Fresh Local Fish and Seafood from Haworth Fish: a Pandemic Discovery
One of my favorite “discoveries” during this year of coronavirus has been connecting with local food systems. In San Diego, the fishing company Haworth Fish usually sells to restaurants, but turned to direct-to-consumer sales when restaurants shut down or drastically curtailed operations. I learned about it through an ad on Instagram of all places, and decided to give it a try when I, too, was changing my behavior by avoiding going to the grocery store.
You buy online through their website haworthfish.com, and with orders over $75, local delivery is free. They call you when they’re about to arrive, and you can leave a cooler out for truly contactless delivery! They sometimes even put ice for you in the cooler, if they’re not sure you’re around to take the fish in immediately!
In our first order in June, we got (clockwise from top left) albacore tuna loin, ahi tuna loin, opah loin (the one with that really cute, polka-dotted skin), and tuna belly all at $10/lb. We also got a bag of squid that was about a pound and a half if I remember correctly, for $10. I thought these were all great prices!
I cut up the pieces into approximately half-pound chunks to freeze, so that I could pull them out one by one for a meal for 2. It was really cool to be able to really try each type to understand their taste and texture individually. For example, now I know I prefer ahi tuna for is more tender texture, compared to albacore which tends to be more dry. And belly, if done well, can be very silky.
A month later in July, we saw that they had two new fish on offer: white sea bass on the left, and bluefin tuna loin on the right, both $16/lb. Now, I had heard that bluefin tuna was not a sustainable catch and did some reading, and felt reassured that the local California fishermen could manage the population sustainably. This bluefin tuna became my favorite of the tunas - even when cooked thoroughly, it still maintained a silky, soft texture.
Shortly after the last purchase, we saw that they had two other fish that we hadn’t tried before: black cod fillet (on the left, $15/lb) and halibut fillet (the three pieces on the right $18/lb), so we ordered 3 pounds of each, plus another pound of the bluefin tuna (the red piece in the middle) since we liked it so much. I really fell in love with the halibut - when it’s freshly caught like this, and steamed just the right amount of time, it takes on the most luxurious custardy texture. I’ll write more it later!
