https://lnkd.in/ge2wBmuu
When we, in Mendocino County, first experienced the invasive purple sea urchin, we thought it was because of the drought which was already killing kelp and red sea urchins - the preferred kind of uni - but, later found that it was already caused by a recent tsunami out of Japan, which swept all of their invasive purple uni to the West Coast of the United States. It was the purple uni that was eating the kelp which was not only killing the red uni, but also sea stars and sea otters.
The red uni is preferred over purple uni because it maintains its texture which I liken to seafood flavored butter! Unfortunately, purple sea urchin just begins to melt and loses all of its form. Obviously that's fine for an uni sauce. It is not the desire of uni aficionados to be relegated to sauce only.
We, at the Mendocino County Tourism Commission, hired divers to pull up all the red uni and smash it into compost that we would give to local gardeners. But that wasn't enough to stem the purple tide.
Next, we began to hell hold a purple uni festival each Father's Day weekend, where local restaurants would serve incredible dishes using purple uni and educating guests on appreciating purple uni. Although the festival continues to this day and not only has been generally popular, but, this year, we actually held the festival over two weekends! This has greatly diminished, if not eliminated, the invasive purple uni on the Mendocino Coast!
Now, whenever I go to my favorite seafood restaurants in San Francisco, I ask them where they get their red uni. They invariably say, "Hokkaido, Japan, of course!". I say, "No you don't. Japan is still infested with purple uni and gets all of its red uni from Caito's fisheries in Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast. So, you're actually paying double: for shipment from Fort Bragg to Japan and reshipment from Japan to your restaurant."
I used to just tell them about #Caito's and how to contact them. But, NOW, Caito's has a shop on Pier 39 in San Francisco! Cheaper still!
So far only one of the restaurants shown has taken off with my suggestion (Bar Crudo -the last image shown).
Of course, I (a little) selfishly want to see good, inexpensive, and plentiful uni available to all in SF! BUT, as past Chair of the Mendocino County Tourism Commission, I want to also promote the local, tourist-facing businesses on the Mendocino Coast as well!
C'mon, #SanFranciscoChronical and #KTVU! Let's get this information out there!
AND, #DJSushi, Pabu SF , Kusakabe , Tadich Grill , #Sam'sGrill, let's get on it!
Rockwall
5moSo beautiful. My favorite place