Last week, Inland Seafood’s general manager of plant operations, Rich Luff, took me on a tour of the distributor’s Tucker headquarters. Three things particularly fascinated me:
- The building, a former Mary Kay Cosmetics distribution center, has hallways laid out in the form of the letters “MK.”
- Fish cutters insert sides of salmon into a machine that spits out perfect 6 ounces portions. If the fillets are very large then the long, skinny slices that emerge are called “hot dog cuts” in the trade.
- These two oysters, which are really the same critter. Both are Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) — a species native to the Pacific coast of Asia but now cultivated all up and down the North American Pacific coast. Left to their own devices, these pups can grow to a foot or longer. Indeed, Chinese chefs are quite fond of the 6″-8″ specimens (right), which can be steamed and then topped with black bean or ginger/scallion sauce.
So what do we have on the left? This little guy is a …