The 2009 Slow Fish Sustainable Seafood Show in Genoa, Italy, from 17 to 20 April will host a series of interactive workshops from Spain's sustainable seafood marketers.
Three Taste Laboratories will present a seafood tasting, led by fishermen from Lira, which is on River Corcubión in Galicia, northwest Spain. Visitors will learn about and sample Spanish shellfish prepared by Xosé Cannas, chef at Pepe Viera de Combarro.
Lira fishermen created a marine reserve in 2001 to safeguard the region's fishing resources. Using traps to catch octopus and crab, their seafood is sold by Lonxanet, a fresh seafood distributor. The fishermen are founding members of the international Community Network of Fishworkers for Sustainable Development (RECOPADES).
Spain's edible algae expert Antonio Muiños will showcase algae, offering Kombu (Japanese seaweed), sea lettuce and algae nori (red seaweed), Cantabrian mackerel (from Spain's northwest coast), dried fish from Formentera (a Spanish island next to Ibiza) and sea urchin eggs from Lira.
The show is billed as "a meeting opportunity for fishing communities from all over the world, while involving the public in subjects crucial for the survival of fish species and the preservation of local identities, products and traditions.
In a statement, Slow Food President Carlo Petrini emphasized the importance of the Sustainable Seafood Show: "The focus of the event will be on all those small, everyday actions which can help improve our rivers and seas. At Slow Fish, we focus our attention on the Mediterranean basin, an ecosystem in delicate balance suffering from increasingly disturbing and rapid changes which are proving hard to contain. The sea needs all our attention, it needs us to think in new ways so that we can free ourselves from increasingly harmful habits."
Setting an example is Spain's leading sustainable seafood restaurant, Aponiente in Cádiz, where award-winning chef Ángel León serves delights such as Sea Marinated Sardines in Old Jerez Vinegar, Stuffed Cuttlefish Casserole in an Infusion of Marinated Saffron and Butterfish Marinated in Moroccan Lemons.
"What is important is to know how to treat fish correctly and give them affection," said restaurant manager Luis Ruíz. "We cook winkles, butterfish, rubio (a sustainable white fish), goby (a small tropical fish), black jack (a game fish), mackerel and sunfish (the saltwater variety found in oceans), all with affection.
"We need to know more about our marine environment to enrich our local gastronomy as an example for cooks in all parts of the world," added Ruíz. "Nowadays, the kitchen is a channel of communication where human beings can better understand the wealth of his environment."
April 13, 2009
