[1] [2] One way of deciding what’s local is to use the 100-Mile Diet. Not surprisingly, a good deal of the Seacoast’s [3] radius includes the ocean as part of our foodshed. To celebrate our long tradition of local seafood, the [4] [5] NH Fish & Lobster Festival will be featuring a wide range of fun activities and events this Saturday:

Walk the decks of a local fishing boat, taste freshly-landed local seafood prepared by Seacoast chefs, learn to identify and prepare local fish, watch an on-location cook-off competition between chefs, investigate the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, sing a song and hear a tale or two.

13 chefs and restaurants will serve up fresh and delicious seafood tastings. Each were assigned a different locally-caught fish species at random (via lottery) to prepare at the event. The restaurants and their catch of the day are:

Little Bay Oyster: fresh shucked oysters

Fresh Local: mackerel

Jumpin’ Jays Fish Cafe: monk fish

Philbrick’s Fresh Market: squid

Robert’s Maine Grill: skate

Seaport Fish: hake

Portsmouth Lobster Co.: whole steamed lobster

Blue Mermaid: lobster

Portsmouth Brewery: flounder

Green Monkey & Brazo: cod

River House Restaurant: pollock

Portsmouth High School Culinary Arts: haddock

Old Salt Restaurant: bluefish

 

“Iron Chef” fans will also love the chef cook-off competition between chefs Ben Hasty of the Exeter Inn and Alec Maxon, a professional chef and fisherman from Newburyport. For this Seafood Throwdown, the chefs will be asked to prepare on-site an undisclosed locally-caught fish species with a limited amount of time to travel to the Portsmouth Farmers’ Market to collect supplies, return to the park and prepare, cook, and plate samples for the judges!

[4] [5] NH Fish & Lobster Festival

Prescott Park, Portsmouth

Admission - FREE, with Seafood tastings for $3

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Noon - 4:00 PM

Coinciding with the [6] Fairy House Tour

Enjoy free parking at nearby City Hall or 75¢/hour at the downtown parking garage!