Ahhhhh-sparagus

I have been in the midst of a sickness for the last 6 days, and so activities have been minimal. Mostly I have been crashed on the couch watching LOST for the first time. I never got involved in it when it was actually "happening" and it's one of those shows that you can't really tune into at any time - you need to know the backstory. But I'm totally sucked in now. It's like crack - I constantly need a fix. Luckily, my immune system was willing to cooperate and put me in a situation where I could mainline it for 5 days straight. I would watch an episode and then, yep, sure enough at the very end, there would be a twist and then I would "have" to watch the next episode to find out what happened. Man, it would have sucked to watch the show in real time and have to wait weeks or a whole summer to find out what happened next.

Anyways, I'm coming out of the sickness now and I did a quick visit to the Farmer's Market on my lunch break yesterday and!! Lo and behold, asparagus was smiling up at me from the asparagus tent. Of course, the asparagus tent has been the potato tent for the last 8 months because there was no asparagus in season but - IT'S BACK!! I'm so excited. I took home a bunch and steamed it then sauteed it in butter and lemon juice and it was simply devine. Crunchy and snappy and fresh - it tasted like springtime in my mouth! There was a time when I was sure that I hated asparagus, even though I had never actually tasted it. I think there's all these urban myths out there about which foods taste bad or good, and we buy into these myths in childhood without doing any investigating for ourselves. Or else, the foods were prepared improperly for us when we were kids, leading us to believe that they weren't tasty. Asparagus can be absolutely disgusting if it is overcooked for even a second, so I suppose it isn't all a myth. But, anyways, I've tasted asparagus properly cooked now, and I adore it. I'm looking forward to completely overloading on it in the next few months. Then, just the time I'm getting sick of it, it will be over!

The other thing I wanted to tell you about was a book that I'm reading right now called "BottomFeeder". It's about the seafood/fishery industry and the tolls that it is taking on our oceans and fish supplies. It's a really, really depressing book, but I feel like it's something we all need to know, and all need to be aware of. Basically, we are fishing our oceans to extinction and no one is really doing anything about it. I know it seems ridiculous that we could ever pull all of the fish out of the ocean, but, for many species, we're really on track to do that, amazingly enough. So the book gives kind of an overview of the whole state of the oceans, and then explores different species and the problems and threats to that specific fish - like cod, bluefin tuna, etc. One of the species that it talks about in depth is shrimp that are now being farmed in third-world countries where there are little to no regulations on the farms. It was just horrifying. Basically the shrimp are being raised in cesspools of pesticides, chemicals and antibiotics which is, obviously, unhealthy to humans, but is also hugely destructive to the environment and the communities surrounding these farms. I opened my freezer last night and noticed an old package of shrimp from Trader Joe's that I haven't finished using. I looked closer at the label and, sure enough, it said "Farmed Shrimp - Product of Thailand". Of course, I don't have the details of what kind of farm this shrimp came from, or the state of the shrimp farming industry in Thailand, but based on the info that I just read in that chapter, that bag of shrimp went directly into the garbage. Technically, it was pretty gross-tasting shrimp anyway, before I even noticed where it came from - it was flavorless and rubbery. Sure, it was really cheap, but what's the point in saving money if it tastes like crap? Anyway, if you are at all interested in educating yourself about what is really going on out there on the high seas - I highly recommend this book.

A review on Amazon that I thought was well-put:

"Bottomfeeder is an excellent read on a critically important topic. The book documents the massive overfishing that combined with environmental pressures is driving many fish species to the point of extinction, and that much of the cheap seafood on our plates is not safe or sustainable for humans or the planet. Unfortunately, this issue has gotten limited coverage outside the environmental media and for many readers Grescoe's book will be an eye opener that explores new territory.

Marine biologists estimate by 2040 a large number of species will be decimated. If whole sections of the aquatic food chain go the way of once plentiful Chesapeake Bay oysters and blue fin tuna, what will happen? Grescoe jokes about fish and chips being replaced with jellyfish and chips as a lighthearted way to highlight the issue. As he points out, fishing is the only large scale hunting activity still carried out in the wild. Decades of massive, industrial scale fishing are an uncontrolled experiment, upturning species in every ocean, turning predator into prey and destroying environments and human health through questionable fishing techniques, unsafe farming practices and black markets.

Nobody escapes responsibility for this mess, but Grescoe turns what could have been an angry polemical rant into a globe trotting adventure and keeps Bottomfeeder enjoyable to read. His love of food shines through on every page as he talks to fishermen, scientists, bureaucrats and chefs. By the end of the book, the root cause of overfishing is shown to be the familiar toxic brew of greed and ignorance familiar to the environmental genre, aided by ineffective government oversight and often compounded by chefs whose promotion of a tasty fish can spell disaster for a species.

The tragedy is that Bottomfeeder may be too late to have a large impact. Chesapeake Bay oysters will likely never return and the race to the bottom is well under way around the world. The book does however give some excellent suggestions on fish to enjoy and species to avoid, leaving the reader a small part to play in turning back this "tragedy of the commons".

Even if you don't read this book, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium website for "Seafood Watch", a handy guide on sustainable seafood."