From San Diego’s fishing history from Kumeyaay and Portuguese tuna fishermen, to today’s multicultural palette
by MacKenzie Elmer / Voice of San Diego / December 16, 2024
Trout is the closest my family ever came to landing fresh seafood in central Wisconsin.
The trout’s progenitors are steelhead, native Pacific Ocean residents who fight river currents to mate in the cool headwaters of Western rivers. But other than pan-fried lakeshore lunches, I have no idea what to do with most fish I encounter – especially any of the 100 local species that might turn up at San Diego’s Tuna Harbor Dockside Market on Saturday mornings.
I tried once. The first thing my husband and I noticed walking to the market’s dock one moment were people carrying plastic bags filled with something heavy and wet. These are the market early birds, the chefs and those whose cultures teach their children how to dine beyond meat but also the blood, skins and bones.
Then there was us, the sometimes-frozen fish curious, but also sashimi-grade appreciating know-nothings. We bought something called a skipjack, because I liked the name and my husband knew it was a kind of tuna, and a scarier, snake-like thing we guessed might work for fish stew. We butchered the butchering of the snake thing, and it sat in our freezer, a nightmarish reminder of our failure until one of us summoned the courage to send it back to the earth in our compost bin.
Behold! The San Diego Seafood Then & Now cookbook, which offers recipes and stories from our region’s deep connection to fishing. It’s based on interviews with the fishermen of Dockside Market, local historians and the keepers of cultural wisdom from San Diego’s indigenous communities who were forcibly removed from their coastline.
A local chef and historian dreamed up the idea during the pandemic and, years later, turned it into hard copy with support from California Sea Grant, a government-funded research and public education effort dedicated to supporting coastal and marine environments.
The book walks the reader through San Diego’s fishing history from the indigenous tribes of the Kumeyaay and the Portuguese tuna fishermen, to the multicultural palette San Diego offers today. Recipes accompany each slice of San Diego’s fishing story like Mat kulaahuuy Hiiwaa an indigenous recipe for California sheephead, halibut or rockfish. Wrap the fish in fresh giant kelp from the ocean for steaming instead of corn husks and the endemic dried lemonade berry instead of ground sumac to summon the traditional flavor of this ancient dish.
The point of the book is to call San Diegans back to the wealth of their local shores and rebuild the region’s fishing identity. Post World War II, San Diego became the tuna capital of the world. As California developed strict environmental regulations banning netting which often entangled dolphins unintentionally, local fishermen didn’t have the time or the money to adapt, said Theresa Talley of California Sea Grant. San Diego’s fishing fleet moved to Hawaii and Californians began buying cheaper tuna from other parts of the world with less-strict regulations.
San Diego’s fishing scene remains at a few commercial docks from San Diego to Oceanside harbor. Many boats are family-run businesses selling to local restaurants or Dockside Market customers. But most San Diegans still purchase their seafood from grocery stores that offer fare from the global market. People buy Maine lobster when native spiny lobster live among the jetties in Mission Bay and Point Loma. Frozen salmon at Whole Foods is farm-raised in Iceland. The frozen shrimp hails from Thailand or Vietnam. And the cod, from Latvia.
“Everyone knows salmon, maybe tuna or shrimp. But people don’t know what to do with big round Opah or the flat California halibut and angel shark,” Talley said. “We thought, wouldn’t it be great to provide recipes and tips to instruct people what to do with local fish.”
Beyond simply appreciating the local and super-diverse waters off San Diego, buying local seafood straight from the dock is a sustainable choice. There are fewer “food miles” generated this way. Think of that shrimp from Thailand. Not only was it grown under whatever conditions and regulations that may or may not exist in another country, that product had to be frozen and either flown or shipped to a distribution center and then your local Whole Foods probably by a gas-powered truck.
The cookbook’s goal is to encourage San Diegans to adapt to other fish species when the ones they know aren’t available. What’s available changes with the seasons and weather conditions.
“It’s a tough thing for people who can buy salmon three hundred and sixty five days a year,” Talley said. “It’s getting folks to be a little more flexible. You go to the market wanting yellowtail, but it’s not there.”
Hot tip: Ask the fishermen themselves what they’d substitute.
How to get the cookbook: Preorders finished in November. But Talley said it should be out in stores in early 2025. Follow the book’s instagram page for updates. And San Diego Magazine chatted with the book’s team on their podcast, Happy Half Hour.
