Some of the most beautiful American seafood swim in Long Island waters, but finding them on markets and restaurants can be futile

Last month, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the launch of the Long Island Seafood Trail website, showing the extraordinary range of seafood that runs along the southern shore of the Bay Shore in Montauk (a guide on the north shore is also planned). The path was created by the Suffolk county’s maritime program, in collaboration with the New York State Agriculture and State Department (AGM), intended to invigorate the aquaculture of the State and the seafood industries with wild paving and strengthen local food systems and to “present our exceptional small businesses, and attract more visitors to this incredible region”.

The guide also highlights 20 official locations and other points of interest that sell and serve fish and crustaceans and crustaceans. It is an admirable adventure, which identifies 36 species of fish-including blue fish, papillon fish, eel, three types of folds, hake, mahi-mahi, scup, puffer, wahoo, the sea robin and more; Seven of the crustaceans, including scallops from the bay, BHES and blue mussels; And four of the crustaceans, including lobster, jonah crabs, rocky crabs and blue crabs.

There is only one problem: the majority of these species rarely arise, if never, in the New York markets or restaurants. It is almost impossible to find Tautog, Thresher, Mackerel, weakfish and most of the others on the menus that only list the same half-dozen varieties, in particular the so-called “Maine lobster”, the breeding salmon of the North West Pacific, the agricultural branzino of the Mediterranean and the Sole of Dover North Sea. The shrimp in the shrimp cocktail by the likelihood are frozen from Thailand, while the Blue crab is packed in Maryland and Mahi Mahi has shipped Hawaii.

This negligence of so wonderful seafood long Island, including the top -fed swordfish right next to Montauk and the blue fish that crosses the sound of the season, is not due to a lack of supply but to a lack of demand among consumers.

Unsurprisingly, the restaurants listed in the new Guide of Long Island follow suit, with repetitive offerings and menus that barely refer to the generosity of the region. The list of seafood at Captain Jack’s in Southampton includes fried calamari, Bretzels stuffed with crab, a fried folding sandwich, shrimps and grain and the origanata of the cod. Bell and anchor in Sag Harbor serves oysters and lobster from Montauk Pearl, but the dishes are only breaded Scottish salmon, bouillabaisse and folds. Even the Inlet Seafood restaurant in Montauk only offers the local dilator, the golden carriage fish and the tuna with large eyes on its menu.

All these recommended restaurants of the guide and the others may well have special seasonal or nocturnal offers, but why do they not sell and do they not serve the myriads of species listed on the guide’s website?

You would think that in New York seafood restaurants, the situation would be different, but it really is not the case. You can find skate or range or eel or bay scallops on menus but nothing like the generosity offered by local waters. When the Greek restaurant Estiatorio Milos (now with a dozen branches around the world) opened in Manhattan twenty years ago, a wide range of daily catches was arris on ice, but they focused on Mediterranean species, which was a whole new concept at the time.

The paragon of seafood restaurants on the East coast is the large Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant, open in 1913, whose wide size menu is printed several days a week depending on what is available on the market, with 25 different seafood species any day of the week, around the world. Thus, for the moment, the offers include the tuna with great eyes of Montauk, the clams of the sound of Long Island, the swordfish, the Mahi Mahi, the Monkfish, the bar and more, although even these only indicate the richness of seafood long Island.

So I hope that the new Long Island Seafood Trail website will arouse local pride among restaurateurs and markets to fully enjoy what is in our waters. Otherwise, its list of seafood species is a good reason to go out on a boat in the sound or along the southern coast for the spring migration of the striped bar, black bar, blue fish, porgy, weakness, scup, shadow of the calyhory and the tautog ready to bite.