Macgregors Seafood Notes

Every now and again I actually get out to eat somewhere other than my in-laws like, an actual restaurant. It's always a challenge to decide on a spot because we are seriously blessed with choice in this city, and when you only get out so often, these decisions are not taken lightly. For me, it's got to be something new & exciting with a bit of buzz and it's got to have AT LEAST 5-6 interesting fish options on the menu - and hopefully one of them is raw. Not that I'm after a sushi place per se, but some quality raw/sashimi style dishes have become my favorite way to start a meal. And by Interesting Fish Options, I mean other than Salmon, Halibut and Tuna. I do get into those fish with the best of them, but for something special I'd rather not, you know, since I make a living making interesting fish options available to chefs...



So the restaurant of choice was C5 - the brand new place in the newly designed Crystal wing of the ROM. Why? They had a raw tasting as part of their starters, an in-season Wild Black Bass, a Black Cod, a fresh Dungeness Crab, an Hokkaido Scallop and, I have to say, some pretty good looking non-fish items as well like a smoked Rib-Eye medallion. The raw tasting was terrific. It was a 5 part dish - Ahi Tuna, Hamachi, a Summer Breeze oyster, Madai Snapper and a Beef tartare. Each part was unique and exceptionally done with interesting flavor components to accompany the raw fish. Although, I hadn't heard the term Madai Snapper before. Snapper can be one of those names that gets thrown about to describe just about any red-skinned fish. A great example is West Coast Rockfish that has found tremendous success under the moniker Pacific Snapper. So it begged the question as to what this Madai Snapper is, and if it's actually a snapper at all.

As it turns out, Madai is the Japanese word for Red Snapper which similar to the Kiwi's, they use in reference to a Red Sea Bream - not a snapper at all. We sell it as the Premium NZ Snapper. In both New Zealand and Japan it is considered the king of fish. What's interesting to note is that about 10 years ago 90% of all the NZ Snapper went to Japan, met by an insatiable demand for the premium south pacific line caught fish. It wasn't until only recently that the Japanese began farm raising Snapper and virtually all NZ exports of Snapper to Japan stopped. So NZ turned a lot of it's attention to other markets such as the US and Europe for their snapper export, which is exactly why we're even getting the premium NZ Snapper these days.

What differentiates it from our domestic snapper (other than it not being a snapper at all) is simply the fact that it is from the cold South Pacific. The meat has a richer texture than the lean warm water domestic snapper and it is equally as sweet. That is what makes it such an ideal raw/sashimi item. I don't see a problem menuing the NZ Snapper as Madai Snapper because it is the same specie as the "Japanese Red Snapper" albeit from New Zealand. Even though it's not a true Snapper by DNA standards, this is what you'd get asking for Snapper in either Japan or New Zealand.

My only other comment from the night would be that Black Cod has to be one of our greatest resources. It's, in my opinion, the best fish from a culinary perspective - rich, pearly white, velvety smooth with a large flake. I've never been disappointed by it. Not only that, but Black Cod is a great "green" seafood choice. It's by far one of the world best managed fisheries and every chef and customer should feel good about a Black Cod menu option.

All in all a great night out at a restaurant offering terrific seafood options, especially raw. There should be place on every high end menu for top notch raw fish. And if you run into Madai Snapper, you'll know that it's our Premium NZ Snapper, or truthfully, a Pacific Red Sea Bream.