July 15, 2013 — I recently attended a book release party at Azur put on by international ocean conservation group Oceana. Their CEO had just published a new book, The Perfect Protein, which extols the eating of sustainable wild fish as a key to protecting oceans and the planet.
As human population continues to balloon, more protein will be needed to feed all those hungry people. We're going to need more fish. At the book release, Azur's Frederik de Pue prepared dishes to illustrate the types of more sustainable choices suggested in The Perfect Protein: Wild and local, instead of organic and farmed, and not too many big ones, since they are generally overfished. Water cleaning bivalves are a great bet, except for shrimp whose farming takes a heavy toll on the environment.
The rule I had previously thought the least about was focusing on eating small fish. Sardines, anchovies, mackerel and herring are all forage fish, or fish that eat plankton, and are preyed on by larger fish higher up in the food chain. Cheap stuff people are used to seeing in tins packed in oil and not so much on restaurant menus, at least outside of Europe. Stuff that the food industry typically uses to grind up as feed for larger farmed fish like tuna and salmon, which is inefficient. Small fish are loaded with healthy omega-3's, protein, and other nutrients, and are largely free from toxins such as mercury that accumulate in bigger fish. But small fish fisheries have to be managed correctly, too. If we catch too many of them, there won't be enough for the big predator fish. But they could feed huge amounts of the population cheaply if managed correctly, says Oceana CEO Andy Sharpless, which would put less stress on overfishing big fish. Plus they're delicious if prepared the right way.
Small fish appear on menus where chefs are in tune with providing sustainable seafood, are looking for less expensive alternatives to pricier seafood, or love serving Mediterranean dishes. I returned to Azur on my own to try the mackerel on their menu, which is grilled and served atop a panzanella salad. The oily fish is more mild than you might expect and enlivened with contrasting bursts from bites of fresh, sweet oregano. Cork does a grilled mackerel as well, making it tart with capers, lemons, olives, and crispy shallots.