Spanish Mackerel Returns

"A fish of high quality."

That's how Alan Davidson describes the Spanish mackerel in his indispensible North Atlantic Seafood. A larger cousin to the Atlantic or Boston Mackerel, both offer a meaty, clean-tasting sign that spring cannot be far off.

But what to make of the price?

Last Saturday at the Reading Terminal Market the price was $1.99 a pound at John Yi. Today's price at Whole Foods (Callowhill and 20th) was $4.99. I could see no difference, visually, in the quality of the fish. And I'll be willing to wager that John Yi has a higher turnover of the variety than Whole Foods, so the former's is bound to be fresher.

Because of its size, the whole fish is better baked than sautéed, though I've done the latter with fillets.

Another piscatorial sign that spring is nigh at John Yi's: roe and buck shad. Undoubtedly from Florida. The local Delaware River run is usually in May.

Lobster Tales at Reading Terminal Market

New neon sign on John Yi Fish Market let's you know they've got live lobsters

Live lobster at John Yi

John Yi Fish Market has got live and cooked lobsters, but no lobster tank, at least not yet. Golden Seafood has a new tank, but it isn't filled. Both intend to rectify their respective situations soon.

Live lobsters are once again regularly available at the Reading Terminal Market, something that hasn't happened since Coastal Cave closed with its owner's retirement April 1.

At $11.99 a pound, John Yi's lobsters are a trifle dear, but that's pretty much the standard once you get away from the Maine and Nova Scotia coasts. In Portland, Maine, last week, 1-1/8 pounders were selling for $3.99 at wharfside fish markets, 1-1/2 pounders $4.99, some of the lowest prices in years for softshell (newly molted) lobsters, which are more common that hardshells during the summer months. (And no, you can't eat the shell of softshells as you can softshell crabs.)

Reading Terminal Market Roundup

These cheese cases aren't Halteman's

The Halteman Split

L. Halteman Family settled into its new footprint occasioned by the Reading Terminal Market's Avenue D renovation, but split itself into two distinct businesses: Riehl Deli & Cheeze Shop for (surprise) cheeses and cold cuts, and L. Halteman, continuing to sell beef, pork, poultry, bacon and other smoked meats, as well as local produce.

Although both parts are owned by the Riehl family (which took over from Lester Halteman a decade or so ago), they're attempting to separate the businesses which may formally part sometime down the road. In the meantime, if you buy some fresh meat but also want to purchase slice ham, you'll have to make two stops.

The deli part of the operation also changed its procedures. Previously, cold cuts were sliced to order. Now, they're pre-sliced and placed in trays. It looks pretty, and I understand the efficiencies the system brings to the business, but as a customer I liked seeing the cold cuts sliced to order to my desired thickness or thinness.

Nichols Room Dedication

Mayor Nutter will join in the official ribbon cutting of the Rick Nichols Room June 18 at 10 a.m. and the exhibition of the market's history and its role in the region's food system on the new multi-purpose area's back wall. New signate will be installed next week.

The ceremony kicks off a week of special events celebrating the market's $3.4 million Avenue D renovation program. For the remainder of the week special programs will be held in the Nichols Room and the adjacent La Cuchina at the Market kitchen, which can be turned into a single space by opening the sliding doors. Market merchants, local chefs, authors and leaders of the Philadelphia regional food system will be featured in the programs.

The market and La Cuchina at the Market apparently resolved their differences over the kitchen school's flooring. As designed, the floor was the original slighty sloping surface, installed when the market opened in 1892 to allow water drainage from ice. La Cuchina proprietor Anna Florio was concerned that the sloping floor could lead to falls and injuries. A new floor with new tiles was installed to provide a level surface, which requires a slight step up from center court. The Nichols Room retains its sloping floor.

More on Avenue D Project

The dedication of the Nichols room won't mark the end of the Avenue D renovations, since work will continue well into the summer on spaces the project created for new vendors: Valley Shepherd Creamery, the Head Nut, the Tubby Olive and Wursthaus Schmitz. A vendor has yet to be selected for a small (less than 250-square feet) space adjacent to Wursthaus Schmitz along Avenue D.

The market also has to find new vendors to fill the slots vacated by Delilah's and Coast Cave. Legalities still have to be resolved with the bankruptcy trustee for Delilah's before a new tenant can be signed there. Coastal Cave closed earlier this spring when its owner retired. RTM General Manager Paul Steinke said he's close to signing with a hybrid retail/take-away operator (product line unspecified) for the Coastal Cafe spot.

The market was unhappy with its floor tile selection of the new restrooms -- the white tiles simply showed too much soil no matter how frequently they were cleaned. Gray tiles were installed in the women's rest room this past week; the men's room gets the makeover Monday night.

Just outside the restrooms you may spy new icons installed this week into the wall: split silhouettes, one female, one male, on the appropriate side of the common entryway.

But There's Still Lobsters

Coastal Cave may be gone, but late last month the market's board approved changes in the leases of two fishmongers, Golden and John Yi, to include the sale of live lobsters. They'll be installing their own tanks rather than taking over Coastal Cave's old ones, which the market probably will scrap.

For Mother's Day sales, John Yi was selling live lobsters today, which can be maintained outside of water for four to five days when properly packed and refrigerated.

More Parking, New Discount Program

The parking garage on 11th street between Arch and Filbert will soon join the market's parking program, with a maximum of two hours for $4. (You'll pay considerably more if you overstay your welcome.) With the Parkway Garage on 12th Street still part of the program, the market expands considerably its discount parking capacity. Merchants, however, will have to have two separate validation machines, one for each garage. The second garage should begin to offer the discounts on or about July 1.

The market's gift certificate program is going to plastic from paper. Nearly 60 of the market's 72 current merchants signed up for the program, which eases the record-keeping for market's back office. As soon as the plastic cards are delivered the program will start.

John Yi, RTM Fishmonger, Dies

John Yi, who with wife Susie Kim owned John Yi Fish Market at the Reading Terminal Market, died over the weekend of injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident last month. Mr. Yi was 80 years old.

Until the accident he could been seen almost every day behind the counter of the fish stall on center court. Because of the businesses' bright neon sign -- "John Yi Fish Market | Eat Fish Live Longer" -- his was one of the most visible names in the market.

To the best of anyone's recollection, he established the business in the mid 1980s.

Name That Fish!

Fish display at John Yi, Reading Terminal Market

You can't tell a fish by its name. Sea trout is not a trout, it's weakfish, a type of croaker or drum.
But silver trout is whiting, which is really hake, part of the cod family. I haven't the foggiest idea about mountain trout, though it certainly isn't a trout and it certainly doesn't come from a mountain stream or lake. Striped bass and rockfish? They're the same, except when they're not.

Confused yet?

You'll find all these items at the fish mongers at the Reading Terminal Market, but it's hard to know what the actual species is. More than any other food, fishes tend to have very local names.

The weakfish, for example, has been called bastard trout, squwteague, sea trout, grey trout, sand trout, shecutts, silver sea trout, squeteague and squit.

In culinary terms, however, nomenclature is secondary. Just pick the broad type of fish you're hungry for (white flesh or oily, large or thin) and buy the freshest you can find. Most recipes for cod work just as well with whiting or haddock. Fluke or flounder? Doesn't matter! Mackerel or Spanish mackerel? There's a bit of a size difference, and while you might be able to distinguish their flavors, it's not that big a difference.

Rockfish and striped bass are the same, delicious, meaty fish, it's just that rockfish is the name in the Chesapeake and striped bass on the Hudson River northwards (New Jersey seems to be the dividing line between the names). With one big caveat. Some striped bass are true striped bass, caught in the wild. Others, under either name, may be a factory or farm raised hybrid of striped bass and white bass. The former is anadronmous, living most of its life at sea but spawning in fresh or brackish rivers; the latter is strictly a fresh water variety. Whether wild or hybrid, both have a good, meaty taste. You can usually tell the difference because the wild striped bass has a blue tag affixed to its jaw; also, the "stripes" on the hybrid tend to be jagged, and the fish are frequently smaller than the striped bass.

If you're as fascinated by culinary fish as I and would like to learn more about the denizens of the sea off Mid-Atlantic waters, I highly recommend Alan Davidson's North Atlantic Seafood. This British diplomat's tome covers fish on both sides of the Atlantic, is chock full of great stories, local recipes from Denmark to South Carolina, and entries for each North Atlantic food fish with discussions of range, best cooking methods, and names in various languages; before he died in 2003 he wrote similar books about the fish of the Mediterranean and South-East Asia, and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to Food.

Seven Fishes

The cases at John Yi ('Eat Fish Live Longer') at the Reading Terminal Market
were chock full of piscatorian delights for the Feast of the Seven Fishes
before Christmas, including these sardines, a.k.a. herring

Grilling Season!

Martin's Quality Meats at the Reading Terminal Market has got you covered for grilling season, now that recent temperatures have hit the high 80s (though today it's a tad nippier and wetter).

Featured on a low key sign were lamb ribs, $3.29, and beef back ribs, $2.99, in addition to Martin's usual highly varied assortment of sausages.

I took to the grill a couple of days ago with some loin lamb chops I purchased back in early January from Harry Ochs. These two beauties held up well in the freezer. After defrosting I lightly salted them and placed them in a bag for another hour in the fridge, then immediately before grilling applied a dry rub of pepper, rosemary, thyme and garlic powder. Cooked to just half a step beyond rare to an even rose they were incredibly deep in flavor.

A better seafood buy at John Yi's than the New Zealand salmon I disparaged in the previous post is the Boston mackerel. The very fresh looking dressed fish sold for $2.99/pound. Had I not consumed a smoked, peppered filet from Duck Trap for dinner last night I might have indulged.

One of the pricier fruits at Iovine Brothers today were the black figs at $3.99 apiece! They were next to similarly priced rambutan, a "hairy" relative of the lychee.

Over at Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce, Benuel Kauffman was selling strawberries at $6.95/quart, about the same as the A.T. Buzby IPM quarts over at the Fair Food Farmstand. (You can buy the same Buzby berries Sunday at Headhouse for $5.50/quart). Ben's asparagus was $2.95/bunch.

Is That Wild Salmon Truly Wild?

At John Yi's in the Reading Terminal Market in recent weeks "New Zealand Wild King Salmon" has been displayed at $17.99/pound.

Despite the sign, I have little doubt it's anything but farmed salmon.

Although in the late 19th century California kings were successfully raised from eggs in a New Zealand hatchery, released into the headwaters of four South Island rivers and took to the wild, virtually all salmon exported from New Zealand today are farm-raised, including the kings.

Does it make a difference?

I won't address the environmental issues here, but if you're only concerned about availability and price, farm-raised salmon are generally a better buy. When it comes to nutritional value, however, farm-raised salmon are a distant second. Whether king or Atlantic, farmed salmon are heavy on Omega-6 fatty acids, and low on Omega-3's; the former are deleterious to health, the latter beneficial. From a nutritional standpoint, you'd be better off with the cheapest canned wild salmon (most, but not all, canned salmon is wild) than farm raised fish.

Yi's does have Alaskan king salmon. Though the 2010 commercial in-shore  king salmon season has barely started, the Alaskan king you're likely to see is frozen from last year's catch. Yi's looked good. Most of the frozen Alaskan salmon I've had, both king and sockeye, have been of excellent quality and texture and closely resemble the fresh. In some respects, since it's usually frozen shortly after landing, what's available to us in Philadelphia can be considered superior to fresh wild salmon from the Pacific Northwest which has made a trans-continental trip.

Although much of the Alaskan salmon you see during the winter is frozen, there is a significant ocean-caught fishery. Southeastern Alaska fisherman brought in 32,000 kings this past season at an average of more than 13 pounces apiece.

In case you're wondering, the 2010 Copper River season began last Friday, May 13 with catches of both king and sockeye (a.k.a. "red"). Another low-catch season for Copper River kings is expected, fewer than 17,000 fish. Sockeyes, on the other hand, are expected to be plentiful, with better than 30 percent more fish this year than last, with an expected 2010 Copper River catch of 1.27 million fish, vs. 900,000 last year, according to Laine Welch, writing in Stories in the News, Ketchikan, Alaska.

For the first time in three years there will be kings from other West Coast states, primarily Oregon and Washington. The catch from the lower 48 has been set at just under 195,000 fish after a hiatus to let the stock rebuild.

Strawberries Push the Envelope

Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce offered local strawberries at the Reading Terminal Market today. But only technically. These berries, priced at $5.95/pint (two for $10) were raised indoors, according to Benuel Kauffman. Don't expect to see outdoor grown local strawberries for at least another two weeks, more likely three.

Ben also had some gorgeous looking indoor-grown seedless cukes, at least a foot long each.

Both Iovine Brothers Produce and the Fair Food Farmstand are selling veggies from New Jersey's Flaim Farm. Both, for example, had Flaim's leeks ($1.75/pound at FF, $1.95/pound for smaller examples at Iovine's).

As I wrote last year when Iovine's began carrying Flaim's produce (sometimes marketed under the name Panther), the Vineland farm produces romaine, kohlrabi, spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, swiss chard (green, red), rainbow kale, turnips, napa cabbage, squash, eggplant (four varieties), peppers, escarole, endive. tomatillos and scallions on 450 acres. The farm was established in 1934 and is now operated by brothers Kevin and Bob Flaim. They also sell at the Collingswood Farmers’ Market.

Iovine's is also handling another producer's output in common with Fair Food: eggs from Natural Meadow Farms, Lancaster County.

Fair Foods still had fiddleheads today, $16/pound. No sign of ramps anywhere at the market, but FF had some rather pungent fresh spring garlic. IPM asparagus was $3.30/bunch, chemical-free stalks $3.50.

Most of the halibut I see at the Reading Terminal hails from Alaska, usually frozen. Today, at a savings of $7/pound vs. the $18.99 for the Alaskan version, John Yi had firm white filets from Canada. I bought some to try tomorrow. One of the fishmongers said it's slightly "fishier" than the Alaskan version, which is no sin in my book so long as it's fresh. Boston mackerel also made a reappearance at Yi's, $2.99/pound for whole fish.

Jim Iovine was touting tomatoes and corn this week. I tried the former, and they weren't bad: $1.49 pints of cherry tomatoes that, if they didn't quite taste like summer, came close. 

Let Us Praise Lettuce

The bargain of the week at Iovine Brother's Produce at the Reading Terminal Market appears to be lettuce.

Displayed front and center today were four varieties, each priced at two heads for a buck: Romaine, Green Leaf, Red Leaf, and Iceberg.

Although there's nothing wrong with a nice green salad, or a wedge of Iceberg with freshly made blue cheese dressing, it seems a good time of year to consider making Lettuce Soup. Cooked with some potato, one of more members of the allium family, and herbs, pureed and finished with a wee bit of butter, it's a fitting dish for winter, but a relief from root vegetables.

The Chilean grape harvest is approaching peak, and prices have dropped accordingly at Iovine's. One-pound clamshells of white seedless were available for a buck, tray-packed bunches for $1.49. Iovine's also had a variety labeled "Tomcat", but at $5.99/pound I passed them by. They are a variety of Muscat, one of the original grape varieties, and are sweeter than the norm.

It might be a good week for making guacamole. Iovine's also featured ripe and ready avocados (don't store them for long!) at 50 cents apiece. Limes were a reasonable four for a buck.

Over to the fishmongers. I haven't done a taste comparison, but Golden Fish has been selling "dry" scallops for $13.99, a considerable savings versus John Yi, where they sell for $17.99. Golden also has something I haven't seen at the other stalls: unagi, Japanese barbecued eel, $6.99 a pack.

Fish and Fruit Tales

A one-pound pack of strawberries for $9.99? Get used to it, at least for the next month or so.

The freeze in Florida and heavy rains in California are taking their toll on off-season winter produce. At Iovine Brothers Produce at the Reading Terminal Market today, the clamshells of Driscoll California strawberries were as expensive as I've ever seen them, $9.99.  In late January and into February, Iovines frequently features strawberries from Plant City, Floriday, at bargain prices, typically $1 or $2 for a one-pound pack. Don't expect to see them anywhere near that price this winter. The Florida freeze hasn't yet impacted citrus prices but Vinnie Iovine expects they'll start heading north over the next week or two. He's even, for all practical purposes, out of leeks! About one-third of Florida's total winter fruit and vegetable production has been lost to the freeze.

The Dutch and other growers will take up some of the slack for some of the items, but they'll be priced to reflect the shortages caused by natural phenomena. Chilean fruit isn't expected to be heavily affected, since most of what they grow isn't duplicated during winter in California and Florida, but even the Chilean grapes have been dear, with better quality bunches selling for upwards of $4.99, though some smaller Chilean seedless grapes could be had for $1.99 today.

Vinnie expects his display bins of specials will be heavy on the root vegetables, rather than fruit, in coming weeks.

Supply, demand and inventory hold their sway over fish prices, too. At John Yi today the mackeral was selling for $1.99, vs. $2.49 yesterday -- they gotta move it before it becomes too old. Meanwhile, Golden priced mackeral today at $2.99. A similar price discrepancy could be found in sardines: $4.99 at John Yi and $1.99 at Golden; there was no discernable difference to my eye in size and quanity between the two fishmongers.

Crowds were thick at the RTM at mid-morning today. Partly that was due to the opening of the home show across the street at the Convention Center,  but also because of a soccer convention that ends today. Yesterday, DiNic's ran out of roast pork by 4:30 p.m., which Joe Nicolosi attributes to the soccer crowd.

Cheer the Herring!

With the approach of Christmas the variety of piscatorial delights at the Reading Terminal Market's fishmongers expands. New today were herring (sardines) and spearlings, both $4.99/pound at John Yi.

I'll pick up some of those herrings (head-on whole, ungutted but scaled) on my next trip. They are probably fated for a quick pan-fry, with those I don't eat immediately destined to marinating in a vinegar brine with onions, then consumed with rye bread slathered with copious amounts of butter, and Aquavit.

Halibut Update

That halibut I purchased a week ago at John Yi's in the Reading Terminal Market (about one and a third-pound) wound up providing the basis of five servings: three for dinner the first night, them two "leftover" portions of fish hash.

I first encountered fish hash at a so-so short-lived fish restaurant on Mount Desert Island near Acadia National Park. The restaurant, Bulger's, was replaced after a season or two by XYZ, one of my fav Mexican restaurants anywhere I've been in the U.S.

Fish hash is nothing more than leftover fish turned into a potato-onion hash. It's best with a mild, firm white flesh fish like halibut or haddock. Here's my recipe:

Fish Hash

All purpose potato, 1 to 1-1/2 pound
Fish filet (white flesh), 6-8 ounces, cooked and roughy flaked
Onion, one medium
Bell pepper, one medium
Bacon fat
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

• Prep washed, skin-on potatoes into half-inch cubes. Dice onion to roughly the same size.
• Melt 2-3 tablespoons bacon fat in 10-12 inch non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
• When fat is hot, turn heat to high and add potatoes and cook, undisturbed after initial tossing, for five minutes.
• Return heat to medium-high, toss potatoes, add caynne, salt and pepper, layer onion and bell peppers on top. Cook for five minutes more undisturbed before tossing again. Continue cooking for about five minutes more, tossing occasionally to brown everything nicely. Add flaked fish, toss some more. When it's heated through, serve.

This makes a great supper dish when served with a good beer. It also makes a great breakfast dish. You could skip the cayenne by using a hotter pepper rather than the bell pepper.

Shad Update

It seems my earlier report that the shad at John Yi's were harvested from Southern U.S. rivers was mistaken. According to the signs, these comes from European waters. Further research shows that there are two species of European shad inhabiting eastern Atlantic waters from Morrocco north to Norway, though the commercial shad fishery is centered in the Gironde-Garonne-Dordogne basin of France.

Although these fillets, whole fish and roe sets looked fine, you're probably better off waiting for the local run, which arrives in late April and early May. Or visit the annual Lambertville shad festival, scheduled this year for April 25 and 26.

Signs of Spring

Shad from Southern rivers appeared at John Yi's last week. Today they were selling for $3.99 (buck), $4.99 (roe) and roe sets were commanding $7.99. Local shad don't appear in the Delaware until May.

Based on how good it was a few weeks ago, I bought some haddock fillet at $7.99. I'll pan fry it tonight, perhaps in a panko crust.

More About Citrus

Or, at least, price reports from Iovine Brothers at the Reading Terminal Market.

The prices have held relatively steady except for a whopping reduction in the cost of limes. For the past week limes have been selling for a dime apiece. With Hass avocados under a buck (89 cents), it's once more guacamole time.

On to the other citrus:

• Honeybells, small 8 for $1
• Honeybells, large 2 for $1
• Temple oranges, 4 for $1
• Cara Cara oranges, 5 for $2
• White grapefruit, 89 cents
• Jumbo red grapefruit, 3 for $1
• Small ruby grapefruit, 4 for $1
• Navel oranges, 3 for $1
• Mineola oranges, small 4 for $1
• Mineola oranges, large 2 for $1.49
• Jumanji oranges, 2 for $1.49
• Juice oranges, 4 for $1

Also at Iovine's, red peppers 99 cents, greens $1.29, red and green frying peppers $1.29.

Oh, and black truffles, $300/pound, with the two packs I saw priced at $18 apiece. Makes a heck of an omelet.

Fishy Stuff

A steaming bowl of chili or cauldron of soup seems essentially in cold weather. Fish chowder also satisfies that craving for me.

I went with a piece of haddock from John Yi's Saturday. Since I'm the only one in the house who enjoys this New England classic, I only used about a quarter pound of filet. A lot of folks think New England chowders have be creamy and thick. They don't. IMHO, whole milk allows the flavor of the fish to come through best.

I start out by gently sautéing in bacon fat a small onion, a stalk of celery, and half a carrot, all diced to about one-quarter inch. Once they turn translucent I add a medium diced potato, and gently sauté for about 10 minutes. Next comes about a cup of stock (I used vegetable stock made primarily from last fall's red celery from Tom Culton of Headhouse Square, though either fish or chicken stock would work very well) and a cup of milk, which simmers the veggies for another 10 minutes. By this time the potatoes are just about done, so it's time to add the fish (cut up into spoon-sized pieces), salt and pepper to taste, and thyme, dried or fresh, maintaining the pot at a simmer. After five minutes add a tablespoon of butter -- don't stir, just let it melt atop the liquid. By the time the butter adds its yellow sheen, the fish is probably cooked through. Once in the bowl, I top the chowder with fresh chopped parsley. To accompany, I used the last of my precious stock of Crown Royal crackers, a Maine favorite which has been discontinued by Nabisco, but OTCs would work well, too. Saltines and oyster crackers just don't have the necessary heft for those soup.

If you don't like plain white fish, no reason why you can't use shrimp, lobster, scallops or clams.

That filet of haddock at John Yi's in the Reading Terminal Market set me back $7.99/pound, which was also the price of the flounder. Fluke was $9.99. It was also one of those weeks where wild striped bass cost less than its farmed-raised cousin (a striped bass-white bass cross), $4.99 vs. $6.99 for whole fish. Boston mackeral has made an early appearance (it's strongest runs start in the spring), with prices ranging from $1.49 to $2.59, depending upon size. Medium-sized porgies were $2.99, cod filet (which would be an other good choice for chowder) $9.99, black sea bass $5.99.

A Wan's Seafood, the haddock would have set me back $11.99/pound. Whole striped bass as $3.99 (though the quality didn't look quite as good as at Yi's), though the filets were appealing at $9.99. Wan's was the only RTM fishmonger still selling sardines, $3.99.

Golden Fish's new cases displayed wild striped bass at $4.99, whole black sea bass at $4.99, Bronzino (another sea bass, farm-raised in Europe) for $7.99 on the bone, and particularly good looking, fat mackeral at $2.99.

Thanksgiving Crush at the RTM

Local TV stations were scheduled to cover the crush of shoppers at the Reading Terminal Market during their morning shows today. Hundreds line up before the doors open at 8 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving.

In addition to the Pennsylvania Dutch merchants who made an early showing this week at the Reading Terminal Market, Earl Livengood was also there Tuesday and Wednesday (today). Among the many autumn produce stalwarts at Livengood's were romanescue heads of diminutive size, perfect for two eaters.

Arctic char made its appearance at John Yi's this week. The filets are selling for $14.99. Char is usually farm-raised in Canada and Iceland, and is considered to be considerably more environmentally benign than salmon aquaculture. Char, a salmonid, is somewhere between trout and salmon in size and flavor. Expect more fish variety at the market as we approach Christmas.

This past weekend busted all sorts of records for market visitors, according to RTM GM Paul Steinke, with the highest attendance seen since the Flower Show. Much of it was driven by Philadelphia marathon competitors and visitors.