Date: 2/13/2016
Every winter for the last 8 seasons the Tristate Skindivers
Club has sent out a calling to wake us hibernating North Atlantic spearos from
our winter slumber. A calling of the culinary clansman for a banquet of medieval
proportions to challenge those who can match their cooking creations with their
prowess at spearfishing, hunting and harvesting. Set precisely at mid-winter
this gathering provides a chance for the tribesman of the North to gather for some
camaraderie and shake off the doldrums of our off season home confinement sentence.
The Club sets forth one rule for this Olympiad of the oven… each
competitor must have killed, grown or harvested yourself an ingredient in your
culinary entry. From fish to beast, to shellfish and crustaceans, venison and
water fowl to gardeners and foragers… what these individuals throw down in this
kitchen cage match expands each year. Everyone attending sits in the judge’s
seat and picks their top three favorite dishes with the winners being
determined by the sum of these votes. The fair Maidens of Tristate hold this all together and handle the balloting and results.
Some find the most creative ways to utilize parts of fish,
fowl and beast that others would usually discard unknowing of the potential delicacy
there. Tautog Cheeks! Who the fuck takes the time to remove the tiny cheeks
from blackfish when filleting? But I guess if you are "the Reverend" Kelly Gillette,
your usual tautog harvest size is a little larger than the average spearo up
here and then henceforth makes his tog cheeks not so tiny and worth his added
effort. Candied Bass and Tautog Cheeks - yes, Bass Cheeks Wrapped in Bacon…
well that’s like a 1-2 punch the emotions and senses! You might catch me fishing through his gut
piles near the dock in 2016 to find something he missed.
Smoked Striped Bass and Cabbage Pierogis with Yogurt Dill Sauce? Somebody please slap Wayne Woodbury for just getting ridiculous on the
creational level and tell him “do not enter the light and come back to our world”.
Mad skills buddy. Last year he showed up with these stuffed bass bites with an
aioli sauce that just blew my taste buds away, so I was wondering how he could step
it up from here… well evidently, this is how.
Mike Landau whips up “Buffalo Tautog Arancinis with Buffalo Ranch
Dipping Sauce”. Not even fair, right? Mike always brings game but this dish had to
be one of my favorite ALL TIME kill n’ grill bites.
When my effort with “Sriracha & Brown Sugar Mahi Mahi
and Mango Kabobs finished with a Warm Honey drizzle and Cilantro” doesn’t even
make an honorable mention. I was clearly outclassed by an extraordinary field
of entries this year and rightfully so.
But Top Honors for the 2016 Contest were rightfully earned by the Captain of the
Imagination, Jason (there will be no bananas or fuckery on my boat) Saiz with
his outrageous - “Grass Fed Beef and Pork Stuffed
Meatballs with Guancaile, Chiles, and Cream Cheese” ! Yes butchered by him, grown by him and I do not
even doubt that he wills his own cream cheese into existence from milking pure happy
thoughts, heating it with his bravado then culturing it with stories of past adventures
at sea... arrrrrghhh. Congrats Jason !
Chowders, lobster bisque, venison
sausages and skewers of happiness. Then fried bass cheeks, baked scallops, smoked
hake followed by more – more - more as you proceed down the banquet tables. It
is an all-out assault on the senses and you definitely get your money’s worth
for the show.
But it is always the kinship of seeing great friends and sharing
diving stories, tales of the ocean and a chance to show off new spearfishing gear
that we have built or acquired that is the underlying theme of the event. With divers coming from New York to New Hampshire, the crowd is always diverse and fun. New
faces in the spearfishing scene are welcomed in and soon weaved into the fabric of
the freediving community while we also get a chance to grab some advice from
the local veterans in the sport. My personal tactic is to pry a few secret
spots away under the sponsorship of a shot or two. With the conclusion of
the event we all leave with full bellies, our sides hurt a little from laughing, and we
are now only a few weeks away from getting back in the water and chasing some tautog
locally.
Thank You Tristate Skindivers and Cheers to the upcoming 2016 season!
Visit the Tristate Skindivers web site
Visit the Tristate Skindivers web site
