Earlier this week we attended the Community Board One meeting about the New Amsterdam Market proposal to take over the old Fulton Fish Market buildings for a year-round wholesale and retail market, a space that includes not just goods for sale but incubator kitchens, training centers and maybe even a meat processing facility. The meeting was a chance for board members to hear testimony, and one of those who got up to speak was Paul Greenberg, author of Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food.
Greenberg praised New Amsterdam Market founder Robert LaValva not just for bringing back fresh seafood for sale to the seaport–the market is there on Sundays for the rest of the year–but for connecting us to the stuff actually caught around our island home, thanks to fisherman who still work our waters. “He brought those fishermen back to the market,” said Greenberg. To help raise even more awareness about what delicious fish swim so close to our island shores, the author is going to be talking at its second annual Gathering of the Fisheries this Sunday, May 20.
The Gathering is one of frequent theme markets at NAM–grains, meat and ice cream have been other topics–and this is the first this year. More than a dozen regional fish and seafood vendors–some from right here–will be selling their watery wares. There’ll be a chance to talk to distributors, learn seafood cleaning and cooking techniques from chefs like April Bloomfield and Dave Pasternack, and you’ll hear about current issues and policy. Go fish! Go to NAM!
