RECAP: Winter Waters Dinner at Local Ocean Seafoods
Saturday, February 3rd, Local Ocean Seafoods, Newport
Starting off the Winter Waters Seafare Series, our Kickoff Weekend in Newport, Oregon, featured 3 days of seafood-centric programming, including an educational experience at Central Coast Food Web’s Yaquina Lab, a pre-fixe dinner at Local Ocean Seafoods, a crab demo at the Local Ocean Seafoods Fish Market plus, a family-friendly, free event at the The Pacific Maritime Heritage Center.
Sustainable seafood-centric restaurant Local Ocean Seafoods hosted 80 guests (yes, we packed the house!) for a seaweed-focused 5-course pre-fixe dinner with Local Ocean Executive Chef Enrique Sanchez-Rodriguez and guest chef Luis Cabanas, the former Executive Chef at Paley's Place. The duo used seaweeds form Blue Evolution and Oregon Seaweed.
In addition to the chef powerhouse collaboration, representatives from OSU’s Oregon Sea Grant and Ecotrust were there to share key findings from their recent frozen seafood shelf life study, funded by a NOAA grant. They surprised the crowd by announcing that some of the fish (including Oregon Albacore tuna, Blackcod, and Lingcod) used in the dishes they enjoyed had been frozen for nearly two years! And it was still incredibly delicious - which proved the point of their study. Read the entire report HERE.
Their two-year study at the Food Innovation Center in Portland ran 5 tests with over 600 different seafood-eating consumers (~120 consumers per test) assessing the quality of frozen seafood over time and learning about consumer perceptions of seafood. After 24 months, results showed that all attributes tested including the appearance, aroma, texture, flavor, sweetness, firmness, moisture content, aftertaste and overall quality were liked equally or more than at time 0 months. Frozen seafood has many advantages, including to allow small fishing businesses, restaurants, and retailers to avoid the volatility inherent in the fresh-fish market, extend the shelf life of their catch, reduce waste, lower carbon emissions, and deliver what seafood eaters are demanding: delicious food.
The menu included:
Dungeness crab arancini with crispy dulse seaweed and sweet herb mayo
Albacore tuna tartare with caviar, avocado, and lemon beurre blanc
Baked Hoxie’s Cove Oysters with huichol garlic sauce and cotija cheese. Paired with Lumos 2022 Aligote.
Seavice, with sea urchin, sea vegetables, jicama, shiso, serrano citrus sauce. Paired with Lemelson Vineyards 2022 Tikka’s Run Pinot Gris.
Chilpachole de Mariscos, shellfish bounty, blackcod, dried chiles, fresh sea herbs, epazote, and tostada azul paired with ROCO Winery 2020 Gravel Road Chardonnay
Cedar Plank Coho Salmon, with hazelnut romesco, butter-poached Yukon gold potatoes, roasted beet, shaved fennel & seaweed salad, and charred lime, paired with Long Walk Vineyard 2020 Field Notes Red Blend
Cannoli, with mascarpone, lime, kombu, pistachio, lavender honey, paired with Trisaetum Winery 2022 Sassa Late Harvest Riesling
A portion of the proceeds from this dinner was donated to the Central Coast Food Web, to further its mission to make it easier for people to find and buy local produce, meat, and seafood.
Thank you Newport Chamber of Commerce and Oregon Coast Visitors Association for sponsoring.
