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September 28, 2011

Since business seems to be slow all across the country our buyers have been working diligently to get a lot of fish in the house and they have succeeded; probably beyond their expectations. Because of this we have one of the largest varieties of fresh seafood that has hit our door in quite a while beginning with a whole bunch of exotic seafood items from across the world.

We have good selections of Hamachi,  Wahoo (Ono) from Fiji and Ecuador, Escolar from Ecuador, Cobia from Panama which is perfect for sushi applications, Columbia River White Sturgeon from this weekend’s opening of the Columbia River at a great price we may add, Redfish from the coast of Carolina, Barrellfish from the Keys and Mahi Mahi from Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama.

Mahi prices are up a little bit and we have a good selection on hand. We expect prices to drop much lower in the next two weeks. Now is a good time to look at Mahi Mahi for a menu feature as prices are trending down and will drop considerably by mid October.

Also from the Southern hemisphere, Grouper is starting to come in from local fisherman and we are starting to see some expensive Mexican Grouper Fillets come ashore. The price of Grouper is still high and we expect it to remain high for the month of October.

We have Hog Snapper, Mutton Snapper, and Yellowtail from Mexico along with genuine Gulf Red Snapper from Panama City, Florida. We have a few day-boat Blacks from Tarpon Springs, Florida along with day-boat Red Grouper. We have great quantities Black-tipped Shark from Florida as well as Tautog, and Flounder from the New Jersey and Virginia coast. From Long Island we have HUGE Striped Bass.

Amberjack is also being caught off the Georgia coast and in the Panhandle of Florida.

We have Dorade and Loup de Mer from Greece finally arriving after numerous strikes in that country. There is fish from virtually all over the world and all varieties and of course everything is on sale because, let’s face it, business is not that great. So call and find out what’s on sale today because all the fish is pristine and we want it coming to your door that way.

As October approaches we expect to see the mid-Atlantic open up for Flounder and Striped Bass in the coming days and expect the prices to fall. They just announced the increase in quotas for Monktails, Cod, and Skatewings out of the Northeast and we think the prices will be coming down on those species. In addition, we will have large beautiful day-boat trap Cod from Alaska from the fall season coming in Wednesday night or Thursday which will be exquisite quality as the boat is just landing in Homer, Alaska and is being trucked up to Anchorage right now.

Haddock remains a good value as well as some quantities of Cusk and Hake that we have on hand from the Northeast.

On the Salmon front, Wild Salmon is still going fairly strong. The season is just about to get strong for Cohos in the lower 48 states and continues pretty strong for Kings. The King and Coho Salmon fishery in the Columbia River is from where we received the Sturgeon and we hope to see some more deliveries over the next 10-14 days. Depending on what happens with fall Ketas out of Puget Sound, this Columbia River run will probably be the end of fall Salmon for 2011 for us at Inland and will be in stock for about the next 3 weeks. When the season ends we have vacuum-packed King Salmon, Sockeye Salmon, and probably Coho Salmon to get you through the winter for those of you who wish to continue featuring wild American-caught Salmon.

We have great prices on Scottish Whole Salmon, anywhere from 10-18 lbs each, in-house or coming in. In fact, we decided to curtail our purchases from Chile and concentrate on buying the Norwegian and Scottish Salmon because the price difference between Norway, Scotland, and Chile is less than twenty cents per pound on fillets.  We would rather offer you a better product which we feel the Norwegian and Scottish Salmon are, compared to Chilean. Even though it will cost us a little bit more, you will be paying the same as if you were buying just normal Chilean Salmon. We are using this period to get you to try the difference of our hand-cut Norwegian and Scottish Salmon and see what we are talking about if you want to have a farmed Salmon.

We are getting a variety of seafood offered to us and we’re trying to bring in a good mix of fish for daily specials, but it is almost one of those things where one day it’s there and one day it isn’t. Because business has been slow across the country for the last week we were able to find a lot of different things so help us keep the variety moving by opening up your menu and your cases to different fish with different flavor profiles.

From Louisiana we are getting the large Drum at good prices again. Also out of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast we are starting to see increased quantities of Crab as the water gets back to normal after the couple of tropical storms and heavy rains. Prices on Crab Meat have finally settled down and although they are up from mid-summer they are still not too bad and the increases have stopped, at least for the next week to ten days, and quantities are more readily available.

Speaking of Crab, we are seeing an influx of Soft Shell Crab in the mid-Atlantic and it does look like, barring a cold spell, that there will be a fall season for Soft Shell Crab, which will be the first in many years. This shows that the Crab population has really rebounded between North Carolina and Maryland.
Scallops have remained stable with good quantities on hand. In addition, we have ample supplies of all Shellfish from the mid-Atlantic north including some bargains from the Chesapeake area on Oysters. Ask your salesman for this week’s special.

Fresh Shrimp is coming in from Georgia and South Carolina daily now. Whites are getting bigger now and we’re starting to see a good supply of 26’s and 21’s with occasional 16/20’s.

On the Lobster front we’re seeing a lot of smaller Chick and Quarters as bigger Lobsters are getting scarcer and scarcer. Halves have been bringing a premium in the marketplace as well as 2-3 and 3-4 pound Lobsters. The good news is that we are processing heavily up in Maine and prices for Lobster Tails are slowly coming down so please check with us before you make a buy on Lobster Tails. And we won’t be surprised to see some October Seafood Month specials on Lobster Tails appearing out of Inland Seafood shortly.

In addition, due to demand, we have finally raised our par on Jumbo Lobster Lump and we will be getting 100 bags today and another 100 bags on Friday. We are aiming to have 100 bags brought in three times a week because we keep running out and we are tired of seeing salespeople try to kill other salespeople in order to keep their customers covered!