Ship to Shore
CBC Books | | Posted: November 27, 2018 8:44 PM | Last Updated: December 4, 2018
John Bil
Perfect for beginners and experts alike, John Bil's Ship to Shore: Straight Talk from the Seafood Counter pulls back the curtain on the fish business to give seafood lovers the information and confidence they need to make smart decisions about the fish they consume. Why does halibut cost what it does? Were those shrimp responsibly farmed? How do you clean an octopus? And what's the best way to prepare those delicious clams when you get them home? Organized by size, beginning with shellfish (clams, oysters, lobster), small fish (anchovies, mackerel, herring), medium fish (trout, cod, catfish), and large fish (halibut, salmon, tuna), Ship to Shore features over 50 easy-to-follow recipes accompanied by mouth-watering, full-colour photography that will have you racing down to your local fish counter. (From House of Anansi)
From the book
It isn't easy for an outsider to move to Prince Edward Island and get a job in the oyster business. The low wages, harsh working conditions and isolation all take a toll, and can make you doubt your decision and yourself. Luckily, I'd made a few connections working at Rodney's and was offered a job at Carr's Lobster Pound, one of a handful of seafood buyers and growers who dealt primarily in lobsters, claims and oysters. Since I knew exactly zero about growing or fishing oysters, the only job available to me was on the plant floor. It paid $7.50 an hour, and mostly involved scraping and sorting oysters in a cold, stark packing plant. There were no windows, and the water ran constantly at an ocean-ambient temperature (during winter it was often 0 degrees C on the floor). I'd punch in at eight o'clock, work for two hours, have a coffee in the tiny break room (exactly 15 minutes), lunch for 30 minutes in the same room, break again at three o'clock, and then clock out at six — six days at week.
From Ship to Shore by John Bil ©2018. Published by House of Anansi.