Some Of The Finest Seafood In America Swims In Long Island, But Finding Them In Markets And Restaurants Can Be Futile
Last Month New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the launch of the Long Island Seafood Trail website, showing off the extraordinary array of seafood that runs along the South Shore from Bay Shore to Montauk (a North Shore guide is also planned). The Trail was created by CCE of Suffolk County's Marine Program, in collaboration with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (AGM), intended to reinvigorate the state's aquaculture and wild-caught seafood industries and strengthen local food systems and 'to showcase our outstanding small businesses, and attract more visitors to this incredible region.'
The guide also highlights 20 official locations and other points of interest that sell and serve locally wild-caught, sustainably harvested fish and shellfish. It's an admirable venture, one which identifies 36 species of fish––including bluefish, butterfish, eel, three types of flounder, hake, mahi-mahi, scup, puffer, wahoo, sea robin and more; seven of shellfish, including bay scallops, whelk and blue mussels; and four of crustaceans, including lobster, Jonah crabs, rock crabs and blue crabs.
There's only one problem: The majority of those species rarely if ever show up in New York markets or restaurants. It is almost impossible to find tautog, thresher, mackerel, weakfish and most others on menus that list only the same half dozen varieties, including so-called 'Maine lobster,' farm-raised salmon from the Pacific Northwest, farm-raised branzino from the Mediterranean and Dover sole from the North Sea. The shrimp in the shrimp cocktail in all likelihood comes in frozen from Thailand, while the blue crabmeat is packed in Maryland and the mahi mahi shipped in from Hawaii.
This neglect of such wonderful seafood from Long Island, including swordfish caught just off Montauk and bluefish that come roaring through the Sound in season, is due not to a lack of supply but to a lack of demand among consumers.
Not surprisingly then, the restaurants listed in the new Long Island guide follow suit, with repetitive offerings and menus that barely hint of the region's bounty. The list of seafood at Captain Jack's in Southampton includes fried calamari, crab-stuffed pretzels, fried flounder sandwich, shrimp and grits and codfish oreganata. Bell and Anchor in Sag Harbor serves Montauk pearl oysters and lobster, but the fish entrees are only pan-roasted Scottish salmon, bouillabaisse and flounder. Even the Inlet Seafood Restaurant in Montauk only offers local fluke, golden tilefish and big-eye tuna on its menu.
All these and the rest of the guide's recommended restaurants may well have seasonal or nightly specials, but why don't they sell and serve the myriad species listed on the guide's website?
One might think that in New York's high-priced seafood restaurants the situation would be different, but it's really not. One might find skate or monkfish or eel or bay scallops on some menus but nothing like the bounty offered by local waters. When the Greek restaurant Estiatorio Milos (now with a dozen branches worldwide) opened in Manhattan twenty years ago, a wide array of the daily catch was arrayed on ice, but they focused on Mediterranean species, which was a whole new concept back then.
The paragon of East Coast seafood restaurants is the Grand Central Oyster Bar & restaurant, opened in 1913, whose broadside-size menu is printed several days a week depending on what's available in the market, with 25 different species of seafood any day of the week, from all around the world. Thus, at the moment the offerings include Montauk big-eye tuna, clams from the Long Island Sound, swordfish, mahi mahi, monkfish, sea bass and more, though even those only hint at Long Island's wealth of seafood.
I hope, then, that the new Long Island Seafood Trail website will awaken a local pride among restaurateurs and markets to take full advantage of what's in our waters. Otherwise, its list of seafood species is a good reason to go out on a boat into the Sound or along the South coast for the springtime migration of striped bass, black bass, bluefish, porgy, weakfish, scup, hickory shad and tautog all ready to bite.
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