic coast of Canada that are actually French territory, with passports stamped by French customs officials, euros used as currency, and a very native French-sounding environment in its food and drink scene. Who knew? That's why I love each new issue of this magazine. Always so much to learn while being entertained by the writing at the same time.

Fish News From Sunflower

As I've been mentioning, Sunflower and Sprouts are working on their "merger," in which Sprouts sounds a bit more like the acquirer, since our Boulder Sunflower will eventually be rebranded as Sprouts.  Chatting with a dude at the meat/seafood counter recently, I learned that Sunflower has switched to using Sprouts' fish supplier as part of this transition.  That's good news to me, as I've generally had better luck with the fish at Sprouts than at Sunflower.  (Then there's the sublime fish at Whole Foods, but that's another story.)

Chinese Farmed Fish Takes Over The World?

This seems to be a week of reminders to give very conscious thought to where your food comes from. Yesterday, it was the new "dirty dozen" list of most contaminated produce, so for today, how about "The Scariest Chart About Seafood You'll See This Year," from The Atlantic? The figures are alarming, as is the discussion of the FDA's inability to effectively ensure the safety of seafood imports. All the more reason to jump on Whole Food's sale today on swordfish that's "sustainably caught and traceable from source to store."

Sea Scallops For The Freezer

Don't forget today's fabulous one-day sale at Whole Foods on MSC-certified sustainable sea scallops for just $9.99 a pound. In addition to the defrosting ones, the Pearl Street store also has some still frozen, so it's an opportunity to add some to your freezer as well. This is such a great price for seafood you know has been caught sustainably.

One-Day Sale at Whole Foods Tomorrow

Our local Whole Foods stores are offering us a fantastic sale for tomorrow only (June 10th), with wild caught sea scallops for $9.99 a pound. These are MSC certified sustainable, so you can feel good about eating them, in addition to enjoying $8 off per pound. Between the sea scallops at Whole Foods, the cod at Sprouts, and Copper River salmon all around town (see my price comparison post), I feel a big seafood weekend coming on.

Nice Fish at Sprouts

Sprouts is doing a seafood extravaganza this week, with several varieties at $7.99/lb. I've had good luck with their "flash-frozen at sea" fish, so I was expecting the Copper River salmon that's on sale would look pretty good. But the surprise was the swordfish, which not only looks good, but is also a product of the U.S. of A. At $7.99/lb, I really expected to see it from someplace in Southeast Asia, as I have before. The heck with the menu planning this week. I might just alternate between swordfish and Copper River salmon!

P.S. Be careful out there, fellow Boulderites - the roads are getting treacherous.

Seafood Sale Alert

Tomorrow, the 20th, the Boulder Sunflower will hold a one-day "seafood road show" from 10 to 4, during which they promise "huge savings."