Ocean Breathes Salty

    

  

#54

02.23.10

  

Photo

  
Every time guests pay a visit to the Subarctic we like to reward them with a big home-cooked red king crab dinner.  Restaurants are more than happy to collect your $50 per pound-and-a-half of crab legs; but we can buy it for around $14 per pound and let you eat as much as you'd like.  This stuff is to seafood what platinum is to precious metals.  Top shelf stuff.

Part of the fun is showing up at New Sagaya's market to pick your crab legs.  I think they have the freshest stuff in town.  So that's where we headed a few weekends ago when my parents and younger brother were here, so that they could be a part of the experience.  

I like the featured photo above because that dungeness crab is just beautiful, and because there was no light glaring off glass case.  Here are some other shots I got at the market: 
  

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

 

And finally... the star of the show (meal).  We went through 4 large clusters that night.  During the summer we heat them on a tinfoil raft over the grill; during the winter we steam them like this over water in a turkey pot.

 

Music

  
There was no question when I took these photos at New Sagaya's that Ocean Breathes Salty would serve as the accompanying soundtrack.  The song really doesn't have anything to do with fishmongery; but I just love the song, and my photo subjects once lived and breathed the salty ocean themselves.  


Though the original Modest Mouse recording is just too coarse for the carefully crafted vibe of my blog, I'll still add it as a secondary track for those of you willing to try on an artsy song for size.  As I did before in blog #13 Grey Ice Water; I'll opt for the smoother interpretation by Sun Kil Moon for today's featured music.  
  
Mark Kozelek is just such a genius for recognizing the depth and beauty of Modest Mouse's music and lyrics, and I will forever respect and appreciate him for that.  He just makes the lyrics so accessible, and that in turns elevates my appreciation for Modest Mouse.  As this is the second time featuring Sun Kil Moon's covers of Modest Mouse, I'll invite you to buy the album Tiny Cities to support Mark's efforts if you feel so inclined.

If ever lyrics deserved reprinting, this song makes it's case.  I'll highlight the most personally striking phrases in a song chock full o'em:
 
Your body may be gone, I'm gonna carry you in.
In my head, in my heart, in my soul.
And maybe we'll get lucky and we'll both live again.
Well I don't know. I don't know. I don't think so.
 
Well that is that and this is this.
You tell me what you want and I'll tell you what you get.
You get away from me.
Collected my belongings and I left the jail.
Well thanks for the time, I have to think a spell.
I had to think awhile.
 
And the ocean breathes salty, won't you carry it in?
In your head, in your mouth, in your soul.
And maybe we'll get lucky and we'll both grow old.
Well I don't know. I don't know. I hope so.
 
Well that is that and this is this.
Will you tell me what you saw and I'll tell you what you missed, when the ocean met the sky.
You missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye.
When the earth folded on itself.
And said "Good luck, I hope heaven and hell are really there, I wouldn't hold my breath."
 
You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?
You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?
You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?
You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?
 
The ocean breathes salty, won't you carry it in?
In your head, in your mouth, in your soul.
The more we move ahead the more we're stuck in rewind.
Well I don't mind. I don't mind. How could I mind?
 
Well that is that and this is this.
You tell me what you want and I'll tell you what you get.
You get away from me. You get away from me.
 
Well that is that and this is this.
Will you tell me what you saw and I'll tell you what you missed, when the ocean met the sky.
You missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye.
When the earth folded on itself.
And said "Good luck, I hope heaven and hell are really there, I wouldn't hold my breath."
  
You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?
You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?
You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?
You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste death?

Parting Comments

  
I find it interesting that when I voice my general distaste for seafood I am made to feel unsophisticated or mindless as to my own health.  However, my forebears fought long and hard that I might be given the choice, among other things, to eat what and when I so choose; and I aim to celebrate that right.  P.J. O'Rourke noted "Fish is the only food that is considered spoiled once it smells like what it actually is".  
  
And that's just the trouble, I cannot tell when it's spoiled when it has the odor that it does any time other than when I've brought it up from the ocean myself.  I have had some mighty fine salmon in my Alaskan experience; but never really at a restaurant.  Halibut is the exception, the lone fish I can order without fear of it tasting like fish.  Shrimp and crab have an obvious exemption, else we wouldn't have today's blog entry. 
  
Until tomorrow... thank you for looking, listening and reading.  CCE