Norwegian Steam: Seafood Lovers Paradise

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Seafood Lovers Paradise

Loren, Sally, Alan and Amy

Pacific Mexico is not just sailing and sun bathing. These pleasures are equaled or even eclipsed by the enjoyment of seafood. Great mariscos everywhere. I have been feasting on camarones (shrimp), atun (tuna), dorado (mahi-mahi) and marlyn (marlin). Amy's uncle Loren, who was here for nearly a week, ate camarones at every meal.

Moon Over La Cruz

Between Meals, Alan and Loren Check Out the Music Scene

At Frascati's, an Italian-Mexican restaurant in La Cruz, I had the best tuna that I have ever eaten. They serve it seared or pink. In Seattle, if you order your tuna any way other than seared the waiter will instantly relegate you to the ranks of the hopelessly uncool. Of course, preparing seared tuna is easy and safe. You hardly cook it at all and thus avoid the risk of overcooking, which turns the best ahi instantly into something that could have come from a can. You avoid embarrassment by intimidating the customer into eating the fish raw. Frascati's chef is a real man (or woman, haven't actually met the individual) -- a risk taker par excellence. He (she) cooks the fish just the right amount. Perfection!

Also at Frascati's I had a great pizza fruti di mare. It was ten times better than the same dish at La Fontanelle on the banks of Lac de Genval near Brussels, which I ordered many times when we lived there and which had previously been the yardstick by which I measured seafood pizzas.

But you don't have to go Italian to get great seafood meals. It seems that all of the traditional Mexican presentations such as burritos, quesadillas, tacos, as well as regional specialties such as papas (baked potato) in La Paz, can be the basis of a meal of seafood. The mariscos are invariably fresh and delicious.

In Search of Seafood

Of course, you can also buy seafood at the market and cook it the way you like it. The prices here are outstanding. Freshly caught tuna goes for 110 pesos (less than ten dollars) per kilogram (2.2 pounds). Mahi-mahi goes for 90 pesos per kilo. Yes, this is a seafood lover's paradise.

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Norwegian Steam, the vessel

Norwegian Steam is the name of our 35' sailboat. She was designed by Ted Brewer. About 40 hulls were constructed by Miller Marine on Bainbridge Island, Washington between 1976 and the early 1980s. It is rumored that additional hulls were constructed in eastern Canada. Because many of these boats were completed by owners, there is a very great diversity in the fleet. To learn more about the basic design, you can find information about Ted's Jason design on his web site.

NS was completed by Alan with the help of friends, some of them professionals, over many years. She has been sailing since 2001. She differs from most (perhaps all) other instances of the Jason design in that her mast is 6 feet taller and she is rigged as a racing cutter, with large overlapping staysail. This rig design was inspired by the work of John Illingworth, the great English yacht designer and sailboat racer.

Norwegian Steam, the name

The phrase, Norwegian steam, may originally have been somewhat pejorative. When a vessel was powered by sails or by oars instead of by a steam or diesel engine, it was said to be powered by "Norwegian steam", the implication being that the Norwegians were so poor they could not afford engines for their boats. As time passed, the Norwegians themselves adopted the phrase to indicate a "can-do" attitude or doing whatever it takes to get the job done, even with limited resources or under adverse circumstances.

During the great era of America's Cup racing in J-Class yachts, the term took on a slightly different meaning. Many of the American defender boats had Norwegian crews and thus were said to be powered by Norwegian steam. A website has been dedicated to this bit of history.