Ted Sabarese

Three images from the evolution series

​We first saw Ted Sabarese's photography a few months back when a standout from his evolution series held down the cover of Gastronomica's Summer 2011 issue. There, a striking woman with huge luminescent eyes and a silvery gown sat poised to slice into a silvery fish with peepers the size of fifty cent pieces -- her fishy doppelgänger. We're not icthyologists or anything, but is that a snapper we see before us? The rest of the series follows suit: people paired with (and preparing to eat) the fish that resemble them.

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Anne Fishbein

grilled corvina at Olympic Cheonggukjang

​Eating at least one serving a week of fish could improve memory function, increase brain volume and stave off Alzheimer's, according to a new study recently presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, Health News reports. Note: that's baked or broiled fish, not Filet-O-Fish.

While previous research has suggested that eating fish may have brain-boosting effects, this study from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center suggests that consuming fish can battle against the brain shrinkage and cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's.

"We found higher levels of working memory in people who ate baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis, even when accounting for other factors, such as education, age, gender and physical activity," lead study author Dr. Cyrus Raji said in a statement.

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D. Solomon

Mr. Lee holds a yellowtail tuna collar

​How often do you see an immense animal in its full form just before you eat it? Unless you are serious about fishing and hunting, live on a farm, or spend a lot of time at Lindy & Grundy, that experience is rare.

If the idea sounds intriguing, and you enjoy yellowfin tuna, the place to be is the Woori Market at the Little Tokyo Galleria. Every Saturday at 2 p.m., the seafood section presents a "tuna cutting performance," combining a fish market, sashimi bar, and the showmanship of Benihana chefs.

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whysarah/flickr

Fish tacos at Best Fish Taco in Ensenada.

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The ideal fish taco is a time-sensitive collision of hissing-hot battered fish, a shell puffed up around mild, sweet flesh; a tortilla or two; crunchy cabbage; and cool, slightly sour crema. It is time-sensitive because, if the diner doesn't scoop it up quickly and put it away, the crema melts, the tortilla becomes gummy, and the fish's shell deteriorates. There are many variables, the most precarious of which being the freshness of the fish itself. In our day, we've encountered plenty of specimens we would not feed to a cat.

Between half-hearted shopping and a show last weekend, we doubled up on fish tacos at two reasonably well-regarded institutions: Best Fish Taco in Ensenada, a local micro-chain based in Los Feliz, and just a five minute-drive away, El Siete Mares, a Silverlake stand with outdoor seating.

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Ladles and JellySpoons

San Pedro harbor

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Want to go fishing? Want to go fishing with some Los Angeles chefs? Want some of the money you shell out for the ticket to go to Japan relief? Okay, then keep reading. Lucy Lean (formerly of edible Los Angeles, currently of the blog Ladles and JellySpoons, and author of the forthcoming cookbook Made In America: Our Best Chefs Reinvent Comfort Food) is organizing another chefs-and-the-rest-of-us fishing trip out of San Pedro harbor on Sunday, June 5th.

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Fried snapper (the hush puppies are hiding)

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Central Fish Market in Compton is no fancy fishery, some Daily Candy-crowned ice-glazed jewel bedecked with pristine slabs of halibut and ahi. The finned wares behind the smudged glass case of this strip mall shop aren't necessarily sustainably caught or raised; the freshness of each variety is not to be taken for granted but instead to be affirmed via careful ogling. Look for clear eyes, you remember, recalling a dozen food section tutorials. The fish should smell clean, you recollect, like the ocean, not, strangely enough, fish. You try to gauge these things from the other side of the case, wondering how dry the fillets appear, whether or not the shrimps seem sprightly enough. Give me a sign, you plead, but none lurch forward. The truth is, you can't get all farmers market about the fish here. Central Fish market is not a destination; it's a seafood-lover's stop-gap, albeit one that will not disappoint.

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A. Simmons

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"Oh, the fish must be fresh today," said Cori. Cori and I had just met. We were sitting in chairs facing the counter of Family Fish Market in a Carson strip-mall. The owner, a middle-aged Korean man sporting a shirt bearing the store's logo, was literally inside the case, spraying and wiping down the glass shield. An employee patted down a fresh layer of ice and slid in trays heaped with snapper, catfish, buffalo, whiting, and shrimp as the owner swam from one side of the tank to the other, still wiping.

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Really good sushi is expensive. And while we'd all love to eat at Urasawa during our lunch break, it's not exactly feasible (and not just because it costs a few hundred dollars -- they're also closed for lunch). So people can't always consume the freshest kohada flown in from Japan, but they do keep finding ways to grab some raw fish for lunch, and eat it at their desks. Whole Foods will make you a brown rice, tuna and avocado roll filled that omnipresent orange sauce; SanSai will let you pick up a take-out box of sushi with all the charm and grace of a Koo Koo Roo; and Ralphs, we're pretty sure, makes sushi too (though we try to pretend they don't). To help you find some better options, today's food fight will pit sushi and rolls from a truck against some from a Japanese supermarket.

N. Galuten

Small "spicy set" from Fishlips Sushi

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A. Simmons

Island Fresh

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We worked at a fish place for two years when we were in high school. When we walked into the Pico Boulevard fish market and restaurant Island Fresh--with its plastic starfish hanging from nets below the menu above the counter and the scent of batter and oil heavy in the air--days and nights spent toiling in its back kitchen returned. Our boss was a cheerful, blue-eyed bigot, an ex-drunk prone to messy relapses, a proud Christian fond of saying very un-Christian things. We prepped vegetables for sloppy, over-cooked sides, shredded cabbage for cole slaw, and fashioned lumpy cakes out of buckets of mashed crab and minced celery. Every now and then, our boss would stop by, sometimes clad in his pool clothes, and ask us, with a grin, and without a bit of irony, if we were having a good time.

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Charlie Brewer/Flickr

Fish at Sydney Market

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Restaurants can be circus acts. You know the type: massive, splashy, loud, with iffy, over-priced food and, more often than not, some off-putting, over-wrought theme. Still, even Ninja New York can't hold a candle to a real circus act, especially one involving eating, or at least something akin to it.

Reuters reports that the New South Wales Department of Industry and Investment has forced the Great Moscow Circus to abandon one of its favorite acts, an appetizing little bit in which a woman gobbles a live fish and subsequently regurgitates it.

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