Coastal Bounty

Ah, fish for dinner. And lunch. Some folks here have it for breakfast but I’m not quite there yet. Fresh fish is not necessarily a benefit of living in the South, per se, but rather a benefit of living near a coast. Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle all have great fish without being anywhere near the south. But here I am, in Florida. It’s pretty hard to live and Florida and NOT be near a coast (‘Near’ being relative, I understand). Now that my husband has joined me we’ve been on a bit of a quest. I’ve always been a red-meat gal, and I would still go out of my way for a good steak, but lately I’ve been craving fish. I've used 'fisherman' photos for scale.

I’ve had most of these, and they are by no means all which are available, but I *have* encountered all of these fish on menus in the South. I’m referring to ocean fish here, which you can’t reliably get with decent quality in the Midwest (unless you pay high prices at a fancy restaurant).

Since I’ve moved to Florida, I’ve tried fresh pompano, grouper, tilefish, sheepshead, red drum, dolphin fish (Mahi Mahi) and triggerfish. I’ve seen amberjack and fresh red snapper on menus and spotted snook in a fish case once. And eel, though I don’t know if it was ‘local-caught.’ 

Up north, for typical dining you are mainly limited to walleye, whitefish (usually from Lake Superior), lake perch, and northern pike. There are innumerable panfish, though you don’t often see them on restaurant menus or in the fish case, as is the situation with bass and muskie. You eat those when you catch them yourself. You may notice in the photo that some of these fish require ice fishing, a wonderful experience unknown in Florida.

I’ve really developed an appreciation for a hearty slab of fish, simply prepared (usually pan-fired or broiled – never deep fried) and when I was in Wisconsin earlier this month I ordered Walleye just to keep my fish consumption at my usual pace. We may move back to the Midwest, where some of these fish will be simply unavailable, but for now we are chomping our way through the bounty of the coastal waters.