If you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you probably read my review of Maria Finn’s Forage.Gather.Feast. When I picked up Taku Kondo’s Coastal Harvest: Fish – Forage – Feast, I thought I might be in for more of the same. Finn, a former Alaska fisherwoman, focuses her cookbook on foraging – in the tidal zone, forests, in urban environments and along the coast. There’s some overlap between the books. Namely, Kondo’s final two chapters where he explores coastal plants such as seaweed and mushrooms. Both Finn and Kondo live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
There, the similarities end. Though he does lean into foraging, Kondo’s book focuses more tightly on fish and shellfish and what to do with them once you’ve hooked one. The trained sushi chef, who runs a popular YouTube channel exploring his passions for fishing and the outdoors, offers recipes and tips for preparing everything from raw to utilizing the whole of your catch for nourishing meals. Mushrooms and seaweed are minor roles. In Kondo’s outdoor life, fish and shellfish are placed squarely at the center of the story.
A Fisherman-Chef Fishes, Forages and Feasts
Japanese-born, California-raised (and where he lives now), Kondo is a trained chef and passionate outdoorsman. His cookbook is filled with happy images of Kondo holding rough-hewn skewers of wild salmon ready to grill, skinning fish atop a cooler, and hauling fish to the campsite. His flavors express the joy of finding and preparing your own food, cooking it in an unadorned fashion, and then building flavor with the ingredients of the broader Japanese-California Cuisine cannon. The squeamish or those without access to whole foods (not Whole Foods) will likely steer clear of recipes like Tuna Menudo (p. 134) which features the fish’s stomach, or Fish Liver Pâté (p. 145) which is, well, liver.
Recipes I Made
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- cooking blackened halibut
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- gochujang curry mussels in the pan
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- mussels as I served them
Kondo is clearly comfortable with cooking all manner of fish. Mid-August means the tail-end of halibut season in NorCal so my first Kondo recipe was Blackened Halibut Tacos with Avocado Salsa. $50/lb at my local grocery store, fresh halibut filets were a mere $30 per pound at my local farmers’ market and I got to chat with the man who raised the fish from the ocean – bonus! This recipe was exceptional; the spice blend was smoky and richly flavored with smoked paprika and thyme, the salsa was bright and jalapeño hot and every single person at my table, even the avowed non-fish eaters, loved it. I had similar success with Gochujang Curry Mussels, p. 154 ($4.99/lb.). Even though my gochujang was a little past its prime, it shone when paired with coconut milk and garlic.
Less successful were Kelp Burgers (p. 194). I have plentiful kelp in my cabinet, including a 4-ounce pack called for in the recipe. Four ounces of dry kelp when cooked yielded a massive amount, far too much for the recipe. A clearer ingredient dek would have helped – 4 oz. prepared kelp, or similar. I whittled down the amount to 4 ounces, then chopped and blended as called for with mashed sweet potato and black beans. Still, the recipe did not work. The veggie burgers were too soft, the mushrooms and panko not doing enough to hold the burgers together. Everyone tried it. Noone went further than a first bite.
Who Would Like This Cookbook
Kondo’s cookbook offers an outdoorsman’s-slash-sushi chef’s approach to food and cooking. As in my review of Forage.Gather.Feast, this cookbook got me to consider more deeply about sourcing ingredients myself and from the bounty of my community. The book is another reminder of the West’s abundance, that eating well can mean eating locally and simply. And the joy of eating outside, no matter the season. It’s a spirited cookbook, perfect for anyone considering preparing fish and seafood caught with their own hands. Exploring and enjoying the bounty of the American West Coast is a gift we all can benefit from.
I was provided a preview copy of Coastal Harvest: Fish – Forage – Feast
halibut tacos on the plate
