Bottomfeeders & Leftovers

Today we went to the docks. The Steveston Docks, like rough and tumble raiders to wrestle up tonights grub. We were after the bottom feeders, the ocean's floor cleaners, with their pint sized bodies and needle like legs- the Pacific Spot Prawn. Not necessarily in season they are caught using traps and frozen at sea. According to Taras Grescoe in his book Bottomfeeder: How to eat ethically in a world of vanishing seafood, they are a responsible choice if you are to eat prawns at all... and there are some nasty prawns out there. Even though the book scared us off many of our other favourite seafoods, we love the pint sized morsels and will take on the buccaneers of the high seas to get some. And well our son loves boats, so why not take a drive to the historic seaside village just outside of Richmond? We bought 3lbs of them, shell, legs, antennae and all of the prickly decapods.


With the aid of the three year olds, my husband shelled and clean the prawns. When time came to remove the heads both Billie and Elijah were anything but squeamish. If cleaning them was this much fun would they eat them? He then skewered them another process that was endlessly fascinating, then marinated them in odds and ends he found in the fridge and pantry. While he was doing that, I was cleaning out the fridge. I was pleasantly surprised that many of the things that we had before the holidays had not gone off. I had my sauce that I use for pizza; raw tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper, celery, carrot and leeks all packed in water. Plus fresh veg and fruit.  Dinner was forming almost as if by momentum rather than planning. The menu became, marinated prawns on a rice pilaf with a citrus, pomegranate salad. 


In the spirit of eating from the bottom of the sea we ate from the bottom of the fridge and the babies loved it! The babies ate the prawns with gusto, probably because they got up close and personal with them, then they dug into the pilaf with the same enthusiasm, asking for more. We learnt a new trick tonight, like marshmallows sticks make food interesting.

photos by me, with the twins new toy camera (mine is in the shop).

F is for fish....and thats good enough for me

First a disclaimer.... I call myself a vegetarian even though I am not. It simplifies things. I have had the same diet since I was 16 yrs old and it has pretty much worked for me. I am a pescetarian, I eat fish. As much as I despise the modern food system, I have never been able to completely give up fish. I naively believed that ocean based animals were not in the same perils of their land base distant cousins. With the collapse of many fisheries it became fashionable to eat farmed, then with disease it once again became fashionable to eat wild. All this flip flopping (no pun intended) boggled the mind. I have since reconciled to eat only those fisheries that are not endangered, fished sustainably and are suggested by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood watch or the Vancouver Aquarium's Ocean wise as safe to eat. I live in British Columbia, getting fresh local fish should never be a problem.

That brings me to what I ate tonight and what I am reading. After yoga this evening I decided to stop on the way home and pick up dinner for the family. My husband is sick and had been watching the babies all afternoon while I down dogged and mountain poised myself into health (we have already started our holiday eating), so cooking he was not. After doing a pretty intense workout I am always craving a healthy helping of tofu and veg and as I have permanently

ruled out the Naam as that source, the ever faithful standby the Noodle Box was en route. The servings are huge but unlike the the Naam are re-heatable and often better the next day. Tonight they had several specials one was an awesome sounding Kung Pao but instead of chicken was Prawns and Qualicum beach Scallops. The Prawns had no such identification - so I asked. The server said "Atlantic" (Why would we get Atlantic prawns and not Pacific?) and when I looked at him in disbelief he asked a cook; the verdict was Vietnam. Really Noodle box? This is what your website says about your ingredients "Searing hot flames combine with the freshest local ingredients and classic flavours from Thailand, Malaysia, China and Japan". I can't tell if the server was laughing with me or at me when I said "So they are the rape and pillaged kind".

I am currently reading Bottomfeeder: How to eat ethically in a world of vanishing seafood by Taras Grescoe. In the book Grescoe investigates the world's love affair with seafood, the devistation of the ocean's bottom and it shrinking stocks. He looks at fads that create the drive for singular species, such as a Julia Child episode where she manhandles a 25lb monkfish, the historical context of the oyster and the traditional attitude that the sea is ours to plunder generation after generation. With all of this swirling about my head like a shoal lost at sea , I forgo the prawns and scallops and opted for the tofu. And in future I will be more attentive to my seafood choices, be it a fish and chips stand or my favourite restaurant.

photo by me.