What do you eat in Bethel besides salmon? (for sale, work)

[Jeff Emler]

Sheesh what a lovely night. My patients are all asleep. The ER is slow so no admissions. The end of the shift is 4 hours away.

I'd be bored to tears if it wasn't for you kind people.

How about a new thread....humor me. I go home tomorrow for a few days and I don't know when I'll get back to a computer again. I'll start this thread and see where it goes.

Everybody likes to EAT so participation is a given.

OKAY...I know you folks in Bethel like to eat salmon. The salmon I've had has been farm raised. I can hear you gagging already. I liked my farm raised salmon but, not being from Alaska; I acknowledge my naive palate.

Here's my question. Is there a place in Bethel that's like a seafood market? Is there a place where someone can just go and buy a fresh hunk of salmon and other fish? How about shellfish? I know that storebought goods are expensive, but how about locally harvested foods? How far to get fresh seafood?

When I went to Maine I expected fishmarkets swimming with fresh fish, lobsters, shrimp, shellfish and so on. I was a bit disappointed. I did find fish for sale, but it was at the supermarket.

If a fellow wanted to try some other stuff, like moose, elk, bear does he have to go shoot one; or can he buy some? I realize that selling meat has a lot of legal baggage attached to it.

I was reading up on burbot. Now that sounds interesting. A fish that tastes like lobster. I happen to like lobster but I also think it's over rated and over priced. When I went to Bangor Maine one of my first objective was to obtain a live lobster and do the boiled alive thing. I must say it was good, but at 6 bucks a pound I got a few bites of meat, some juice and a lot of empty shell.

Then I tried mussels. Man, they were good and a lot cheaper too. Still, a bunch of shell and a few bites of mussel. In December Maine shrimp came in season. FINALLY I thought..some honest to goodness 'seafood' fresh off the pier. I must admit, Maine shrimp are tasty but I'm guessing the krill in Alaska are bigger. I bought three pounds of whole, fresh shrimp for 89 cents a pound. After two hours of work I had about a cup of peeled, cooked shrimp and....you guessed it....a bunch of shells.

I want to make some GOOD chowder with REAL fish stock I made myself from a fish carcass. I want to broil some fresh WILD salmon with just salt and pepper. I want to try some WILD mussels picked from the rocks, and FRESH halibut and rockfish. Oh...and the burbot...a must try. And trout. I have NEVER EVEN tasted trout; much less wild ones.

Yes, I have lived an impoverished existence.

[aquariusmom]

I thought there would be a punchline when I opened this thread. Darn!!

I'm not in Bethel. Here we can get shrimp and crab from a trailer stand, it costs much more than what I paid in the lower 48, even when the crab is caught up here. Funny how that works. As far as fish, you buy herring here in the grocery store. And then you use it as bait. All the fresh salmon, dolly varden, pacific cod, ummm... trout... oh and of course best of all- HALIBUT you would like to eat here for merely the cost of a fishing licence and gear, not sold in the grocery.

[Xa'at]

What do you eat in Bethel besides salmon?

Oh, the usual. French toast, hamburgers, other people...

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Xa'at

Oh, the usual. French toast, hamburgers, other people...

oh wow, you left out some of my personal favorites, like.... small children, snakes, snails, aardvark tongue, tourists, cats, wolf eye soup, brown bear snout sandwiches, whale blubber, fried seal skins et al.

[warptman]

There is no seafood market here. My mother has this trade thing going with her cousins out on the coast. Every spring she goes ice fishing for dried pike fish and trades it with her cousins out on Nunivak Island for reindeer meat and seal. Also trades the dried pike for other meats like caribou or moose. We have your order/dine in restaurants here that serves a wide variety of food. Theres three pizza joints here along with 7 Korean owned take outs. The local grocery stores here have seafood, frozen not fresh. You can normally eat anything you can get from down states, not as fresh though.

[Jeff Emler]

My question was sincere.

I like salmon, but I also dream of a seafood smorgasbord.

I figured I'd never have time to catch all I'd like to try.

I would love to stumble on to a fishmarket full of everything from ling cod to gooey-ducks.

I can't wait to try burbot.

I never meant to imply anything negative.

Thanks for the informative replies aquariusmom and warptman.

[Barkingowl]

So warpt? Are there any sushi restaurants in Bethel?

[warptman]

Yes, we have one of those. The VIP Restaurant. I don't care much for sushi.

[cobolt]

Isn't your answer, Warpt, supposed to be "blood oranges"? Bought a bag of them at Trader Joes the other day for $1.99. Yummers! And thought of you Warpt!

[karlsch]

To elaborate a little on what warptman said: fish that you buy in Bethel at a grocery store or restaurant, even if it originated in Alaskan waters, will not be any fresher than what you buy in the lower 48. Often it is less fresh. It has to go through the normal food distribution chain. Before Alaskan caught fish reaches Bethel, It has probably already been in the lower 48.

If you want fresh fish in Bethel you have to catch it yourself.