Weekend of Community, Fish, and Food
Written by Eric Keener
Sept. 1, 2019
This fish story is less about the fish and more about how much of a joy it is to be a part of a community of like-minded people. It was a long 3 day weekend and I got a call from Matt Bond (Salabat408) who said he had some stuff for me. I met up with him after he was getting out of the water and he graciously gave me all kinds of foraged and garden goodies like smoked prunes, porcini mushrooms from Monterey/SC, finger limes, and yuzu. It wasn’t long before this that I really started getting into cooking and man, when you get a flavor bomb goody basket like that…. it’s just on a whole different level of gratitude.
Daniel, my best bud and a fellow a dive buddy from LA stayed with us for the weekend and I got the green light to dive all day Saturday. He is a balls to the walls go getter like me when it comes to thrill seeking so I knew we had to go somewhere epic. I borrowed Pat Kuhl’s (Sincoast) 13.5 Kraken, which turned out was one that Jim Russel sold to him and I let Daniel use my Cobra Fishing Navigator. Again, so cool that someone like Pat is just willing to let me play with such a nice yak without any questions asked. Daniel and I ended up paddling a paltry 3 miles to get to a legit and pretty remote dive spot. We had 7 people coming over for dinner Sunday, so we needed some meat and planning on taking a couple more fish than we usually do (I typically take 2-4 now depending on the circumstances). Suffice it to say, we definitely found quality fish. That blue in the pic is 16.75" which is a tie for my personal best). Compared to my Cobra Kayak, the Kraken is nearly double the weight so I hated every minute of getting it to and from the water, but I'll tell you what, once it's on the water, it is a luxury I had yet to experience. That lawn chair seat is amazing to paddle from, it's insanely stable, and ohhhhh to have so much storage. I have no hatches on my yak because I want to keep it as light as possible for when I rappel it down cliffs in Big Sur or hike it down goat trails. What a treat it was to be on that yak in the water. I actually considered buying one until it was time to get it out of the water and back to my car. Speaking of treats, we got several large urchins and a few scallops as well.
On Sunday, we made a huge meal for everyone using my go-to recipe that always comes out prime! (RECIPE HERE). The parm risotto had the porcinis from Matt, the fillets were large, the herb sauce was really tasty and I tried a new idea by mixing some preserved lemon rinds with greek yogurt, salt, fresh garden herbs and some creme. Turned our really, really nice! The bread was just olive oil brushed with some italian herbs and various dipping oils (truffle, chili and Moroccan). I also made an arugula and corn salad as well.
It’s weekends like this, filled with friends, gifts, community and food that is the driving force behind Fin + Forage. I sure dig our community.