The Fish Must Go Through!

Monahan's Seafood Market | Fresh Whole Fish, Fillets, Shellfish, Recipes, Catering & Lunch Counter-Ann Arbor, Michigan

The great nor’easter of 2015. The epicenter of this mammoth storm is right now (as I’m writing, Tuesday Jan. 27th), hitting some of our biggest sources of fresh fish. Key suppliers from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine are getting slammed with hurricane force winds, flooding tides and up to 3 feet of snow. This storm has shut down, at least for a couple days, our access to many of our most popular fish including cod, haddock, flounder, black bass, skate, halibut, pollack and hake, just to name a handful. Shellfish like clams, oysters and mussels also are sourced from that area. We really take for granted that the fish will always come through.

Our good friend, Bruce Street, shoveling out from 3 ft of snow in New Hampshire

Our three main New England suppliers didn’t pick up their phones today. In all of our 35 years I don’t remember that ever happening! We’ve seen canceled and delayed flights and trucks behind schedule but as of this moment, I don’t know if we’re going to see many of our precious North Atlantic seafood this weekend. We should have a better idea in the morning of what’s available and how it’s going to get here. Events like this can be quite a loss for everyone from the fisherman to the end users at the restaurants and the markets. It reminds me how lucky we are to have a fresh fish market in Ann Arbor, Michigan surrounded by the bounty of the Great Lakes as well as being able to sell fish from not just New England and Michigan, but from the rest of the country and the world!

Here in Ann Arbor, the home of the University of Michigan, we have customers from everywhere. Big fish eaters from the world over. It’s amazing how many languages are spoken at our counter every day. This means that we can bring in bottarga (dried, pressed mullet roe) from Greece, fresh cuttlefish and sardines from Portugal, octopus from Spain, sashimi tuna from Hawaii… you name it!

Update: I got through to our east coast suppliers this morning (Wednesday). Nobody had much to offer. The boats that were out got blown in by the storm and ground transportation is shut down. Time to hustle up some fish from other locales. We’ll just have to go a little heavier on Florida snappers, mahi mahi, Great Lakes whitefish, Greek bronzini and maybe load up with some sweet little manila clams from British Colombia. I promise you a selection of delicious fish and shellfish (maybe not quite as huge a selection) this weekend. The fish will come through!

I had a nice article and recipe for fluke for this week’s report all ready to go but our fluke comes from Rhode Island. Oh well, maybe next week.

Remember this manila clam recipe, spaghetti con vongole? My wife, Lisa’s, all time favorite! So quick, simple and delicious. A classic.

mm
Monahan's Seafood

Leave a Reply Text

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *