Author: Mildred Bell

Everybody who ends up in Ena seems to experience a certain moment. After driving through winding mountain roads that don’t appear correctly on any map app, they arrive exhausted and possibly a little lost. Then the sea suddenly and broadly opens up, encircling a tiny, lone island that is motionless in the water. And they slow down in some way. Ena is a fishing village on the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecture, roughly two hours south of Osaka. The majority of tourist maps do not include it. It features a single store selling fishing gear, snacks, and sake, as well…

You can get a pretty good idea of what American fishing is like by standing on the docks at the Port of New Bedford on any given morning. You can see the crews offloading catch that will end up on plates from Boston to San Francisco, weathered boats arriving in heavy loads, and the smell of salt and diesel. It’s unglamorous, physically demanding work. And for years, the people who do it have been quietly losing ground to something they cannot see: fleets of foreign ships operating far out at sea, circumventing environmental regulations, disobeying quotas, and, in certain situations,…

Early March in Bergen is a gloomy, chilly, and subdued city where billion-dollar decisions are made over coffee in unreported rooms. However, at the North Atlantic Seafood Forum this year, something changed. Standing at the podium, the executives who typically use tactful language and diplomatic hedging stated unequivocally that Norway’s salmon farming regulations are flawed. Not a hassle. Not requiring a small adjustment. Broken. Ivan Vindheim, CEO of Mowi, stated what many in the room had reportedly been thinking for years: that the government’s own aquaculture whitepaper, which was intended to promote organic growth, might actually lower production in some…

Outside Captain Eddie’s Clam Shack is a hand-painted sign that says, “If the water rises, so do we.” It has been faded by forty years of Gulf sun and salt air. After Hurricane Ivan destroyed half of the roof in 2004, someone took a picture of it. The picture was shared throughout the neighborhood. People sobbed. Laughing, Eddie placed an order for plywood. This location had a personality, which was its unique quality. a stubbornness. The type that is passed down through fryers that have been in use since Reagan’s administration and cracked linoleum floors rather than through a business…

When you realize you’ve been missing something remarkable for years, you feel a certain kind of embarrassment. That feeling comes quickly from the Maine Lobster Trail. This loosely defined coastal route, which stretches from the southern tip of Kittery all the way north toward the Canadian border, connects co-ops, working piers, lobster shacks, and seafood restaurants in a way that feels more like how people up here eat than a carefully planned tourist destination. It most likely doesn’t receive the breathless coverage it merits because of this. Hand-painted signs nailed to weathered posts, lobster traps piled five feet high next…

Before you ever start the car, a version of this trip exists in your head, somewhere between a spread from a travel magazine and a scene from a movie. For years, the 658 miles of salt air, slow roads, and seafood shacks that make up the Gulf Coast from Tampa to New Orleans had been on the back of my mind. A budget of two thousand dollars, a full tank of gas, and five days with no real plan other than traveling west along the water were what ultimately propelled it forward. It already seemed like the right decision to…

Certain recipes gain popularity and then subtly fade away. Others continue to return, discovering new audiences, kitchens, and seasons to be a part of. This grilled swordfish with mango salsa is definitely in the second category, and if you haven’t seen it yet on social media, it’s probably just a matter of time. It’s a simple dish. It functions in part because of this. Swordfish steaks were rubbed with salt, pepper, and olive oil, refrigerated for a short while, and then placed on a hot grill at 450°F. Five to six minutes of intense heat are applied to each side,…

Anywhere in America, a seafood restaurant that has survived for thirty years is quietly remarkable. Living in Arizona, which is landlocked, baked in the desert, and hundreds of miles from the closest coastline, seems like either a stubborn act of faith or proof that something truly remarkable is taking place on those plates. Most likely both. Founded in 1996 by partners Jim Ulcickas and Rick Staunton in Newport Beach, Bluewater Grill is a seafood institution that has spent thirty years demonstrating that passion for what comes from the ocean is more important than being close to it. The two founders’…

It all began as a lighthearted wager with a coworker. Thirty days. Seven cities. One particular fixation: clam chowder. No one anticipated that I would do it. To be honest, there were times on day eighteen when I didn’t think I would either, sitting in a rental car outside Providence with a fogged windshield and a lukewarm cup. However, I did. And compared to any ranking I could have created while seated at a desk, the results are messier, more intriguing, and more polarizing. CategoryDetailsTopicAmerican Clam Chowder — Regional Styles, Cities & RankingsKey StylesNew England (cream-based), Manhattan (tomato-based), Rhode Island…

On Cape Cod, there is a time when a plate of baked stuffed clams arrives at a table and the conversation simply stops. This time usually occurs in mid-July, around noon, somewhere between the sound of screen doors and the smell of low tide. Not in a big way. Silently. the way it acts when something is perfectly correct. Most people who grew up eating the dish refer to it as a “stuffie,” and the term conveys a casual intimacy that only comes from true familiarity. The baked stuffed quahog has been the staple appetizer at beach festivals and clam…