Why Isn’t Local Seafood a Bigger Deal in the Bay Area?

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2019

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rayan Rafay was prepared to be blown away by Bay Area seafood when he moved here in 2016. After growing up on the East Coast, he had been amazed by the seafood he encountered when he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. “It’s just this like magical wonderland of seafood,” he said. “Chefs just did things with seafood on the West Coast that I’d never even imagined in my lemon butter world of fish.” But when he got here, he was surprised not to see the local catch on many restaurant menus. So he asked Bay Curious: With the Pacific Ocean right there, why isn’t local seafood a bigger deal in the Bay Area? This week on Bay Curious, we explore the economics of seafood and the cultural changes need for it to get a star place on our dinner plates. Read the full web version: Why Isn’t Local Seafood a Bigger Deal in the Bay Area? == Reported by Ryan Levi. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Jessica Placzek, Robert Speight, Katie McMurran, Paul Lancour and Ryan Levi. Additional support from Julie Caine, Suzie Racho, Ethan Lindsey, Pat Yollin and David Weir. Theme music by Pat Mesiti-Miller. Ask us a question or sign up for our newsletter at BayCurious.org. Follow Olivia Allen-Price on Twitter @oallenprice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:03.0	Hey everybody, Jessica Plachik here in for Olivia Allen Price.
0:07.0	You're listening to Bay Curious, where we answer listener questions about the Bay Area.
0:12.0	But today, we're starting in my hometown, Seattle,
0:16.1	which seems to have the Bay Area beat on at least one count.
0:20.3	We sell roughly in terms of weight around 2,000 pounds of seafood per day and that is an average
0:28.1	Tahoe kakutani has been selling seafood at Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle for 16 years.
0:35.0	He and his coworkers literally throw whole fish to each other,
0:39.0	chanting while onlookers stare with their phones at the ready.
0:43.0	Kaku Tani says most everything he sells at the market comes from the waters off Washington or Alaska and that's
0:55.1	important to his customers. There has long been a very close relationship to
1:00.5	food where it comes from and the dinner table, particularly in the northwest.
1:05.0	As a child of the P&W, I know how to collect clams.
1:09.0	My favorite tourist spot is a fish ladder, and goodness gracious gracious I have eaten at some stellar seafood
1:15.7	spots and I'm not alone this week's question-asker Ryan Rafe feels similarly
1:21.2	about seafood culture in Vancouver.
1:24.0	And every day was like an adventure which is creativity.
1:27.0	And it was like, this is amazing.
1:28.0	And so you start doing that at home and you start cooking that way.
1:31.0	And then you can't go back.
1:32.0	Ryan moved from Vancouver to the Bay Area
1:34.7	a few years ago and he was so excited about the seafood here he rented a boat to go
	...

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