Wine & Words

More adventures in the fish trade. We never did find an American provider for Tilapia. One customer told us there was a local Tilapia farm right here in eastern North Carolina. Then he leaned in close and said, "Do you know who controls the world Tilapia trade?" Of course, I didn't; but I knew he was going to tell me. "The Chinese drug mafia," he said. "They bring in suitcases of cash and buy out all this guy's fish to launder the drug profits." Well, that was certainly appetizing. I guess it's appropriate, considering Tilapia are bottom feeders.

So this month, since we're featuring North Carolina products, we decided to have shrimp-stuffed flounder on the menu. I thought it would be easy to get North Carolina flounder. We're located right on the Pamlico Sound, a prime flounder fishing ground. So I talked with my food service vendor. He told me the only flounder he could get was from Argentina! I asked him why he couldn't get it from the Outer Banks fishermen. He replied as if I were totally ignorant of the economics of the restaurant business. "The fish market down in Wanchese goes to the big Boston restaurant show every year and he contracts to sell his whole catch to them." I just couldn't accept that I'm operating a restaurant just a few miles from where the flounder are caught, but I have to use fish from Argentina because the Boston restaurants buy the local catch. Talk about globalization!

Finally, I've made contact with a local fish vendor - Fish-and-Stuff in Washington, NC. I haven't bought any "stuff" from him yet. But the flounder filets he cuts out of whole fish brought directly from the boats by local fishermen are fresh and tasty and have been quite a hit on our May menu.

After all these adventures, Chef Yvonne and I have decided each month we'll have a "Catch of the Day" seafood special. We'll get whatever local catch Mr. Fish-and-Stuff can get us, then we'll serve it up tastefully. We'll be supporting our local fisheries, providing our customers with fresh, clean seafood...and staying the heck away from the bottom feeding Chinese drug mafia.