Blue Water Cafe’s executive chef Frank Pabst is crafting the menu for his annual sustainable seafood festival: Unsung Heroes. Chef Pabst began this special month-long menu 10 years ago, making the 2015 version number 11. He saw a need to raise the level of public awareness not only for local seafood, but “to showcase how great some of the lesser known, and lesser used, seafood products can be.” To preach avoidance of species that are over-fished or harvested in ways that can damage oceans beds is not enough. Thus Pabst’s month-long celebration features such things as sea urchin, jellyfish, mackerel, octopus, and gooseneck barnacles.
Pabst and the Blue Water Cafe are known for championing great local seafood, and Pabst is one of the founding members of the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise conservation program. Blue Water Cafe donates 10 per cent of the proceeds from Unsung Heroes to the Ocean Wise program.
Some examples of past Unsung Heroes menu items: red sea urchin trifle, stir-fried jellyfish, and poached periwinkles. The dinners begin February 2 and end on Saturday, February 28.
