Alaskan Fish Story

Looks like some great eating ahead. For a long time, Copper River Salmon have been marketed as "The Salmon" to have. Now, the Tacoma News Tribune reports on a Salmon that's supposed to be even better:

'The Cadillac of fish' is back
Yukon king salmon: Tasty dish available in restaurants, stores again starting today

Move over Copper River salmon - there's a new fish coming out of Alaska that distributors and retailers say has enough flavor to blow even this wildly popular menu item out of the water. It's the Yukon king salmon, and it will be available to domestic consumers for the first time in decades beginning today.

According to Yukon River exporters and brokers, the over-2,000-mile trip from the Bering Sea to spawn gives these king salmon an oil content of up to 34 percent, which they claim makes them richer and more flavorful than Copper River kings. The fish also are high in omega-3 fatty acids, considered to be the healthiest type of fat for the heart.

"I grew up in a fish family," said Brad Boroughs of Pacific Harvest Seafoods in Bellevue, "and we always called them the Cadillac of fish. They just disappear in your mouth."

Boroughs said orders were already streaming in from distributors around the Northwest. Pacific Harvest sells many kinds of Alaskan salmon, including Copper River salmon, he said, but nothing compares to the flavor of the Yukon king.

This is the first year since the 1970s that the river's entire king salmon catch won't be shipped to major Japanese importers - such as the Mitsubishi, Nichiro and Marubenei corporations - which sell the fish to be smoked or made into a flaky condiment. In the face of this demand, Boroughs said, domestic sales of the fish were limited to 5,000 pounds per year.

Salivating just thinking about it...