Those of you who have been following this blog have seen how we've found out more and more about sardines in San Diego. Well for all of you, this is the climax. Today, Elena and I went out on The Rival, one of the four Everingham Bros. boats, and saw first hand how sardines are caught.

Photos of fishing trip

To give you a little background on sardines, back in the 1930s, at the peak of the sardine industry in San Diego, there were over 200 boats on the water. Sardines got a bad reputation as a poor man's food because they were inexpensive and almost exclusively canned instead of fresh. By the 1940s, overfishing and lower sea surface temperatures caused a big drop in the sardine population. Sardine fishing was reduced, and then almost completely stopped until the 80s and 90s when the population had recovered. Now that fishing has resumed, almost all California sardines are offloaded in L.A. (San Pedro) or Northern California and exported to feed farmed fish in Australia and Japan.

This set of circumstances has not made sardines a food that most Americans seek out. Few of us ate them growing up, and those of us who did probably remember them as an inexpensive and not very tasty canned food.

None of this history came in to play when we started searching for local seafood to serve on our menu. We found out that we could get San Diego sardines direct from the fishing company and that they were an extremely healthy fish to eat, both for the environment and for the eater. Sardines are low on the food chain and reproduce quickly, making them high in omega-3s and not prone to being overfished when properly managed.

So on the menu they went. We've been happy to see that many people have discovered fresh sardines for the first time at our restaurant. We're also happy to find out that many people seek us out having eaten fresh sardines before in Europe, Asia, and other places.

Taking a traditional Portuguese way of serving sardines, we initially only served them grilled whole, with the head on and the guts in. We found that the guts gave a bitter taste to the meat and have since started serving them without the guts. So if you haven't tried them since then, come back and give them another try. Also, our goal is to use sardines in many different ways, so we've been serving pan-fried sardine fillets to put on top of salads. In the future, we'll figure out some other interesting and tasty new ways to serve them, so keep an eye out on our menu.

As we as a culture focus more on local, sustainable, and healthy foods, my hope is that sardines will someday be on the map. The availability of sardines is there for us. The knowledge is there for us in the form of experienced fishermen like John who captains The Rival. The tools are there for us in the form of boats and nets owned by Everingham Brothers. The fish are there for us, plentiful and schooling within sight of our shores. The law permits the purchase of sardines. What is lacking is a distribution system and consumer demand. Sea Rocket is not going to make sardines a popular fish overnight, but it's nice to know that there's a local, sustainable food available to us now, and for us to play a small role as a distribution system and buyer of this amazing little fish.

Here are some links to other things on our blog about sardines:

Eleven Best Foods You Aren't Eating
Sardine Hunting
Sardines (Summary Page)