Nov 15, 2021 Small World Seafood Update

Happy Monday, everybody!! What fun to cook when we have meaning to our food, no? Knowing the story behind the striped bass last week plus seeing how great swordfish can be if you choose better quality fish (which we do). 

Next week, the week of Thanksgiving, we will not be coming around with seafood. First of all, it is not a very big fish week and secondly, because of that, the fish is mostly carry over from this week and pretty shitty. So why bother, right?

This week, though, is our second annual pre-Thanksgiving extravaganza with lots of items that can carry over to Thanksgiving and get you through to the following week when we kick back up again. Along with that, we are towing along a ton of fun stuff you can eat and cook and play with. To help you figure out what will work well for you, I will also provide some shelf life info to help out. Remember, some of these items will not be in large quantities so they may sell out quickly so just like with voting, do it early and often..

Okay. Fish stuff first. The salmon of the week will be from the Faroe Islands once again. We will avoid the volatility of the rest of the salmon world. Great stuff, sushi grade and freezes extremely well if you freeze it right away. By the way, the best way to freeze fresh fish is to wrap each portion in plastic, place them in a zip lock flat so that it freezes quickly and evenly. It'll thaw out quicker as well.

Next up is a center of the table fish we have sold before and is absolutely divine. Whole Greenland Turbot which comes cleaned and head off and frozen at sea. The fish range from 2.5-5lb each and are spectacular to lay out on your holiday table if you are not planning of doing turkey. As with so many other things, we have a great recipe for preparing this fish on our website.

Next, it is the beginning of a season we absolutely love because it lasts a little over a month or so. Smelts!!! Yes, these fresh smelts come from my Canadian homeland  and are a terrific fried snack or slow poached as in one of the recipes we have posted. I know it is usually associated with Christmas but why not dip into it now to kick off the whole holiday season, right? They freeze great as well.

Since some of you may want a fancy shmancy app for the holiday, how about some more frozen hamachi loin, right? Sushi grade, this fish also known as yellowtail in sushi restaurants is a perfect starter sliced thin, topped with some sliced jalapenos and our ponzu sauce. Instant amazing dish!

We had some fun with fresh Jumbo lump crab last week but alas not this week. Buuuuuut, we do have something we haven't seen in a long time. Jonah crab claws!!! These triple scored claws include the two knuckle joints. If you like Stone crab claws, this is the lesser known cousin that is just as good and much more affordable. Great vid on how to open them plus a Joe's Stone Crab mustard dipping sauce recipe or just use our cocktail sauce. Yum!

Oysters this week will be Pemaquids out of Maine. Now, just so you all know, when we sell oysters, we make sure we get the freshest oysters with a harvest date as close as possible to when we are selling them. That means that the oysters you buy from us have close to a two week shelf life. Yup. That's right. That means you can buy them this week and eat them next. No problem.

Instead of doing fresh clams this week, we thought it would be a little tricky to navigate the best by sitch with them so we are going to sell chopped clams in their own juice. Now, these will come in pints, frozen (yes, frozen- clammers will process them and freeze them before selling them to markets that will thaw them and sell them as fresh. They are not, so it is better for you to plan the thawing of it just like with shrimp or squid). Perfect for pasta or stuffing or chowders without all the work of live clams. High quality stuff.

Well, this is already totally long for an email and I could feel you giving up on reading more so I will go through the list of special items in the next email so your brain doesn't explode. But to prepare you for what's to come, here is a list of goodies for the week:

Dashi stock - made by us

Chocolate babka - Shevy's Paradise 

Pie dough (4 8oz balls) - Oui Pastries

Escargots (2 dozen per can)

Mushrooms - Mycopolitan Mushrooms

Smoked Sausages (chorizo and kielbasa style)- El Camino Real

Canadian Bacon- El Camino Real

Cheese - Valley Milkhouse

Cedar Planks - Craftwork Home in Fishtown (and a customer)

I know Black Friday is next week but this seems a little more interesting, no?

I know, I know.. that's a lot of words....

Look out for the order form Wednesday at 11am for Fairmount/444 n 4th St

or 9am for Fitler/Rittenhouse/Washington Squares

Peace

Robert Amar
Small World Seafood
Owner