Copper River Salmon and Fisherman from our backyard (...continued)

Just before salmon returns to the river to spawn from the wild Alaskan sea, it is a prime time to catch this tasty treat. This rich red meat is full of flavor, yet very light. Copper River Salmon is available only 3 weeks out of the year.

So, back in late May this year, I decided to look for a fisherman in Alaska who could catch these tasty Copper River salmon for us instead of going through a middleman just like all other sushi bars do. I spent over a week searching for a fisherman and quite by coincidence I found one in Cordova, Alaska. To my biggest surprise, he is from Sushi Den’s own Platte Park neighborhood. This is what I call rare catch!

The next thing we wondered was how we could continue offering this one of a kind, rare salmon much longer than just 3 weeks. All salmon needs to be treated one way or another before serving raw, they must be either cured or frozen. In Sushi Den, we have 3 very powerful deep freezers and they are always kept around minus 70°F. Now that is powerful! What our powerful freezers do is to freeze everything 3~4 times faster than the normal freezing process offers. In fact, when we had a summer heat wave one month ago, these freezers were the most popular hang out among chefs during their lunch break. It was very nice being in -70°F for only a short period of time. So, we decided to purchase as much Copper River salmon as was available to us during 3 weeks of this fishing season.

Now, our stock is coming to an end and we will not have this specific Copper River salmon until next year, however since we now have a new fisherman from our own backyard over in Alaska, we will be bringing many more interesting fish to you. Stay tuned for the rare catches he fishes for us!