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New Orleans Is Singing the Redfish Blues
PAUL PRUDHOMME talks about food the way some people talk about family -- with warmth, love and, lately, with regret.
Louisiana food at its best, at its freshest, ''can give people a memory for the rest of their lives,'' said Mr. Prudhomme, the Louisiana-born chef, whose creations helped make the state's cuisine popular worldwide.
It could be a sizzling herb-crusted piece of blackened redfish or a plate of moist pan-fried speckled trout or something as simple as sautéed crawfish swimming in a rich brown roux. ''It dances in your head,'' he said, ''forever.''
But not if the key ingredients, the fish and shellfish, are bland or frozen, grown in artificial tanks or ponds, like some redfish, or come straight from the refrigerated holds of ships, like the crayfish imported from China and Spain.
It may still seem good to some people, but to the taste buds of fishermen and chefs, it disappoints. ''Locally produced seafood is what we have done best here for centuries,'' Mr. Prudhomme said. ''And we're getting away from that at a rapid rate.''
Chefs and fishermen here in Louisiana say a long-running state ban on the commercial fishing of redfish, a more recent ban on gill-net fishing of trout and a rocky start to the crayfish harvest, after a disastrous one last year, are making three signature dishes of local seafood scarce, expensive or impossible to find.
In New Orleans, one of the top tourist destinations in the country, many restaurants now substitute redfish raised on a farm and frozen crayfish from overseas.
Many people cannot taste the difference between farm-raised and wild fish, and others might not notice that the crawfish are puny. But to purists, serving such food is like running a cow in the Kentucky Derby. ''It takes away the flavor of New Orleans,'' said Dean Blanchard, a fifth-generation fisherman, who owns Seafood Inc. in Grand Isle. ''I don't eat fish in New Orleans anymore.''
New Orleans is not running out of food. Billions of shrimp are still sautéed, countless crabs are boiled and truckloads of chickens are fried. There is no shortage of oysters or catfish, no ban on bread pudding. But some dishes are just part of the lore of a place, and any scarcity -- long term or temporary -- troubles locals and irks tourists.
''Food brings more people to this city than anything,'' said Anthony Uglesich, whose Uglesich's Restaurant has been in business here since 1924. To meet that demand, ''we overfished the waters,'' he said.
Mr. Prudhomme's blackened redfish, a favorite at his French Quarter restaurant, K-Paul's, was imitated around the country, and before long Louisiana redfish were caught here and shipped to other states. Overfishing led to a ban on commercial fishing for redfish in 1988, and many chefs turned to farm-raised or frozen redfish from outside Louisiana. Mr. Prudhomme just stopped serving it.
After the ban on gill nets in 1997, speckled trout can still be caught with a rod and reel, but that is labor-intensive, and the dish has vanished from many restaurants.
But the most dismaying thing for many people here is the shortage and size of the critter that has become the city's mascot: the crayfish. Crayfish production hinges on a delicate cycle of weather. A drought last year left some ponds and canals dry or depleted of oxygen, shrinking the crayfish habitat, and an abnormally cold winter sent crayfish into a hibernationlike state, causing them to eat less, stunting their growth.
As a result, the 2000 harvest was some 70 percent lower than 1999's. The situation is not as bad this year, but a lack of rainfall since March means the harvest will probably be below average, said John Roussel, assistant secretary of the office of fisheries at the State Wildlife and Fisheries Department in Baton Rouge.
For people like Mr. Uglesich, finding good, fresh seafood is a constant battle. ''I get up at 4:30 a.m., and I'm on the phone, looking for seafood,'' he said. ''It's tough, tough. If we can't get it fresh, we do without.''
Mr. Prudhomme said the state's ban on commercial fishing of redfish was frustrating because the fish have made a comeback. Mr. Roussel confirmed that both redfish and trout have greatly increased in numbers. But that does not mean that a return to commercial fishing of redfish or net fishing of trout is expected anytime soon. Sport fishermen, who are permitted to fish these varieties, bitterly oppose it.
''That may be a very tall hill to climb,'' Mr. Roussel said, of the chances that the state bans would be lifted.
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