Author: Mildred Bell

When Perry Raso first used his bare hands to remove a littleneck clam from Point Judith Pond, he was twelve years old. He was not given a business plan. He was unaware that Narragansett Bay might be worth millions of dollars. He simply kept returning to the water year after year, picking up on its moods in the same way that some children pick up on a neighborhood—which corners to avoid and which to trust. In this field, early intuition is more important than most people realize. The oyster aquaculture industry in Rhode Island did not happen to grow to…

Around the Portsmouth toll booths on I-95 North, there’s a moment when the atmosphere shifts. It’s subtle, like a little drop in temperature and a briny smell coming from the car’s vents. For twenty-two years, that moment has consistently arrived every July for a suburban Connecticut family. Not because that’s how it was intended. Eventually, it became the kind of thing you don’t question because it just kept happening. The journey began quite simply, as is the case with most enduring customs: with hunger rather than ceremony. A diversion. A hand-painted sign promoting fresh lobster rolls is located close to…

The way Pacific Seafood handled a $3.2 million environmental fine has an almost cinematic quality. Instead of remaining silent, issuing a cautious statement, pledging to take corrective action, and waiting for the news cycle to pass, the massive seafood company based in Clackamas went all out. In a written statement, the company said, “Oregon DEQ is out of control,” portraying one of the biggest environmental fines in the state’s history as evidence that conducting business in Oregon has become unfeasible rather than as a result of years of infractions. It was a revealing and well-thought-out move. Three of Pacific Seafood’s…

In late March, while standing over a skillet in a South Louisiana kitchen, everything begins to make sense. The onions are becoming tender and golden, the butter is slowly melting, and the aroma filling the air is a cross between a French grandmother’s Sunday dinner and a bayou at low tide. That’s crawfish ouffée getting used to its surroundings. And if you’ve never cooked it before, you’re going to see why it’s considered almost sacred down here. The dish isn’t particularly difficult. However, it is harsh on shortcuts. Minced garlic, cayenne, two pounds of fresh Louisiana crawfish tail meat, two…

You can eat well in some cities. Then there are cities where food ceases to be merely food and becomes something more like identity, where the water itself, restaurants, and fishermen all participate in the same dialogue. Here are the five U.S. coastal cities that truly deserve a place on every serious seafood lover’s list, after spending the better part of two decades dining throughout coastal America, arguing with line cooks, and nursing hangovers from too many oyster shots. Baltimore is ranked fifth, and it most likely ought to be higher. There is no other blue crab situation in the…

Watching a small restaurant close in a town like Stuart has a subtle, unsettling quality. Not because the news is announced loudly, but rather because it is not. Tucked away in the Sewall’s Point section of Florida’s Treasure Coast, the Catch Neighborhood Bar & Grill closed its doors on May 1st, capping a two-year run that consistently felt like it was trying to fill shoes too big for it. Prior to The Catch, the same location was home to a seafood restaurant that flourished for almost 30 years—the kind where servers knew your drink and your children’s birthdays. Like a…

Every time someone mentions an oyster po’ boy they ordered at a hotel restaurant on Canal Street, you’ll hear a certain sigh in New Orleans kitchens. It’s compact and nearly private, but it has a lot of weight. Locals don’t want to act impolitely. They simply know what’s about to happen, and they are aware that it typically comes wrapped in the wrong bread. Most disputes begin at the bread, and most visitors become disinterested. Leidenheimer French bread, which has an airy interior that nearly vanishes against the tongue and a crust that splinters when pressed, is what a true…

You can hear the same sounds that people heard a century ago if you stand on a wharf in Stonington or Vinalhaven before sunrise. Coughing to life are diesel engines. The sound of rope hitting fiberglass. Somewhere, the weather is being played on a radio. In Maine, lobstering isn’t truly an industry in the sense that Wall Street defines industries. The men and women who work in this trade, which is passed down through families and frequently involves little paperwork, are skeptical of anyone in a suit telling them how to operate their boats. That’s precisely what they’re in right…

Lobster isn’t really a meal on the Maine coast, as anyone who has spent an August evening there will attest. It’s a sort of unwritten summertime custom. The corn is shucked on the porch, the pots are brought out, and there is constant debate about whether or not garlic should be added to melted butter. However, the ritual subtly changed during the past ten years. Charcoal grills and split tails shimmering under herb butter began to take the place of the boiling pots. If you ask quietly enough, practically every seasoned chef from Portland to Cape Cod will tell you…

A strange split-screen reality can be found if you walk into any mid-sized seafood distributor on the Gulf Coast right now. A printed shipping manifest with smudged ink from the damp of the cold room was on one wall. Conversely, a laptop was used to access a traceability portal that was unknown to half of the staff until last spring. The industry is moving at two very different speeds, and the ReposiTrak seafood traceability deadline is about six months away. The FDA officially gave everyone leeway. After Congress instructed the agency to postpone enforcement, the Food Traceability Rule’s initial January…