Eat Like a Fish - Week 3: Back to Back Blues

Week three came and went and I can barely remember it already, especially since week four is almost over now as I write this. In my best attempt to not fall behind on posting, and because this past week was relatively uneventful and with a predicted outcome, I'll be keeping this post fairly brief.

My species for week three were...

• Spot (Leiostomus xanthurus)
• Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix)
• Mackerel (Scomber scombrus)
• Cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus)

After a quick look at my species, I again had a feeling of what I would be eating this week, and this time I knew I could make it come true. I catch cunner in our trawl net at work on a regular basis, but I've never seen a single one larger than about four inches, so I'm incredibly surprised to see that as a species on our list. I've since studied up and found out they get much larger than that, and I had absolutely no idea. Spot is a new one for me, but after reading a little bit, it sounded like it may be a tad early in the season for them, given that southern New England is already at the northern range for the species. Mackerel is usually easy to come by, especially as bait, but it's typically Pacific mackerel, Scomber japonicus, and not our locally landed species.

So after eating bluefish last week, not as an assigned species but as my "I came up bust in week two" meal, I knew where I'd easily find more. I was going to be heading up to the Cape again for the Memorial Day weekend, so my plan was to head back to Mac's Seafood Market - Eastham during my time there, where I had scored my bluefish previously. I did, however, want to give at least one hometown market a shot at this week's assignment.

My only stop while in Connecticut was with a little free time on Tuesday to Atlantic Seafood Market in Old Saybrook. I snuck in only minutes before closing, but just as I've found with all of the local shops, despite being in the midst of wrapping up for the day, the staff was more than happy to indulge me in my stories of this study and why I was looking for such a weird four-some of species. Despite the helpfulness of the staff, Atlantic had none of the species that I was on the hunt for. I knew I wouldn't have any more time during the week, so I decided to save my energy, and bank on more blue while out on the Cape.

Mac's Seafood - Eastham, MA

After a Friday afternoon drive, with an hour of traffic out to Wellfleet, I was back in my happy place. Saturday morning I hopped off the island, planning around the astronomical high tides (the highest of the year) around then new moon, and got back to Mac's. I was immediately recognized by the staff after coming in last week and talking about the study, and they even mentioned one or two of you other citizen scientists that they believe have stopped in. They had plenty more bluefish, this time already filleted, so I got my pound and was off.

 Blue and baby bok choy getting ready for the grill

Preparation of the blue was identical to the previous week's post (I promise I will get a little more creative with recipes once I have a little more free time, but for now it's just make stuff up and go with what I know.) A quick removal of the skin and scales followed by the dark meat, then into an aluminum foil boat topped with olive oil, lime juice, garlic powder, salt and pepper. paprika, parsley and a chopped up piece of partially pre-cooked bacon. The smokiness of the bacon is amazing with the bluefish. Smoked bluefish is particularly awesome so I knew the tastes would meld well, and if you've read my posts so far, you may be sensing a theme of pork products combined with seafood. Paired with some more grilled baby bok choy, a little long grain wild rice, and of course more Wellfleet oysters, and dinner was served, and just as fresh and delicious as ever.

There is absolutely no way that I can write the rest of the post about my meal and that evening without including a picture of the sunset on Saturday night that I enjoyed on my walk down to the beach after dinner. Lieutenant Island is an absolutely amazing place that truly gives me energy. Soaking this in while picking up a couple dozen oysters off the flats was an complete treat.

Sunset on the Cape Cod bay side of Lieutenant Island

These days are going by incredibly fast, and as my summer quickly approaches, and every day is taken up by more and more obligations. I know it will become increasingly difficult for me to find the time to keep this all up but I am going to try my darndest, no matter how dull or uninteresting. Also, I'm hoping to find a way to take some better food pictures than what I'm able to under my normal kitchen lighting with my camera on my phone. Maybe someone has an old DSLR that they want to donate to a humble marine educator such as myself. I'd love to be able to step up my game since I am regularly blown away by some of the images that are being posted on social media. If you want to follow some other citizen scientists participating and posting about it, start by searching #EatLikeAFish on Instagram. I will try to start linking each week to other individuals who are also blogging about their experience.