It’s no secret that food serves to punctuate some of the great moments of our lives, but I’d argue that this is especially true when it comes to seafood. Perhaps it’s because the ocean’s delicacies are so often enjoyed beneath the pink-orange blaze of a summertime sun, or lolling lazily on the deck of a boat, or at your favorite family BBQs, or happily unbothered on the shores of some beachy vacation.
All I know is that when I look back at some of my happiest slivers of joy, more often than not there existed the presence of some delicious oceanic fare, like some kind of sensory marker, urging me through its savory maritime flavors to savor a particular moment in time.
I think about sitting dockside in Miami eating salty steamers, the scent of sunscreen, warm liquid butter and lemon thick in the air, the squawk of seagulls tearing through blue sky. I think about the smoke coming off a whole fried pargo rojo (red snapper) with coconut rice and plantains in the old walled city of Cartagena, the sound of drums and ocean waves in the distance. I think about my first encounter with a clam chowder served in a sourdough bread bowl at the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, my mouth and mind both equally blown. I even think about Fridays way back when I was in elementary school, which was the day we would get fish sticks. So, I don’t know about you, but for me, seafood is indelibly tied to good times.
My husband Arron (our founder/CEO)’s life is also dotted with memorable moments marked by the presence of some delectable nautical treat. A perfectly fried halibut sandwich at the renowned F Street in Anchorage. Sockeye burgers on the Mary K, the commercial fishing boat his dad designed and built. Beer battered fish and chips after a day of halibut fishing in Cook Inlet. Razor clams on the heels of Olympic-style digging on the Kenai peninsula. Besides the seafood featured in all these scenes, the other common denominator here is joy.
And in this way, seafood becomes more than just food, but also a living storyteller in our lives, a vehicle that helps to narrate the course of our existence, lending us its sensual clues so that we can bookmark and better remember some of those perfect, glimmering moments.
Pictured above: A moment of domestic bliss in Home Sweet Homer, where sharing a bowl of Snap-and-Eat Dungeness over our little wooden table is one of my favorite seafood happy stories of 2020.
