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September 2010Fungus Amongus. There is a fungus among us at Salty's and I am so excited. Our chefs are now offering a dish featuring wonderful wild halibut combined with some fantastic foraged fungus. The humble word fungus is a heck of a label to slap on the revered ingredients mushroom and truffle. They are so revered that ancient hieroglyphics indicate that mushrooms were eaten to obtain immortality (it's true, read www.world-of-fungi.org for more). Some cultures believed that eating mushrooms could endow them with super-human strength, give them clairvoyance in locating lost objects and lead the soul to reside with the gods. (DISCLAIMER: We can make no such promises if you come taste this dish at Salty's but, hey, it's worth a try.) The truffle tuber and macro fungi mushroom are endowed with terrific nutritional value. Fungi contain good quality protein falling somewhere between meats and vegetables. They also have a low level of usable carbohydrate making the cellulose they contain a good source of roughage. They are also low in fat and actually absorb cholesterol. That's great but I have to say they are so delicious cooked in butter! (Oops, sorry to spoil the nutrition theme.) They are a good source of B vitamins, especially the hard to find B12. Fungi are also high in minerals. This makes sense because they are, after all "diamonds" grown in dirt. Fungi also contain the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D. I find this to be particularly interesting as mushrooms are grown in the dark. Ah, another natural wonder to ponder. Fungi are the most precious gastronomical phenom known to man. The flavor of these ingredients of nature is beyond description. The French, Spanish, Northern Italian and Croatians all have native truffles in their cuisines, while the mushroom is far more available with Chinese and Japanese cooking giving them high focus as well. Mushrooms are easily cultivated and harvested. But the truffle has been much more difficult to figure out. Historically they were hidden in forests hunted by pigs that would dig them out of the ground. Unfortunately they would eat the truffles once they found them. Can you blame them? Now dogs have been trained to do the same job and they are much better mannered about the whole endeavor. Globally there are now truffle farms showing cultivation success - even in our region. The Oregon Truffle Industry is alive and well producing a very nice native product (visit www.oregontruffles.org for more). The most important thing about mushrooms and truffles truly is their indescribable taste. So come see us at Salty's and try our fish and fungi! August 2010Sufferin' Succotash! In June Salty's Good Times featured a delicious recipe of Grilled Wild Salmon with Spring Pea and Corn Succotash. Did you try it at home? You can still find the recipe here. I did because I was the lucky one who got to test Chef Jeremy's recipe before we published it in our newsletter. It was absolutely delicious! Since then I did a little historical research on succotash and learned some very interesting facts. (Okay, maybe this lady should get a life.) Succotash, which generally is a mixture of vegetables featuring corn and beans, was one of the first foods that the Native Americans introduced to the Pilgrims. Succotash became a traditional American food and today it is an honored dish served on Forefather's Day, celebrated on December 21 throughout New England (visit www.practicallyedible.com for more). Many cultures around the world have historically wisely combined beans and corn in their diet and have done so especially when meat is scarce. The interesting nutritional fact about the combination of corn and beans is that it creates its own complete protein. Meat, fish, poultry, dairy and eggs are made up of complete protein. These are able to replace protein that your body uses up in its natural processes. For example, if you work out hard and break down muscle tissue in the process these foods will do a great job of replacing it. If a person does not consume enough protein their body would naturally suffer from not replacing important muscle mass, bones, tissues. Protein is contained in nearly every living cell in your entire body (visit www.nlm.nih.gov to read more). Proteins are made up of chains of nine essential amino acids but it takes all of them together to make the story complete. Unlike fish or meat, vegetables lack one or more of those essential amino acids. The interesting thing about combining corn and beans is that when you do, you have all the necessary amino acids present at the same time thus creating a complete combination of protein. They call these complimentary proteins. This art of planning and combining is especially important for those who eat a vegetarian diet. Complete protein should technically be present within the same meal to be effective and efficient at creating the whole protein we need. The body can then use that protein for the building blocks for optimal function and health. Corn and beans combined together, it's like complete protein perfection, sweet summer's succotash! July 2010Sole food. I was listening to our chefs recently and was interested to get an update on the status of the fish coming to our market. Apparently the Pacific halibut catch is down a bit this year. Sigh. Of course there is fabulous halibut still available, and the biomass (how many fish there are in the ocean) has increased substantially over the last half century, but it is in shorter supply recently. When the catch is down there is less supply in the market so the competition for each fish is higher. When I hear about a situation like this, it makes me wonder what might be the cause. Although there are some Alaska fishery management issues influencing the matter - see www.halibutcoalition.org/docs/Fact_or_Fiction.pdf - there may be another very important contributing factor. The heart of the matter might be this, that Alaska has sole, lots of sole. In fact the sole fish biomass in the Alaskan coastal waters is up significantly, as much as 154 percent. Why might this be important, you ask? Well, sole is another flat fish like the halibut except it's a much smaller, sort of "mini me," version of the big guy. They are both diamond-shaped bottom feeders with two crazy eyes on the same side of their flat body. They are also both very delicious and very nutritious. Halibut is low in saturated fat and sodium and is a very good source of protein, niacin, phosphorus and selenium. Sole is an excellent source of low-fat protein, calcium and other important nutrients. (Search the USDA nutrient database at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search for more on either fish.) And both fish use some of the same resources for food. When you look at the food preferences for young halibut - larvae feed on zooplankton (tiny floating animals); juveniles consume small crustaceans and other benthic (seabed) organisms - they are almost identical to that of sole (see www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/species/yellowfin_sole.htm for more on sole). There is speculation that the overabundance of sole is disrupting the halibut food source. The numbers of large halibut in the biomass are going down. NOAA says that biomass data can be used to detect trends in a fishery and regulate it. Factors such as changes in management measures, fishing effort, market preferences or environmental conditions may have an impact as well. The reality is we will not likely know all the reasons for where fish go and why without putting on a really good wetsuit. So let's just go with what sounds like the most fun solution. Our chefs tell me they will be bringing lovely delicate sole onto our market sheets periodically. So come down to the waterfront to see us at Salty's Seafood Grill restaurants. And just for the halibut, let's find balance with our sole. June 2010Get out! Hello, it's June already, time to come out and play, you Northwesterners. It snuck up on us didn't it? Okay maybe not. Maybe we have been waiting by the window every day hoping for it. So done with looking at all the vitamin D-deficient faces of our friends, and so excited to be out of the rain, but still out of doors. When that sunshine really arrives we run outside with wild abandon saying hello and smiling and waving at absolute strangers. It gets nearly hysterical with happiness around here. The sunnier days just bring that out in us. At Salty's we open our waterfront Funshine Decks™ and our guests just love the fresh air and the beautiful views. It is great to take advantage of every little opportunity to get outside and now that summer is here we start getting motivated. Summer is a time to look for ways to walk where we are going or sneak in a little exercise because it looks so nice outside. Why not grab a bike, rowboat or a kayak? Get your running shoes out and find a set of local stairs. Keep an extra set of shoes in your car just in case the opportunity arises. Why not park a bit farther away from work and walk to the office in the morning? I hear that tennis shoes with your work clothes is the hot new look this summer. All in all, the most important thing is to get outside. When summer arrives the other thing is that I get vegetable excited. Call me crazy but I get such a thrill from beautiful fresh vegetables. I can't get enough of them. What a brilliant part of creation they are. Take a little dirt, seed, sun, carbon dioxide and water then wait a minute and presto a beautiful bounty is born. Vegetables are brilliantly colored and creatively shaped. It is fascinating to think of the vast varieties of vegetables, and no two look alike. The same thing goes for fruit, and no two have the same nutritive value. Check out these FDA web sites to see some excellent charts on the valuable nutrition found in fruits and vegetables. Get some inspiration on what you might like to try and be creative. If you see something on Salty's menus, at the grocery store or farmers market that you have never tasted before why not savor a new flavor? Summer also brings a lot of outdoor cooking and the opportunity to enjoy a diversity of fresh wild fish. Our world famous wild salmon becomes available along with halibut and freshly dug clams. Oysters, crab and other fresh fish round out the choices. Again, why not try something new when you see it? Check out the great chart on fish too. At Salty's we try to surprise you with new and delicious combinations that you might not have tasted before using fresh local farm vegetables and fruits. Try Salty's chefs' new wild salmon recipe for inspiration. Get outside and eat well from our Northwest bounty. This is one of the most beautifully delicious places in the world. (It's hard to be humble when you live in paradise.) May 2010The running of the Kings. Winter is over and spring is here. The marvelous month of May brings the much-awaited running of the Kings. These wild wonderful salmon have been swimming in the cold salty ocean waters for up to eight years maturing into adults, working hard, feeding voraciously and gaining lots of weight. Now it is time for them to leave the cold ocean waters and head to mouth of the fresh water rivers. They have prepared themselves well for the long swim up river. During this arduous marathon swim they will not feed. They swim hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles but will not eat at all. They will live off their fat stores and make their way up to the head of the river waters.
The adult salmon, after several years swimming thousands of miles in the vast ocean, are very smartly going to make their way back to the stream of their birth. All those years of good schooling taught them the navigation skills to find their way back. Now they swim hundreds of miles up those rivers. The fat stores in their bodies are their only food. Eggs will be laid by the spawning adult, and the process ends. The whole process starts all over again; egg, alevin, fry, parr, smolt, adult - that is the lifecycle of the salmon. At Salty's we are here to honor the great salmon and deliver its excellence to you, our guest, in the manner fit for the running of the Kings. Visit www.cf.adfg.state.ak.us and www.fishex.com/seafood/salmon/salmon-life-cycles.html for more information. April 2010The dirt on Salty's. Earth day is coming up on April 22 so I thought that I should come clean on a dirty little secret about Salty's - we compost. Yes, we do! In fact, we were some of the first restaurants in the Northwest to do so by leading the way when we started our program in April 2007. This means we take all of our food scraps and send them off site to be magically turned into a recipe for good dirt, that goes back into the earth and grows more food. What a great cycle (or recycle as the case may be). I do this at home and you can too. I have this great little metal garbage can with a charcoal filter in it that I throw food scraps into as I cook and clean up (you can buy these at your grocery store). The rest of the story is that at Salty's, we use Cedar Grove products
in our gardens. Don't get dizzy now because this circle keeps going round and round. Local farmers and vineyards use these organic materials in their soil as well and they come back to the table in food and wine. But wait there's more. This earth-friendly compost also benefits Salty's greatest treasure - the venerable salmon. When we use organic materials in our soil, it minimizes water runoff and chemicals that leach into our waterways. Our Executive Chef at Salty's on the Columbia, Dana Cress is diligently working on national efforts to save our wild salmon habitats and knows that this helps keep our rivers and our precious salmon healthy. So now you know the real dirt. At Salty's, we rescue the scraps that are made into the dirt, that goes into the gardens, that grow the plants and keep the food, wine and salmon healthy that we all enjoy! March 2010The Backward Fish! If you want to be forward thinking I suggest you eat some backward fish. Are there fish in the sea that actually swim backward you ask? The prawn and the shrimp are the creatures that have settled on the backward swim instead of the frontward crawl of their fellow crustaceans. How do they do it? Well imagine a fish curving and tucking its tail around to form a C shape, the tail would then be under its head. Now if it were to begin to move that tail it would be facing backward while swimming. That is what our prawns and shrimp do. Prawns and shrimp are so much alike that we could call them twins. In many cases their names are used interchangeably. In some countries they only call them prawns and in others they only call them shrimp. To avoid confusion and for our purposes, we will say that shrimp are often but not always smaller than prawns and have two pairs of claws, while prawns have three. Shrimp have a distinct bend in the abdomen while prawns do not. But they both like to swim backward, don't ask me why. Although they swim with their gear in reverse, they are a very forward-looking fish. These enlightened and enterprising fish have a lot to offer us. They are an excellent source of protein, calcium iodine and selenium, while being low in calories and fat. They are also high in B12 and vitamin D. They contain omega-3 fatty acids that have anti-inflammatory properties and anti-clotting factors. They protect us against heart attacks and help to lower blood pressure, aid in cancer prevention, improve mood and decrease depression. New studies also suggest that they help lessen cognitive decline and can slow the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Let me think here … swim backwards think straight. Got it. Another important nutrient in these shellfish is selenium, a lesser known but very important nutrient that works synergistically to protect the health of our cells, preserve their elasticity and aid in slowing down the aging and hardening of body tissues. It is also helpful for fighting infections, stimulating our immune system and giving the body more energy. Sounds like the moral of this nutrition story is that little shrimps can do big things. So don't underestimate how good they are for your diet, not to mention how incredibly delicious, too! (Read more at www.dietandfitnesstoday.com and www.whfoods.com and University of California Berkley The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition by Sheldon Margen.) February 2010What about the shell? In February at Salty's we celebrate shellfish. They are fresh and in season and our chefs do a fabulous job of preparing them deliciously. We are always thinking about how fabulous the shellfish meat tastes but give little thought to their shells. Perhaps you have heard about oyster shells and how they can be ground up to produce a very viable form of calcium carbonate that we can take as a calcium supplement tablet. But what about other shells? I thought it would be fun to share some little known knowledge about the other "shell" fish. Think of the vast differences between the beautiful shells of a lobster,
prawn and crab. Glucosamine is an amino sugar that is produced by our bodies but it is also found by extracting it from the grinding of these crustaceans' shells. Glucosamine is a building block or precursor for a compound called glucosaminoglycans, which is used in our bodies for joint cartilage formation and repair. It has also been shown to have a cushioning and lubricating effect on joints, tendons and ligaments. In addition it has some anti-inflammatory and pain relief properties. Thank you very much. Have you ever awakened and felt that your joints just didn't have any lubrication in them? Hopefully this doesn't happen to you and maybe it never will. For some people it is like being the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, sometimes they just need an oilcan. For some of those folks glucosamine seems to fit that need. That translates into a better feeling and moving body especially for those with arthritis. Although some studies will claim that it has no effect, other studies show that it does. I am not making any recommendations here, because those discussions are best between you and your doctor, but I do know people who swear by it. What I find really fascinating is that the class of fish that are made up of mostly cartilage, called “cartilaginous fish,” like sharks, rays and skates, feed on crustaceans. How smart are they? Could it be the glucosamine nutrient in their shell, the building block for their vast cartilage, is what they are looking for? I don't know for sure but I bet it is. January 2010Why we love shellfish! The winter months are the season of the year when great catches of fresh shellfish hit the market. At Salty's we like to celebrate by offering them to you in delicious and creative dishes. Shellfish are very diverse and include a vast number of species. They are broken down into two simple classifications - crustaceans and mollusks. Crustaceans are comprised of nearly 52,000 species. Our favorites include crab, lobster, prawns and shrimp. Talk about creatures with a healthy lifestyle, we could all learn a lesson from them. They are aerobic athletes akin to backpackers. Think about it, they hike everywhere they go and not only that they carry their entire house on their back. No wonder they are so low in fat with all that exercise. The other classification of shellfish is the mollusk family, which includes clams, oysters, mussels and scallops with about 93,000 species all told. They are also the epitome of fitness freaks. They are gym rats that spend their entire day doing heavy weight lifting. Every move they make requires the raising and lowering of two huge weighty shells. These shellfish are nearly pure protein – after all their exercise there is hardly any body fat left. The fats that they do contain are actually good for you. A typical prawn cocktail has only one-third the calories of a similar amount of ground beef. They are extremely low in saturated fat and are an especially good source of the highly touted omega-3 fatty acids, which help promote heart health. Vitamins and minerals are abundant as well, especially iron, B12, copper and zinc. Most species exceed the daily B12 requirement by nearly 200 percent and B12 is essential for nerve health, energy production and red blood cell development. Copper, which squid, lobster and oysters are very high in, helps with collagen production, red blood cell health and energy. Iron, which clams in particular are extremely high in, is important for good blood cells and energy. Zinc content is also high and, in this area, oysters reign supreme. A serving of oysters supplies more zinc than our entire daily recommended intake. What about cholesterol? We've heard that shellfish are high in the dreaded stuff but clams, mussels and scallops have about half as much cholesterol as chicken. New technology has allowed us to differentiate between cholesterol and molecules that look like cholesterol that shellfish actually contain. These masked marauders have been posing as cholesterol but do good things for your health instead. It turns out that what really raises your cholesterol is saturated fat and there is so little of that in shellfish you can truly consider it a non-issue. High protein, low fat, omega-3 fatty acids and a great abundance of vitamins and minerals are in our precious shellfish. Eating a variety of delicious shellfish is a wonderful way to take good care of your self. Shellfish varieties of seafood are truly health food! Hope you can join us in January for our Crab Festival or come in February
for our Shellfish Festival!
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When
they arrive they will make nests and lay their eggs in their riverbeds
where they will grow for a few months. Then those millions of eggs will
hatch and become little infant alevin. In about five to ten weeks,
they become little frys. Like little toddler fish this is when
they actually start swimming on their own. (Do you think that this is
where they get the fond term small fry?) In the next stage they come up
to parr. Parrs are cute little off-to-kindergarten salmon as
it were. They get a little sloppy in class and form finger paint markings
on their sides. They stay in fresh water river school for one to three
years until they reach smolt graduation time. This is when they leave
the easy-going river life, lose their parr markings and go off to saltwater
college to become real adults. The young salmon turn cool colors of silver
and school together in large groups. They get used to the salt water and,
when they are ready, they head out to swim in the deep cold ocean. This
is when they begin to feed voraciously. They prey upon smaller fish like
krill, herring, plankton and other small invertebrates. They need to form
a good layer of fat to stay warm I would think but really it is all in
preparation for the marathon swim up the river. This fat that they store
is what is so very good for us nutritionally as well as the excellent
protein they create. Actually salmon is one of the best foods for us on
the planet. It contains vast amounts of omega-3 fatty acids that help
us maintain good health. The Orca whales and seals must know about this
too because they feed on them for their life sustenance. The resource
is well managed by departments of fish and game so that the proper balance
of fishing and spawning continues. 
The only down side is that my poor garbage disposal is so lonely. It rarely gets a chance to perform. I have always had this great sense of optimism as I toss those precious scraps into our yard waste, that they somehow go on to some higher purpose. What do you know, they do. Our scraps get picked up on those big "frontload" trucks and taken to Cedar Grove to be turned into compost and other nutritious dirt-related products. Just like a chef cooks a recipe, the scraps gets "cooked" at high temperatures to kill the unhealthy bacteria and other unwanted pathogens and components. This mixture is then combined with yard waste and turned into enriched soil compost. Compost amended into the earth "adds nutrients, helps maintain the correct soil Ph, increases water retention, reduces water runoff, and increases the nutrients actually available to the plants. Additionally the diverse population of beneficial organisms is essential in supporting the web of soil-life." (Visit 
We use them in our flowerpots and flower beddings as well as (get this)
- our herb gardens! At both Salty's on Alki and on the Columbia, we have
room to grow our own beautiful herbs, and our gardens are grown with compost
that came from Cedar Grove and, thus, our own food scraps! Those delicious
and nutritious herbs are then used in our recipes to make fabulous dishes
we all love.
They
are all crustaceans. Crustaceans have incredibly diverse and complex exoskeletons
that help them motate and serve to protect them. Have you ever wondered
what could be done with their shells? Fascinatingly they have great nutritive
value. In fact the shells of prawns, shrimp, lobster, crab and crayfish
are all used to make one of the most commonly used food supplement products
in the United States. It is called glucosamine. 