The “Snake River Farms” of seafood?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I’ve recently acquired much more of a taste for seafood.  Not sure what flipped the switch (maybe my atrocious cholesterol test last year) but for the first time in my life, I’m eating way more seafood than beef. In my quest to eat quality food that is as sustainable as possible, I went looking for the best options. In Austin, if you want really good seafood, it’s all around $20-$30lb and that store is 30 minutes away in a very busy part of town that I don’t visit super often. Since I only buy fresh seafood Within a day of when I’m going to eat it, it’s not super convenient to drive for an hour for a piece of fish. 

I remembered that when we owned the grocery store/restaurant we used to ship in fish from Alaska and Hawaii every Thursday for the weekend crowds. These were whole fish that we would break down and put in the case to sell. I looked up the place in Alaska and sure enough, they had started a consumer subscription box program with the same fish we used to buy but in consumer sized frozen portions. This is awesome quality fish and it’s roughly the same price as what I can get local. Not to mention it’s delivered to my door and I can have it on hand whenever I want it. 

Anyhow, I’m not a big subscription guy and the boxes have roughly 5 lbs of fish (or more if you want).  That’s plenty to cover me for a while. I told them I didn’t want a subscription but wanted to try the fish again. They were super cool and entered my order and paused my subscription right after. You can easily opt in and out every month with a quick email. They send you what’s available, if you aren’t ready, you pass for that month. Or in my case, if I am ready I can un-pause my subscription for that order and pause again until I’m ready. 

Got it today and cant wait to try it. 4.6lb of sockeye, coho, halibut, and cod (I chose the mix)  I’ll load up when the Copper River Salmon and Kings start to run. 

First Cook is this Friday. Ill let y’all know how it is. 

Legume

got a link?

I'll be honest, I was hoping for a sketchy parking lot story.

nolaegghead

Not to rub it in, but I consider myself lucky in a geographical sense I can just drive 5 minutes to the Hong Kong Market, RD or the Westwego fish market by the docks and buy fresh seafood, just about everything is under $10/lb (but you have to buy the whole fish, so that jacks up the price for the edible portions).

Or grab my boat and spend 4 hours, $12 in gas and $20 in beer and booze and catch reds and specs, and maybe flounder, mackerel.....and if I'm unlucky, a ton of catfish.

fishlessman

was just bitchen that cod and haddock is 9.99 a pound right now it will drop to 5.99 in a few months, 3 places near the camp selling out of the house. just put haddock on the list, third week in a row.  juice an orange, lemon, and a lime, simmer it down by half, cool down on counter and add a little olive oil,  really good on white fish

lousubcap

Fortunately for me my hosed up unscientific Q fueled protein diet keeps the med numbers well in check.  I do enjoy fresh seafood but if you think Austin is a ways from sea water...

I was just thinking about a sea food run later this week and my palate is unrefined enough to do well with local "fresh" purchasing.  However, I will check out your source just because. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

nolaegghead said:

Not to rub it in, but I consider myself lucky in a geographical sense I can just drive 5 minutes to the Hong Kong Market, RD or the Westwego fish market by the docks and buy fresh seafood, just about everything is under $10/lb (but you have to buy the whole fish, so that jacks up the price for the edible portions).

Or grab my boat and spend 4 hours, $12 in gas and $20 in beer and booze and catch reds and specs, and maybe flounder, mackerel.....and if I'm unlucky, a ton of catfish.

yeah- we are a little land-locked here and even HEB has mostly farm raised crap (especially this time of year which is normal). Any of the really good sustainable wild stuff is expensive.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Legume said:

got a link?

I'll be honest, I was hoping for a sketchy parking lot story.

https://wildalaskancompany.com/?utm_source=Google&discount=15OFF&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIm47M65aj4QIVyMDACh10_wMPEAAYASAAEgKWl_D_BwE

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I think I saw a link for $25 off coupons to share with newbies somewhere in my email. Full disclosure, I think I get some kind of coupon as well if you use one I send you (not why I posted this but $25 off is a good deal for all of us). Let me see if I can find it.

nolaegghead

The "toro" (underbelly) of a grade 1 bluefin is arguably the Kobe ribeye of the fish world.

...and if you have SGH's money, you can buy some here:

https://www.luxegourmets.com/tuna-bluefin-toro

The Cen-Tex Smoker

nolaegghead said:

The "toro" (underbelly) of a grade 1 bluefin is arguably the Kobe ribeye of the fish world.

...and if you have SGH's money, you can buy some here:

https://www.luxegourmets.com/tuna-bluefin-toro

$170lb!

SGH

nolaegghead said:

...and if you have SGH's money, you can buy some here:

If he has poor ole SGH’s money, this is the only seafood that he will be buying. 

The above is called a seafood platter for a man with my money. 

Photo Egg

SGH said:

nolaegghead said:

...and if you have SGH's money, you can buy some here:

If he has poor ole SGH’s money, this is the only seafood that he will be buying. 

The above is called a seafood platter for a man with my money. 

"Seafood Trio"

smbishop

Thanks for sharing!  We ate readily available fresh seafood up in WA often, now in TX, not so often.  Central Market is a few minutes a way, but the prices are generally higher than I was used to.  I will definitely look into this...

HoustonEgger

Interested to see how this turns out taste wise - I've driven into Quality Seafood a few times for fresh stuff but that's about all I've found in the Austin area

The Cen-Tex Smoker

@smbishop central market is the store I was talking abut as well. I found this to be a little cheaper but I did get $25 off the box for my first time order. I would say the prices are similar to a little less from Wild Alaska

ColtsFan

Yes! Thanks for sharing. I have tried Sea to Table and wasn't real impressed. Anxious to give this a try

Botch

Glad to see they ship in cardboard, not a thick styrofoam "cooler" bound for the double-Texas raft in the middle of the Pacific. I am uncomfortable with the "suspend your subscription" model, however; I have trouble paying my damn cable bill on time.

And, I'm suddenly interested whether we can post a EweTube video now just by pasting the link; here goes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNZtbSNXY_s

Botch

^^^Oh, THAT's weird! If I just hit "Command-V" to paste the link, the link was posted. I went back in to edit it, and as soon as I hit "Return" behind the link, the video preview appeared! Neat, sorta...

fishlessman

now i want some bluefin tuna, maybe just the poor mans loin cut. @sgh , atleast look for another nickel on the floor of the truck and get that tuna packed in oil

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Finally got around to cooking some salmon tonight. First impressions were that the texture of the raw fish looked a little mealy to me. Seemed to be falling apart a little right out of the cryo. (see pics ) Fact is You really cannot get any further from in-season for salmon and halibut than March/April so I may be down to the end runs here. I am interested to try the cod and halibut and see how they hold up

I do have to say that the end result was very very good though. I’ll reserve full judgement until I cook a few more pieces. I’ll likely load up this summer when the Copper River salmon and halibut really heat up.

In the end, We all loved every bite and thought the flavor and cooked texture was excellent.

Here are the pics after the brine that that I thought looked a little mushy:

Here is the finished cook. All plates were clean and I thought the texture and flavors were on point:

SV at 118 for one hour. Miso Glazed after the bath then Placed under a ripping hot broiler for 1 minute. Served with charred baby bok choy (on the bge) and forbidden rice with (Japanese crack) sake-shoyu jus with shiitake mushrooms.

damn good vittles!

Legume

Looks just about perfect. Love me some baby bok chit.

SGH

Looks like a winner to me brother Tex👍

SGH

If there really is a “SRF’s” of seafood, I hope I never find it or I will go broke. I do a good enough job of blowing money as is.

MaskedMarvel

Freeze damage?

black plates are sexy as hell

Thought we were talking my favorite music here:

https://youtu.be/aNHIFM0Y87c

You ate my fractal...

smbishop

Nice plate photo!! Thanks for the follow-up post.

caliking

Yowza! That looks tasty. Inspires me to up my salmon game.

CPARKTX

great looking food! Be interested to hear opinion after you try a few more from the order.

travisstrick

NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!

Go to HEB. They have wild caught sockeye for $12-13/lb.

DO NOT get the thawed out **** they have in the case. Ask for a vac sealed filet frozen from the back. Trust me.

Credentials: commercial fisherman, fish cleaner at Tallahassee's largest fish market, creator of "travis method brisket", 10/10 sexual charisma, hung like chewed bubble gum sitting on a brillo pad.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/2421145#Comment_2421145

All farm raised these days. only Cedntral market has wild caught this time of year in my hood. $29.99lb.

Good advice on the thawed **** in the case. I'll see what they have next time im in.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

and I love the credentials. I see you have added some since we last spoke.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I couldnt get past the mushy texture and emailed them the pics. they were mortified and credited back those pieces. I'm going to make more tonight to see it it's like that with all of it (so far we are 3-for-3 on mushy filets). She said they would credit it all back if tonights are the same- don't see why they wouldn't be but I'm willing to give them a shot. if they are the same, I would rate these a do not buy. Will keep you posted.