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Tuesday, May 29, 2007 Restaurant Review: Boston's New Burmese Eatery, YoMa
BOSTON – With the rainbow of restaurants in Boston, it's hard to believe this city used to be a dining backwater.
Scrod, pot roast, baked beans, and Grapenut pudding once dominated the local landscape. These days, that's what the tourists eat at Durgin Park while the rest of us dine at Afghan, Colombian, Cuban, Ethiopian, Jamaican, Malaysian, and Moroccan restaurants scattered across the city. Now we can add another cuisine to the mix: Burmese. The food of Burma (now Myanmar) is an amalgam of Indian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian cuisines and reminds me most of Thai, Vietnamese, and Cambodian cooking. At YoMa, lemongrass, chili peppers, lime, garlic, ginger, shallots, and cilantro are plentiful, as are rice and noodles. YoMa's owner, Burmese-born Sai Kyaw, slow-cooks some of his dishes and uses a mortar to hand-grind some spices, a laborious process that brings out subtle flavors. When YoMa is good, it is very, very good. Its primary weakness isn't its food, it's its service. Case in point: the two-hour wait for one of our food orders. If I were to assemble the perfect YoMa meal, I'd start with AaMaeTharThot ($6.95), a barbecued beef salad with a sneaky spiciness that creeps in slowly and, if you happen to bite into a chili pepper, explodes like fire. For soup, I'd have the marvelous JaZanHinGar ($4.75) made with chicken, clear noodles, and black mushrooms. Try a spoonful as is; then add the lime, fish sauce, and dried chilis that come with it. They transform a nice soup into something entirely different -- a sour, salty, smoky concoction that's much more complex and satisfying. Three entrees are standouts: jumbo shrimp curry ($8.75) in an aromatic mixture of tomatoes, shallots, garlic, cumin, and coriander; KhaYanTheeNut ($8.95), stewed eggplant that gets subtle sweetness from palm sugar; and MeeShay ($7.45), slow-roasted pork so tender it falls apart with the nudge of a chopstick. Accompanying the pork is silken tofu lightly fried in delicious chickpea flour batter. I know what I wouldn't order again, too. BuThee Jaw ($4.25), gourd tempura, tastes like fried zucchini sticks; skip it, as well as the heavily fried spring rolls ($4.25) and Shan-KhotSwe ($6.50), bland chicken curry made with unappetizing dark meat. Seafood salad ($9.95) is generously stocked with shrimp, squid, crab, and fish; but it lacks a strong marinade to meld the tastes together. Some dishes are mild, such as MoneNyinHinCho ($4.75), a miso-like soup, and KetJee Keit ($7.95), which is basically Burmese pad Thai. Others, including the shrimp curry, are so wickedly spicy that my cheeks became flushed, my brow dampened, and my sinuses ran with abandon. YoMa's main weak spot is the molasses-like pace at which food moves from the kitchen to the dining room. On our first visit, it took 40 minutes for our first dish to arrive, and our final entree came nearly two hours after we placed our order. That's an outrageously long time to wait for your food, and we would have been indignant had we been in a rush or had our waitress not been such a sweetheart. The problem? Two cooks were filling orders for 18 customers, an unworkable ratio. On a second visit, when we had the restaurant to ourselves for a while, our food arrived briskly: Within 10 minutes of ordering, appetizers had arrived, and entrees soon followed. So until more cooks are hired, visit when the dining room is empty -- or visit with copious patience. - Boston Globe Restaurants in Review: A List of the Best Seafood Joints CINCINNATI -- Coastal Living magazine's May issue listed the editors' 25 favorite seafood dives:01. The Lobster Pot, Provincetown, MA 02. Thurston's Lobster Pound, Bernard, ME 03. Lenny & Joe's Fish Tale, Madison, CN 04. Fenwick Crab House, Fenwick Island, DE 05. Wharf Rat, Baltimore, ME 06. Whaley's at Edisto Beach, SC 07. Love's Seafood & Steaks, Savannah, GA 08. Sunset Waterfront Grill and Bar, Cocoa Beach, FL 09. Harry O's, Harbour Island, Bahamas 10. Cahills Beachside Bar & Grill, Gulfport, FL 11. Boon Docks Restaurant, Panama City Beach, FL 12. King Neptune's Seafood, Gulf Shores, AL 13. Lil' Ray's, Gulfport, MI 14. Casamento's, New Orleans, LA 15. Topwater Grill, San Leon, TX 16. Green Flash, San Diego, CA 17. Wahoo's Fish Taco, Southern California and Honolulu 18. Pier Beach Grill, Ventura, CA 19. Li'l Hut, Morro Bay, CA 20. Fisherman's Wharf crab stands, San Francisco, CA 21. Oceansong, Gualala, CA 22. Riverhouse, Pacific City, OR 23. The Tides Tavern, Gig Harbor, WA 24. The Shrimp Shack, Punaluu, Oahu, HI 35. New Sandusky Fish Company, Sandusky, OH - Cincinnati Post News in Depth: China says U.S. Companies Share Blame for Tainted Food BEIJING – Fed up with weeks of Americans bashing their food safety standards, Chinese government and industry officials say that bargain-hunting U.S. food companies share blame if contaminated Chinese ingredients wind up in food.More than two months after the USA began a massive pet-food recall linked to contaminated ingredients imported from China, business and government officials in China are investigating what went wrong and promising improvement in a country where mass poisonings from tainted foods have been common. But they also say they're not the only ones who need to take more responsibility. "Officials like me in the Chinese government can supervise the producers here, but U.S. companies doing business with Chinese companies must also be very clear about the standards they need, and don't just look for a cheap price,” says Yuan Changxiang, a deputy director in the ministry responsible for inspecting imports and exports. Jin Zemin, general manager of Shanghai Kaijin Bio-Tech, which specializes in wheat gluten, agrees. U.S. importers "want cheaper prices, but that can come at a cost," he says. "You should know exactly where the products you buy are coming from. Don't just look at the price." The Chinese rebuttal coincides with diplomatic trade talks this week in Washington, D.C., covering a range of issues including U.S. complaints about contaminated food imports from China. This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would check all shipments of toothpaste from China following reports of tainted toothpaste and cold medicine in other countries. After the pet-food scandal, the FDA is enforcing an import alert that requires inspections of all vegetable proteins from China that are used in many popular human, as well as animal, foods. Thousands of cats and dogs in the USA may have died from eating foods made with tainted ingredients imported from China. Inspectors are on the lookout for melamine, a chemical used in making plastics, and related compounds that were used to artificially raise the apparent protein level of flour so it could be sold as high-priced wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate to brokers in the USA. They then sold the products to pet-food companies. Jin says China exported little wheat gluten and related products until last year, when foreign demand and domestic production rose quickly. He said one reason for the increased demand was a drop in Australia's wheat production. The business grew quickly in 2006, and other, smaller companies quickly joined in just looking for a quick profit. Even before the news came out that melamine had been added to wheat gluten, Jin says, he was suspicious of some of his competitors. "I thought it was strange that other companies offered wheat gluten at $26 to $39 per ton cheaper than ours, with a very high protein level," he says, adding that Shanghai Kaijin Bio-Tech's wheat gluten sells for about $900 a ton. "How could that be? If it is so cheap, there must be a problem, I thought." Since the pet-food scandal broke, the Chinese government has banned melamine use in food products and detained managers at two companies suspected of supplying tainted ingredients that found their way into U.S. pet food and animal feed. The episode also has lent urgency to long-standing concerns among Chinese citizens about carcinogens in the fish they eat, poisonous additives in meat, contaminated eggs and bird flu. In late April, China's government ordered a crackdown on illegal fertilizers, pesticides, livestock drugs and food additives. The Politburo of China's Communist Party, its inner council, is set to more than double funding for food safety research in the next two years to $26 million, says Wu Yongning, director of a Health Ministry office in charge of controlling chemical contaminants. Wu says China's problems have been overblown. "As a scientist, I worry firstly about bacteria that are hard to avoid. Secondly, the problems brought by environmental pollution; and, thirdly, the illegal actions of some firms, though this sometimes only affects product quality and does not harm health," Wu adds. China's greatest challenge in supervising its vast food industry is the fragmented state of food production, says professor Chen Junshi, one of China's leading experts on food safety. "We have over 200 million farming households, and production of different foodstuffs is very scattered," says Chen, the director of an international center for food-contamination monitoring in China. "Even the government lacks an exact figure on the number of food-processing enterprises. There may be 1 million, across China's 31 provinces, and most are small or midsize, and they lack education, and technical and legal knowledge. It is impossible for inspectors to visit them all within a single year." China has 100,000 health inspectors -- enough, Wu says, to inspect food-processing factories twice a year at most. Yuan hopes U.S. authorities will adopt a less aggressive approach. "If you find there is a problem with Chinese imports, tell me first so we can solve the problem together; don't just ban it or take other measures, as that affects trade and relations. At present, the USA takes action first, and then informs us. I hope this will change," he says. The stakes are huge. Last year, China exported more than $2.3 billion in agricultural and food products to the USA, and those exports have been growing at about a 30% annual rate the past four years, says Michael Swanson, a U.S.-based agricultural economist for the Wells Fargo Bank. – USA Today Product Recall: Feds Warn of Deadly Fish from China Editor’s note: This warning was issued late last week and sent to Wild News subscribers via e-mail.WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to buy or eat imported fish labeled as monkfish, which actually may be puffer fish, containing a potentially deadly toxin called tetrodotoxin. Eating puffer fish that contain this potent toxin can result in serious illness or death. Tetrodotoxin is not destroyed by common food preparation or storage, such as cooking or freezing. Monkfish do not contain tetrodotoxin. The product was imported and distributed by Hong Chang Corp., Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Consumers concerned that they may have purchased this fish should contact their retailer and ask if the product was received from Hong Chang Corp. The product should not be eaten, it should be thrown away. Care should be exercised in handling the fish, as the tetrodotoxin may be present on the skin and flesh of the fish. Consumers should wash hands thoroughly after handling the fish. Two people in the Chicago area became ill after consuming homemade soup containing the fish. One was hospitalized due to severe illness. FDA's analysis of the fish confirmed the presence of potentially life-threatening levels of tetrodotoxin. Initial symptoms of tetrodotoxin poisoning occur 30 minutes to several hours after food containing the toxin is consumed. Tetrotoxin poisoning is characterized initially by tingling of the lips and tongue. Tingling of the face and extremities and numbness follow. Subsequent symptoms may include headache, balance problems, excessive salivation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Consumers experiencing these symptoms should seek immediate medical care and are encouraged to report their illness to local health authorities. In severe cases, muscles can become paralyzed, and death may follow from respiratory muscle paralysis. A total of 282 22-pound boxes labeled as monkfish were distributed to wholesalers in Illinois, California, and Hawaii beginning in September 2006. These fish were then sold to restaurants or sold in stores. In one instance, the retailer labeled the fish as "bok," the Korean name for puffer fish. The white 22-pound boxes were labeled in black ink. One box panel is labeled as: "FROZEN MONKFISH GUTTED AND HEAD-OFF" and "PRODUCT OF CHINA." A second panel bears nutritional facts and the following: "Ingredients: Monk fish; Imported by: Hong Chang Corp, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670; Product of China (P.R.C.)." A third panel has a checkbox indicating the size as either "0.5-1" or "1-2" and shows the net weight as 22 pounds. There are no manufacturing codes on the box. The fish in the box are individually wrapped in plastic bags with no labeling. FDA allows puffer fish to be imported into the United States only under strict provisions that minimize the risk of the toxin being present in the fish. The recalled fish were not imported in compliance with those restrictions. FDA is examining all entries from the Chinese supplier and will take additional action, if warranted. – Food and Drug Administration News in Depth: Banning Chinese Food Imports will be Difficult WASHINGTON, In the wake of more safety concerns about Chinese food imports, some have suggested that all food imports from China be banned. How practical is that solution?Over the past six months, U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have refused about 33 shipments of Chinese shrimp, most of them because they contain a cancer-causing drug, nitrofuran, banned from food products in the United States. What's worse: Those are just the shipments they checked. In the past year, thousands of shipments of Chinese food imports, from shrimp to dried fruits to spices, have been turned away for failing to meet U.S. health standards. China's frequent food safety violations are not new. Though China is not always first on the list of violators, it often racks up between 100 and 300 refusals per month. And in the wake of this year's massive pet food recall, China has come under increasing scrutiny for its lax food safety standards. Chinese trade officials were in Washington last week trying to reassure U.S. lawmakers. Some members of Congress have threatened to increase restrictions on Chinese exports, with a few representatives going so far as to suggest, in passing, an all-out ban on food from China. But barring Chinese imports would be potentially damaging to the U.S. economy. Over the past decade, the United States has become increasingly reliant on China as a source of agricultural products and as a market for U.S. exports. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service, China ranks third among world nations as a source of U.S. agricultural and forestry imports, and has held that position for some time. Despite holding steady in the standings, the amount imported from China has grown at a daunting rate: Since 2002, imports of Chinese agricultural, fish and forestry products have grown from $2.9 billion to more than $7 billion last year, a 69% jump. And the Chinese influx shows no signs of stopping: In the first three months of 2007, Chinese agricultural imports increased by 30% over the same period in '06. Despite such soaring numbers, producers and representatives of four of the biggest Chinese import categories -- rice, shrimp, tea, and feeds and fodders -- said the United States could still meet the nation's demand for such products should the flow from China cease, most without a huge burden on American consumers. Even as imports of Chinese rice have grown, reaching an all-time high of $36 million worth in 2006, U.S. rice growers have provided the nation with about 85 percent of its annual consumption, said David Coia, spokesman for the USA Rice Federation. That number represents only about half of the nation's yearly crop. Of $2.2 billion worth of rice grown domestically last year, $1.2 billion was sent abroad to Mexico, Japan and Iraq, among others. American feed producers would be similarly capable of filling the gap, said Kendell Keith, president of the National Grain and Feed Association, churning out 11 billion bushels of corn, 3 billion bushels of soybeans and 2 billion bushels of wheat each year. Tea is another story: There is very little tea grown commercially in the United States. But Melissa McAllister, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Tea Association, said that Americans can do without all the tea in China: Though the USDA reports show that Chinese tea imports have doubled in value in the past five years, they are still only 10% of the total entering the U.S. Nearly half the nation's black tea comes from Argentina, a nation McAllister said could make up the difference. Shrimp might not prove so easy to replace. According to the National Fisheries Institute, domestic shrimp production has actually fallen by 16% since 2004. But the increased importance of the Chinese market isn't so much from a raw fish standpoint -- almost four times as much comes from Thailand -- as it would be from the processing capabilities of Chinese manufacturers, said Rick Martin, executive director of Vernon, Calif.,-based Red Chamber/Meridian Products, the largest shrimp company in the U.S. U.S. exports The graver consequence of an agricultural trade shutoff with China would be on the U.S. export market. Several staple products in U.S. agriculture -- soybeans, cotton and lumber, among others -- have found the Chinese market ripe for trade. In the past four years, the total value of agricultural, fish and forestry products that U.S. businesses have exported to China has risen from $2.4 billion a year to $7.7 billion. The U.S. soybean industry, the world's largest exporter, is particularly indebted to China. In 2005, the U.S. exported about 25.7 million metric tons of soybeans, nearly one-third of soybeans produced in the country and the equivalent of $2.2 billion worth. Over the past five years, the percentage headed to China has steadily increased; last year, that amounted about 40% of the U.S.'s crop. - MarketWatch.com <<<•>>> Wednesday, May 30, 2007 News: Alabama Seafood Business Booming BAYOU LA BATRE -- Trucks travel from as far as Texas to unload shrimp for processing and packaging here. Other trucks load up tons of ice from the Bayou's hard-running businesses, headed for ports in southeast Louisiana where Hurricane Katrina left no ice houses.The lingering effects of the 2005 storm season have reordered the business patterns of the Gulf of Mexico's seafood industry, according to a statistical analysis from the National Marine Fisheries Service. Texas and Alabama have seen a huge increase in seafood catch since Katrina demolished seafood processing houses and thousands of boats in Louisiana's long-dominant seafood industry. Nearly two years later, Louisiana's seafood landings have shrunk more than 20%. "My boat's off Louisiana right now catching shrimp, but she's going to unload in Alabama," said Joey Rodriguez, a Bayou La Batre boat builder and part-owner of the Gulf shrimp trawler Nemesis. In 2004, the Nemesis likely would have unloaded its catch in Louisiana, but it's next to impossible to find a processing house there that isn't already overwhelmed with fish and other seafood, he said. Though the years-long trend of shortfalls due to rising fuel costs and dropping dockside prices for domestic shrimp continued in 2006, the sheer poundage available made it possible to "pay the boat's bills and have a little bit of money in the account," he said. In 2005, Katrina caused losses totaling about $1.3 billion for the Louisiana seafood industry, according to the national fisheries data. About 3,500 of Louisiana's commercial vessels, or more than 60% of the entire southeast Louisiana fleet, were damaged or destroyed by Katrina. About 200 miles east of the spot where Katrina's eye came ashore, Alabama's seafood industry got off comparatively easy. The storm damaged or destroyed about 50 vessels and caused $23 million in damage to processing facilities. – Press-Register, Birmingham News in Depth: China Food Exports Must Be Monitored VANCOUVER -- Conspiracy theorists have had a field day in the last couple of weeks over the discovery that China has exported tens of thousands of poison-tainted tubes of toothpaste to Panama and the Dominican Republic.The reason why many choose to see these shipments as an act of aggression if not asymmetrical warfare is that the Dominican Republic and Panama are among the two dozen or so countries that maintain full diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a rebel province, and spurn political contact with China. The theory goes that some evil genius in China decided it would be a delicious irony to have renegade Panamanians and Dominicans foaming at the mouth after using Mr. Cool and Excel toothpaste containing the chemical diethylene glycol in concentrations 50-times greater than deemed safe for human consumption. It must be said immediately that health authorities in both countries nabbed the lethal toothpaste before it could get to market. The Panamanians in particular were on the look out for contaminated Chinese goods. Last year the country imported from China a falsely labeled batch of the harmless chemical glycerin as an ingredient in locally made cold medicine. The Chinese supplier, however, had substituted the cheaper and poisonous diethylene glycol and at least 100 people were killed by the cold remedy. Well, sad to say, this conspiracy theory of a purposeful attack on Taiwan's friends doesn't stand up to inspection any more than do most of the wild and woolly stories that some people manage to convince themselves are true. That's the good news. The bad news is that the story of the dangerous contamination of China's exports of foods, medicines and others substances destined for human consumption is far, far worse than just the toothpaste and cold medicine sagas. The safety of China's food and other exports destined for human consumption has come into sharp focus since the discovery earlier this year that pet food imported into Canada and the United States had been bulked up with the poisonous chemical melamine. Many pets died in both countries. U.S. officials especially have become alarmed because imports of food from China are growing at a phenomenal rate. In the first three months of this year, for example, imports of fresh fruit from China grew 279% over the same period last year. Yet Food and Drug Administration inspectors are able to test less than one per cent of the traffic. But even with this almost non-existent testing regime FDA inspectors turned back 257 shipments of food from China in April, far more than from any other country. A high proportion of these rejected shipments were fish and seafood such as shrimp, mahi-mahi, eel, tilapia and yellowfin tuna. In Alabama alone the discovery of banned antibiotics in catfish from China led to the seizing of over 300,000 kilograms of the fish. Aside from seafood, FDA inspectors found contaminated dried apples, dried peaches, candy, bean curd and herbal teas. Non-food items found to be too dangerous for humans to be allowed on the shelves included lip gloss and medical catheters. China has become an exporter of fruit and vegetables on a massive scale as consumers in western countries demand to be able to buy 12 months a year what used to be regarded as seasonal commodities such as strawberries. There is virtually no imposition of quality standards within China. The U.S. is leading attempts to persuade China to create a functioning regulatory system or face trade embargoes. – Vancouver Sun Food News: New Freezing Technique Keeps Food Fresh TOKYO – There's a new food freezing technique that leaves even the most experienced chefs asking: "Is it fresh, or is it frozen?”"Look, there is no water loss," says Tokuo Takahashi, the chef at Pas mal, a French restaurant in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills, as he holds up a piece of French duck meat that has been thawed by holding it under running water. Indeed, the duck frozen using the new methods tastes almost the same as the fresh variety. Frozen baby eels from Spain arrive at Le Mange-Tout, a restaurant in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. Chef Noboru Tani says, "You couldn't get these in Japan before the new system was developed." The freezing technique that made this possible is called the Cells Alive System (CAS). CAS minimizes cell destruction and allows the food to be preserved in a near-fresh state. The preservation technique was developed in 1997 by ABI, a company based in Abiko, Chiba Prefecture. The standard method of freezing food involves exposing the item to cold air and allowing the food to freeze from the outside in. This traps heat inside the cells and alters the state of the food as it freezes. Water molecules bond inside cells, breaking the cell walls. When the food is thawed, a good deal of flavor is lost as water trapped inside drips out. The new system attacks this problem by freezing the entire steak, flounder or whatever at a consistent temperature throughout. This is accomplished by creating a weak energy field inside the freezing chamber that keeps the food molecules vibrating while the item is cooled. By ensuring the temperature of the entire steak is consistent during the freezing process, cell damage is eliminated. "CAS is similar but not the same as existing freezing techniques," ABI President Norio Owada says. "Even top chefs are unable to distinguish between the thawed foods and fresh." In addition to patenting the technique in Japan, the company has been granted patents by 11 countries in Europe and by the United States. ABI is collaborating with the Irish government and companies in Spain and Mexico. It is also involved in joint-research projects at 37 universities and institutes in Japan and overseas. The use of CAS in Japan is spreading. In Ama, a town on the Oki islands in Shimane Prefecture, a joint public-private venture - Furusato Ama - built a CAS freezing facility in 2005. It buys high-end squid, oysters and sea bream from local fishermen, freezes them and ships them to Tokyo and the surrounding areas. To aid the local fishing industry, the freezing facility has pledged in principle to buy the boats' entire haul - even when the catch is excessive. In the future, operators of the facility hope to increase the amount of ready-to-eat food such as sashimi and thus create more jobs for locals. Now that the new technology has proven itself among food service professionals, the only question remaining is will it be able to sufficiently differentiate itself from existing freezing techniques to become popular? - Asahi Shimbun Restaurant Brief: Grouper Probe Hurting Florida Restaurants MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. -- Restaurants and fishermen in Florida have hit hard times because of tightened restrictions on grouper, a popular local delicacy.Some restaurants in and around Tampa Bay have even served cheaper imported fish like tilapia and emperor under the guise of grouper, The New York Times reported. The city of Madeira Beach is the self-described “grouper capital of the world,” famous for producing more grouper than any other place in the United States. But, the Times reported, fishing restrictions, higher fuel costs and development taking over the area have put many fishermen out of work. The grouper restrictions began in the mid-1980s, when the state of Florida, along with the National Marine Fisheries Service, determined from federal studies that grouper were being over fished. Significant limits were then placed on how many grouper a fisherman could catch. Several restaurant owners told the Times they have been forced to take grouper off the menu, or significantly raise the price of the local delicacy. - United Press International News Brief: Dungeness Price Up, Supply Down CRESCENT CITY, Calif. – Commercial seafood buyers are paying up to $2.20 a pound for Dungeness crab, as the first catches this week show the ocean floor isn't crawling with the tasty crustaceans.Not all buyers are paying the same price, however. Prices range price from $1.85 to $2.20 a pound. Wayne Gavin of Alber Seafood said the catch is "way down" from last year's record season, which yielded 11.5 million pounds worth $18 million — the third highest season on record for California's northernmost port, according to the California Department of Fish and Game. Gavin said Friday morning that the seafood company purchased 150,000 pounds since Tuesday — which is nothing compared to last year, when they were taking in 200,000 pounds a night. And fishermen — whose livelihood depends on what the ocean produces and what buyers pay for it, have been "grumpy" after working all day without much to show for it, Gavin said. Bill Carvalho of Carvalho Fisheries said his seafood company has raised the price 10 cents a day and was paying $2 a pound Friday. And though the season isn't as healthy as last year, the demand is still there, keeping the market alive, Carvalho said. – Crescent City Triplicate <<<•>>> Thursday, May 31, 2007 News: Campaign to Save Groundfish Stocks BBANGOR – A Stonington organization is spearheading a campaign to save groundfish stocks simultaneously in the Gulf of Maine and the coastal communities that were built around this once-robust fishery.The centerpiece of the "Downeast Initiative," as the campaign is known, is a push to overhaul the way the federal government manages groundfish in the gulf, especially off the coast of Hancock and Washington counties. In particular, the campaign wants to move away from the broad, regional management scheme that aims to prevent overfishing of cod, haddock and other groundfish by severely limiting the number of days fishermen can ply the waters. Instead, campaign organizers advocate "community-based ecosystem management" in which fishing regulations will vary based on local biological and economic factors. Led by Penobscot East Resource Center, the Downeast Initiative aims to get local fishermen more involved in the effort to rebuild groundfish populations and then manage those stocks sustainably to allow small-scale fishing. PERC, which is based in Stonington, works with local communities on fisheries management, education and science. Ted Ames, a longtime fishermen whose academic research into fish stocks has earned him international acclaim, described the initiative as "the first real effort to not simply restrict a dying fishery but actually bring it back and ensure a future for the next generation of fishermen." The Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, the Mid-Coast Fishermen's Association, the group IFISH, the Island Institute, The Nature Conservancy, The Ocean Conservancy and the Conservation Law Foundation have joined with PERC to create the Area Management Coalition to lobby for the changes. Federal fishing regulators already are looking at area management as one possible solution to the groundfish crisis in the Gulf of Maine. But the next major test will come next month when the New England Fishery Management Council votes whether to continue considering area management as a possible alternative to the days-at-sea system. Many of the fishermen still active are focused heavily on lobster, which is Maine's primary fishery. But that dependence on lobster, which accounted for 70% of the value of all species landed in Maine in 2004, makes PERC executive director Robin Alden very uneasy. Should coastal Maine's lobster populations crash, as they have off the coast of Long Island, N.Y., and parts of southern New England, the effects could be economically devastating for coastal fishing communities. – Bangor Daily News Food News: Hong Kong Seafood Consumers Need Education HONG KONG – People in Hong Kong are among the most voracious consumers of seafood in Asia.They pay top dollar for large fish such as groupers -- reef fish that the World Conservation Union network warns face extinction because of overfishing and pollution. "Ninety percent of our seafood comes from outside Hong Kong," says Clarus Chu, a marine conservationist with the Worldwide Fund for Nature. He says some of Hong Kong's favorite foods are among the most vulnerable marine species in the world. This year, the WWF began distributing a seafood dining guide identifying endangered marine species. The WWF hopes to make Hong Kong consumers more responsible seafood diners. The guide recommends avoiding 23 species such as red crab, shrimp and cuttlefish caught in the South China Sea, some species of grouper, caviar and shark. Instead, the WWF recommends eating cultured Australian rock lobster, black cod from North America and Alaskan salmon. In a city where shark's fin soup is considered tradition, trying to change consumers' habit may be swimming against the tide. Joanne Lo says she and her family go to seafood restaurants once a week. "I don't really order the really big fish,” she says. “I usually order the smaller one because I don't think it's good to order the big ones because they are endangered." She says many people in Hong Kong are not aware of how endangered some species are. "Most of the people who love seafood are older people who don't really have the concept of protecting the fish population and stuff." The United Nations Food and Agriculture Office says more than 75 percent of world fish stocks are fully exploited, overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion. Given that outlook, the WWF says it is important for Hong Kong diners to cut back on their seafood meals now, to make sure there will be enough fish to enjoy in the future. – Voice of America News in Depth: EU Refuses Pakistani Seafood KARACHI – Huge consignments of Pakistani seafood are stuck at Indian ports after plans of Indian firms to ship it to EU as Indian seafood backfired and EU authorities refused to allow import of Pakistani origin seafood under any garb.European Union has suspended seafood import from Pakistan on quality grounds. Sources close to the fisheries circle said the EU authorities had seriously reacted over the Indian traders practice of importing Pakistani seafood at cheaper rates for re-export to EU although it had suspended seafood imports from Pakistan on quality grounds. “Since the EU has denied accepting Pakistani seafood, consignments of more than Rs400 million are piled up at two different ports of India,” said a source close to the events. “Now the Indian importers have been making attempts to cancel all such deals with Pakistani traders and desperately want to send the consignments back to Pakistan.” However, he said, the problem arose after the EU warning to Indian importers was more than alarming for the local exporters, who had already received payments of their shipments to India. “If the Indian traders insist on sending back the consignments and demand their payments they made to the local exporters, it may lead to bankruptcy of some domestic companies,” he added. The government in March 2007 finally received a verdict from the EU, which informed Pakistani fishery authorities about de-listing of all the processing factories on quality grounds, putting a ban on more than $80 million country’s exports. The EU decision came after more than a month after its team visited Karachi fish harbor and other fisheries installations in January 2007 to check seafood quality being to its member countries. In February 2005 the EU team wrapped up its visit on warnings that Pakistani authorities should maintain seafood quality as per the set standards otherwise they would lose their largest seafood export market. The exporters appear confident to meet the quality standard desired by the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) in its last visit. However, things on part of the provincial government-controlled administration have not changed a lot. Exporters accessing EU market despite the ban through other destinations are in dark about the future. Most of them rely on exports to the EU member countries only. “If these consignments are not cleared by the EU authorities or Indian exporters fail to convince them (EU), this would be second big disaster in four months after the EU ban in March 2007,” said the source. He said the Pakistani fisheries authorities and exporters could not play any role in such situation, as they were not liable to react in such circumstances. “The Pakistani seafood exports did not affect a lot after the EU ban due to shipments from the third country channel,” said the source. “But if such channel (India) stops on any reason it would definitely hit the total exports value badly.” The State Bank suggested seafood exports at $160 million by June 2006 up from $138.94 million exported during 2004-05, as the EU countries remained the largest buyers of the Pakistani products with more than 50% share in total shipments. The EU contributes more than 60% of total seafood export fro the country, as the 27-nation block has been the largest single buyer of Pakistani seafood for more than two decades. – The International News Food News: Canada Too Dependent on Suspect China Imports VANCOUVER – Canadians are consuming vast amounts of food about whose origins or contents they haven't a clue.Next time you're in the supermarket, take the time to check out the labels. Frozen fish? You'd think that on the West Coast we might be self-sufficient. No way. Where we shop, it's all from China. Globalization of the food industry has proceeded at such a rapid pace that regulatory agencies are barely able to keep up. So it should be no surprise that we risk poisoning ourselves -- or our pets. A hint of trouble came this spring when dogs and cats started to die across North America. The cause was traced to pet food laced with melamine -- an industrial chemical -- imported from China. The problem with relying on foreigners to provide our food is that we can never be sure what they're putting in it. That's particularly true of China, which has grabbed a big chunk of the global food trade, but whose government exercises only rudimentary safety measures. As I write, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is attempting to trace Chinese shipments of mislabeled "frozen monkfish." It's actually pufferfish, and may contain deadly toxins. The agency is also randomly sampling all imports from China of wheat, rye, soy and corn gluten. One contaminated shipment of wheat gluten was added to fish food in Vancouver and shipped to aquaculture farms in Canada and the U.S. In Australia, Dominican Republic and Panama, thousands of tubes of Chinese toothpaste were pulled from the shelves because they contained a toxic chemical used in engine coolants. Japan got a shipment of Chinese spinach laced with pesticides. Other countries have turned back Chinese honey containing antibiotics, pesticide-laced peppers and seafood tainted with veterinary drugs. To be fair, the Chinese authorities have taken steps to clean up their act. But they've a long way to go. The extent to which we've become dependent on dubious foreign produce is truly a scandal, given the rich agricultural resources in B.C. At a weekend food workshop at the University of B.C., participants had been promised a lunch with ingredients from within a 100-mile radius. Can you believe they couldn't find any local lettuce? The good news is that more and more farmers' markets are sprouting up all over B.C. You may pay a little extra, but at least you'll know what it is you're eating. - The Province, Vancouver Technology Brief: Magnets Reduce Water Loss in Food SINGAPORE -- Singapore-based food processing equipment company, Esmo Technologies, has launched a product that it claims can increase the life of refrigerated raw food products.Intended for use with goods such as meat and fish that are sold in plastics packaging in supermarkets, the process involves placing a magnet alongside the product. Esmo says that its EsmoSphere magnets emit a dome-shaped magnetic field that reduces water loss by strengthening the bonds between water molecules in the food. The company says that in three-month supermarket tests, meat life was increased by around 33 per cent and that 40 per cent less seafood was thrown away. – Plastics in Packing <<<•>>> Friday, June 1, 2007 News: China Rejects Tainted Seafood from Australia BEIJING -- China turned away 30 tons of frozen seafood from Australia because it was tainted with heavy metals, state TV reported yesterday.The shrimp and squid arrived in Zhanjiang port, southern Guangdong province, where customs officials found that lead and cadmium in the fish exceeded safety levels, the report said. The Australian embassy in Beijing had no comment. French company Danone also said yesterday that five container loads of mineral water had failed inspection by Chinese officials because of an excessive micro-organisms and would be shipped back to France. - Reuters Food Feature: Cod Got Your Tongue? ST. JOHN'S — If cod could use their tongues to talk, they might ask you why anyone would want to eat them.Unlike anything in the seafood world, the tongue of the Atlantic cod (actually a gelatinous bit of flesh from the fish's throat) is an acquired taste. But here in Newfoundland - where they say the cod were once so thick you could walk across the bay on their backs - it's a local delicacy as iconic as moose nose or seal-flipper pie. Like the latter, the tongue of the cod was first consumed out of necessity - a tidbit that could be had for nothing by anyone willing to sift through the piles of discarded fish heads on the docks and cut it out. In fact, almost every Newfoundlander of a certain vintage can remember when heading to the docks to collect cod tongues was a "job" for kids - a way to make some pocket money for the Saturday matinees or simply to feed the family. "We used to get 15 cents a dozen," remembers Loyola O'Brien, a former cod fisherman turned guide, as we share a plate in his Bay Bulls tour company café. But with the collapse of the Eastern cod fishery, cod tongues are no longer considered discards. At St. John's food stores like the historic Belbin's Grocery or the massive Bidgood's, both known for their selection of local ingredients, cod tongues are available fresh or frozen for about $8.50 a pound. Walk down Water Street in St. John's today, from Velma's, a local café, to what locals simply call "The Hotel" (the fancy Fairmont Newfoundland) and you'll see these coveted little morsels on the menu - lightly battered and fried, topped with everything from the traditional scrunchions (crispy bits of salted side pork) to fruit salsa and aioli in upscale eateries featuring regional cuisine. At the Fairmont, executive chef Roary MacPherson delivers the mother of all dishes: fat crispy tongues piled high with scrunchions for $13. "All of a sudden they're like gold," he says. – Globe and Mail, Toronto Food News: Officials Warn Against Paddlefish Caviar FRANKFORT, Ky. - Kentucky officials issued an advisory Wednesday urging only limited consumption of paddlefish caviar from the Ohio River because it may be contaminated with chemicals.The news could be bad for fishermen benefiting from the booming market for paddlefish caviar, which has come into demand because of its similarities in taste, look and consistency to sturgeon eggs. Three Kentucky agencies joined together to issue the fish consumption advisory, saying pregnant women, women of childbearing age and children should eat no paddlefish flesh or eggs from the river because they contain elevated levels of mercury, chlordane and the cancer-causing chemical polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. "Most people who consume caviar eat only a small amount, but, still, our recommendation for this special population is for no consumption," said Guy F. Delius, assistant director of the Kentucky Division of Public Health Protection and Safety. Others should eat no more than six meals per year. Paddlefish and their eggs have made Kentucky's list of contaminated fish every year since at least 1999. The latest advisory listed a number of Ohio River fish species that should be eaten only on a limited basis because of contaminants, but paddlefish and their eggs were of special concern, Delius said. The advisory involves only the stretch of Ohio River along Kentucky's northern border. Indiana has a less restrictive advisory on paddlefish, recommending its residents eat no more than one meal per month because of contaminants found in fatty tissue and eggs. The most prized source of caviar is the beluga sturgeon, found in the basins of the Black and Caspian seas. But overzealous fishing recently prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the beluga a threatened species. As beluga have become rare, the market for North American caviar has grown, including that from the paddlefish, named for its long, paddle-like snout. James Tidwell, chairman of Kentucky State University's aquaculture program, said Ohio River caviar is sold across the nation. Paddlefish, among the largest fish in the United States, can weigh more than 200 pounds by feeding on zooplankton from the water. Paddlefish have been used for years for their eggs, which are marketed as valuable caviar. One paddlefish can yield as much as $800 worth of eggs, and annual income for those who catch them can range from $100,000 to $400,000, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Wildlife officials in Indiana arrested 12 people last month for catching paddlefish from Ohio River tributaries, a violation of state law. In Indiana, commercial fishermen are permitted to catch paddlefish from the main stem of the Ohio River, but not from tributaries. Those arrested were charged with illegal sale of a wild animal, money laundering and commercial fishing in closed water. – Associated Press Food News: Chef Removes Endangered Fish from Menu LONDON – Gordon Ramsay is to take an endangered fish off the menu of his two most famous restaurants within days after criticism from conservationists and the Government.The World Wildlife Fund and the Marine Conservation Society expressed their anger at Ramsay's serving of bluefin tuna in an Independent survey of the sustainability of fish dishes at Britain's top restaurants. Bluefin tuna is being fished out of the Atlantic and Mediterranean with a rapidity that has left it on the verge of commercial extinction. But Britain's most decorated chef has been selling bluefin tuna at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Claridge's in London for months, despite headlines about the parlous state of the fish. The biggest demand for bluefin tuna comes from the lucrative export markets to Japan, where its delicate flavor is prized in sashimi, though European gourmands are also straining supplies. Such demand has left stocks of bluefin being classified by the World Conservation Union as endangered or critically endangered. Bernadette Clarke, senior fisheries policy officer at the Marine Conservation Society, said the sale of the fish in some of the most affluent restaurants was a disgrace. The Government has campaigned internationally to save the creatures and the Environment Minister, Ben Bradshaw, was “shocked” to learn that a leading restaurateur was selling the fish. The minister added: “Given the state of the bluefin tuna stocks, I would not eat it, I do not think others should eat it and I do not think restaurateurs should sell it.” Last night, after being told of the criticism, a spokeswoman for Gordon Ramsay Holdings said the fish would be taken off the menu in the two restaurants at the end of the week. 'As of 1 June, it's coming off those two menus and being replaced by yellowfin tuna. They will not use bluefin tuna any more.' She said the restaurants' chefs were 'constantly' talking to suppliers and made efforts to find out what was environmentally sustainable. Ramsay's move is welcome news for campaigners, who are seeking to highlight the plight of depleted fish stocks. – The Independent Restaurant News: C Restaurant and Others Tout Sustainable Seafood VANCOUVER - Robert Clark has a caveat for people planning an Aussie-style grillfest this summer: Don't throw another farmed tiger shrimp on the barbie.For one thing they taste bland, says Clark, executive chef of Vancouver's shrine to seafood, C Restaurant, and its sister establishments Nu and Raincity Grill. But more important, tiger shrimp - most of which come from China or Thailand - are destroying ecologically vital tropical mangrove forests because of waste products and chemicals associated with intensive farming. Clark has earned an enviable reputation over the past 10 years as one of Vancouver's top toques, but these days he's garnering more widespread acclaim for what's not on his menus: iffy fish. As the founding chef of Ocean Wise, a Vancouver Aquarium conservation program launched 2½ years ago, Clark has been working with city restaurateurs to reduce their reliance on products harvested from scarce wild stocks and environmentally questionable ocean farms. Other pressing examples include cod, halibut and sole from the Atlantic, as well as monkfish, orange roughy, shark and skate. So far, more than 60 Vancouver restaurants have vowed to replace at least one questionable species with a sustainable alternative. Clark has been taking his sustainability gospel on the road, and literally across the ocean. In March, he flew to Melbourne at the request of the Australian Conservation Foundation to help raise money and awareness for Ocean Wise's first international chapter, slated for launch in October. Clark is part of a growing network of professional cooks prompted into action by a series of events over the past decade. With the East Coast cod fishery in collapse, chefs began noticing something was wrong with the ocean's bigger fish, such as swordfish and tuna - the fillets and steaks they were preparing seemed to be shrinking almost before their eyes. In 1998, a group of culinary stars in New York announced they were taking swordfish off their menus as part of a campaign dubbed Give Swordfish a Break. The ripples were felt as far as Washington, where six months later then-president Bill Clinton imposed a ban on the sale and importation of north Atlantic swordfish weighing less than 33 pounds. In Clark's case, the wake-up call came about eight years ago in the form of Chilean sea bass - officially but less palatably known as patagonian toothfish - then the darling of upscale restaurant kitchens because of its ability to endure the cardinal sin of haute cuisine, overcooking. In a move that remains a milestone of Vancouver's modern fine-dining explosion, he replaced Chilean sea bass with a then-unsung local variety known as sablefish (a.k.a. black cod), now a cornerstone of spring menus around the Lower Mainland. Working with Clark, the Vancouver Aquarium set up an audit system whereby restaurants could apply to join Ocean Wise by replacing at least one fish menu item with a sustainable choice and committing to transition away from unsound items. That list today includes orange roughy, monkfish, most tuna, shark and, of course, tiger prawns. In return, the restaurant earns the right to place the Ocean Wise logo next to the menu item. Plus, there's the not-so-fringe benefit of a more consistent and fresher fish supply. - The Globe and Mail |