Kingston Seafood Manager Joe Longendyke has been with Adams Family Farms for 30 years. He knows so much about seafood that he’s affectionately known to Adams employees as “Joe Fish.” We spoke to Joe recently to get his take on seafood trends, what to look for in your seafood and why you should get your seafood from a true fish monger.
You’ve been with Adams a long time
30 years now. That’s 30 years of experience and learning, and I pass this knowledge on to our seafood crews at our other stores, so they know as much as I know. Our knowledge of fish is a thousand times better than other stores’. I have nine full time employees, and all our stores have full-time fish people. When you go somewhere else, they're grabbing somebody from the deli to come wait on you at the fish counter.
What’s the biggest factor in seafood quality?
Freshness, without a doubt. Every morning we get price list from the different wholesalers that we use, showing what's available. We get our fish Monday through Saturday, usually by 05:00 or 06:00 a.m. So while some supermarkets have a catch of the day, everything we sell is the catch of the day.
Where does our fish come from?
80% from Boston and 20% from New York. We buy from wholesalers that are right on Boston Harbor, that have their own boats. I look at it as soon as possible to make sure it’s nice and fresh.
I just made a new connection in the Gulf of Maine. So I'm buying flounder, fluke, swordfish, gray sole, and some salmon that's farm-raised up that way. It's probably eight or nine times the quality you're going to see in a typical supermarket. It's just the way the fish have been caught and handled. That's why the one or two day boats are crucial or, if it comes right out of the pens, we’re selling it in two days. We don't use any tank-raised fish at all. It's all netted pens, all good for the environment.
Our fish looks better than any other place I go to
I hand-cut some, but mostly I buy from people I can rely on. I have a really good eye because I was in the restaurant business for 14 years. Plus, I eat a lot of fish!
So, what’s popular these days?
Our top three best-sellers are salmon, cod, and then blue shrimp. We sell a lot of shrimp, scallops, calamari, clams, and mussels for the Feast of the Seven Fishes at Christmastime. Octopus and smelts are also big. Myself, I make them into a Zuppa di Pesce, which is very popular. And lobster tail, too.
About scallops: we get only what we call dry scallops. They taste better, they last longer, and they're a much better product than the ones with 25% water added. When you cook those, they shrink. When you cook fresh ones, they plump up. They’re almost like a piece of candy, they’re that sweet.
Do shoppers ask for advice?
All the time. We'll tell them how to cook it, how to store it, how many days they can keep it in their fridge before they have to freeze it. I normally keep cryopack pieces in the back, so if someone is going to freeze it when they get home, I just grab it out of the back. A lot of people don’t know that you can refreeze fish if it never thawed out all the way. If it did, you don't want to refreeze it. It ruins the consistency and the taste. It won't be right.
Are people buying healthier? Has there been a trend?
Oh, yeah. You see a lot of vegetables in their shopping carts and definitely a lot of salmon, to lower cholesterol. It’s usually the farm-raised salmon, but wild King and socket and Coho when it's in season. That's only in June, July, August, and September. We also get sockeye that's been harvested fresh throughout season and frozen.
Do you have a favorite fish you wish customers would try more?
Bass. (Points) Look at this one. It's beautiful. All the stripers come in tagged. They have to be, to make sure they’re from Massachusetts. And they have to be New York legal.
Any weird requests from shoppers?
Some of your more unusual New Zealand cockles, which are small clams from New Zealand. Florida rock shrimp. Monkfish isn’t weird, but people don't know much about it. Chop it up. Sauté it. It's a little lobstery. It has that consistency, but more flavor. I do a little butter, and I throw some scallops in with it. I throw some chopped clams in there, too. Little touch of gin. White wine on the side. Octopus, I have that in there, too.
How does Adams compare when it comes to prices?
We're competitive. A bit higher than most stores, but then, our quality is so much higher. A lot of people don't look at the prices, they look at the fish. That's why we sell so much.
And with my experience, I know where to put it in the case. I've been to our other stores and I’ve helped them with that. I try to go red, white, red, white, orange. Anything that's on sale, I group two or three together, and then usually there's a shrimp so that's on the other side. Just helping shoppers look around, maybe trying something new. And we keep everything clean. Shoppers don't smell any fish when they come by. Or if they do, it smells fresh. I've bought cod somewhere else and it smells—and tastes--like bleach. Maybe they didn't rinse out the bucket. Or maybe it's “freshened” product previously frozen. Or they dipped it in bleach water. A place down the street from here used to do that. That's why they’re not around anymore.
Can people put in special holiday orders online, like with turkeys?
If enough people want it, we can do it. We could put together packages that are already set, no changes, no substitutions. You could do packages of three fishes, five fishes, seven fishes. One price, for a pound of each. I think it’s a good idea because with all the preorders, there wouldn’t be people standing at the counter waiting for their seven fishes. I think it would also help people to have recipes for each package.
*We heard you Joe! Check out our Holiday Seafood Feast