The Other Pink Meat
Here is a photo of Tonka Seafoods famous King Crab Legs. These amazing legs weigh in at approximately one pound each and they’re fully cooked too!
I wanted to write a nice, lengthy blog about them, but I figured the picture would sell it better than words would.
I thought I would offer a showcase of a few of our gift store items.
We have some cooking planks, the one featured is an Alder Plank. What this does is combines the flavor of your favorite wood smoke to your oven cooked salmon. As these planks are reusable for years, they really are an incredible buy.
The bentwood box is an authentic Tlingit bentwood box. It took approximately 90 hours to bend the wood into its square shape. Something done for centuries by local Tlingits…but not so much over the last number of decades. It’s an art thought almost lost, until revitalized a few years ago. The art displayed on it is hand painted.
Some of our most popular items are our Pewter trays, bowls and platters. They don’t seem to last long and require us to place orders throughout the year for them.
You will also want to take a peek at our Locally Hand Made Tlingit Table Runners. The one shown is of a halibut..yet we carry others with Salmon, Eagles, Ravens and Killer Whales displayed.
The ivory work is absolutely beautiful laid onto a small whale vertabrae. It is actually Inuit (A Tribe of Alaskan Native) work and very hard to come by. Ivory is highly prized here in Alaska.
Although we will never strive to operate an art gallery in our gift store, we do like to carry some fine items that visitor and locals both can enjoy.
If you have any interest in any of the items showcased, please give us a call at 888-560-3662
Here are some photo’s of our Sidestripe Shrimp. We cooked up some for a Quality Control taste test and found them to be understated when called sweet and tender. Hence, I will now refer to them as Alaskan Candy.
We will have them available both fresh and frozen weekly. Stop by or give us a call for your next Friday night party pleaser.
Fiction: Copper River Kings are the first Kings to arrive in Alaska.
Fact: Kings are caught all winter in Southeast Alaska well into the spring and summer. Furthermore, Stikine River Kings open a full two weeks prior to the Copper River.
Fiction: Copper River Kings are better quality, flavor and omega three fat comment than other Alaska Spring Kings.
Fact: Stikine Kings are caught and immediately dressed and iced. There is no fish sitting on deck all day until delivery. The hype of the Copper River Salmon is just that…hype. Quality recognition, not name should be what drives prices. There is no difference in Fat Content, and flavor. Any notable difference would be that our Southeast King quality is higher.
Bottom line, the Copper River has had incredible success in promotion and name recognition. For that we applaud them. However, the reality is, is that we provide the some of the best quality of salmon in Alaska, and do so at a fair and reasonable price.
Here’s what another blogger has to say about the Copper River Kings:
This coming week we will see our first arrival of Alaskan Sidestripe Shrimp in for the 2008 season. These shrimp are known for their sweet and tender taste that makes it a favorite among shrimp conesuers. Its relative inexpensive cost makes it a favorite among all seafood eaters.
This is one of those products that seem to sell prior to delivery from the fishing grounds. Considering the prime shrimp grounds are only an hour away from our dock, we are known for providing the freshest, most firm shrimp from Alaska.
Trivia: Sidestripe shrimp are one of the few shrimp that are vegans. They also require no deveining.
Give us a call to reserve your order.
Next week starts the Cruise Ship season to Petersburg. We really see only the smaller cruise ships as we don’t have a deep enough harbor to accomodate the larger vessels. If we were to ask locals on the streets what their thoughts were on only the smaller vessels able to come to Petersburg, I believe most if not all, would rather have it just the way it is. I suppose I would agree…although having larger cruise ships coming would mean larger volumes of foot traffic coming in our doors. Even still, I prefer that we can still walk and/or drive through town without a sense of overcrowding from picture takers and middle of the street striders like you see in places like Sitka and Juneau.
Why are we so excited? Well, we provide the cruise ships with their local seafood. A real shot in the arm after a long winter and spring.
So, hats off to Cruise West and Lindblad Expeditions for supporting local businesses for a large portion of your trip needs.
Alaska King Salmon is going to be a rather high commodity this year. From California to Washington, cutbacks and fishing seasons are on hold until further notice for this season…with the exception to the Columbia River which is predicted to have a large run this year.
What about Alaska? Alaska will see its own cutbacks this year as well. We are cut over 40% of our Kings for this year as well? Why? While although our catches here in Alaska aren’t salmon that will eventually make their way that far south, the same ocean conditions that are contributing to the lower 48’s decline in salmon numbers, are contributing to a reduction in this years projected return to Alaska. However, there is some good news. Oceanographers (Sp) are assuring State biologists that there is a turn in these ocean conditions that should lead us back to seeing high numbers of salmon returning after this year.
What does that do for the fisherman…they get paid higher dollar amounts for their product, although finding them may prove to be a lot tougher. For the consumer…expect higher prices for the most premium of salmon…the King Salmon.
Tonka Seafoods is located on the beautiful Sing Lee Alley bridge, straight across from the Son’s Of Norway Hall. What this location has does for us is to give us a close proximity to the harbors so that we are close to the fisherman and their catch. It also places us in one of the most beautiful spots in town as shown on the previous posts of the Eagles.
However, what I’ve also found is that locals don’t come down this way to do their shopping. Our shop is slightly out of the way of main street. While although we are the main walk for tourists coming off the cruise ships, we don’t get too much local business. For those locals who do travel down this street on a nice walk to the restaurant, they are always pleasantly surprised at our incredible gifts and product. All in all, we can’t complain about our location.
When your in Petersburg, be sure to stop by and say hello. If your local, remember to come check us out for your seafood and gift giving needs.
This past winter we bought a good amount of Alaskan Spot Prawns. These are very large shrimp that have a taste and texture very similar to the Northeast Lobster, which is very sweet. We thought that we would have no problem moving them prior to buying them, but found that many wholesalers like the shrimp fresh and not frozen at sea like we bought. Why this was and is perplexing to me is that shrimp frozen at sea comes out as a much better product than fresh as Frozen At Sea (FAS) is frozen usually within an hour of being caught. Contrast this to fresh, which is usually held for 1-2 days on ice prior to delivery. Then we buy them, box them, and ship them to Seattle where they would wait another day or two until sold. I need to also say that this fresh shrimp is still by no means a bad product, just in my opinion not as good as FAS.
With that said, you all benefit because we have a good amount of high quality, good priced Alaskan Spot Prawns on sale right now. Check out our website to take advantage of the best tasting shrimp in the world. www.TonkaSeafoods.com
I’ll have some good Prawn recipes on this week.
Well, the inevitable has finally happened. The record high prices of King Salmon has finally begun to fall. Allow me to point out that the price is still higher than they ever were last year. Why the drop? Well, a couple of reasons. First, the Columbia River net fishery went off this week bringing in thousands of pounds into the Northwest market. Second, volumes of winter Kings are hitting the docks here in Alaska…finally.
The Columbia river Kings are nice fish, but nowhere near the quality of our Alaskan troll Kings. Still, having the same species competing with our ours will drive prices down regardless of quality.
The good news is that I don’t think that prices will go down too far too fast. I anticipate that Kings will maintain a higher price all year. So to all our fisherman, stay out there and make us all some money.