At an event at The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival I was telling a person how I try only to eat sustainable fish.
She could not imagine this – her favourite fish are tuna, swordfish (these fish are overfished), Atlantic salmon and Ocean trout (both are farmed in aquaculture cages and are of conservation concern). She also liked scallops and was surprised to hear about the damaging effects of the way that most scallops are harvested – by seafloor trawling and dredging and these methods damage seafood beds and habitats.
Cooking and eating sustainable fish does not have to be boring. Last week as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival I ate at these two venues.
These are photographs of a few of the sustainable fish dishes I ate at both places.
Cafe Vue at Heide, Heide Museum of Art, 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen.
this featured a contemporary version of several dishes from Sundays Kitchen: Food and Living at Heide, based on the reminiscences of friends and intimates about the hospitality of John and Sunday Reed at Heide,
(I ate at a number of restaurants during this event, but I remain very impresssed by the food and the fabulous wine list at Cafe Vue at Heide. The first photo (above) is the Tomato Consomme (clear) with a small terrine made from crab and avocado.
The second photo (above) is the Sea Bream with large couscous (heavily flavoured with citrus).
The Terrace @ Royal Botanic Gardens was the venue for the event Imagine a World without Seafood (The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) Sustainable Seafood).
This featured an interactive cooking competition some of Melbourne’s best apprentice chefs showcasing a creative approach to cooking with sustainable seafood.
ACF’ is developing a new and exciting sustainable living initiative making it easy for people to choose sustainable seafood.
The menu focused on specific species of fish in specific regions where sustainable practices are used by the producer. For example the way that most prawns are harvested is by seafloor trawling. The fishery which provided the Western king prawns uses management and harvesting techniques that ensure that the prawns are caught in an ecologically sustainable way.
These photos beginning with the top one are:
Barramundi (Cone Bay) with a Thai salad.
Prawns (Spencer Gulf) with green and yellow mango, pomegranate and avocado guacamole and tamarind aioli.
Tortellini of olive oil braised Barramundi (Cone Bay) with soft herbs and tartare beurre blanc.
Crispy, deep fried Yellow-eye mullet (wild caught in the Coorong) with a chermouala dipping sauce on a bed of rocket. See feature photo.
