Salmon Is Tasty and Good for You

Bears, eagles, and Northwest Native Americans know a good thing when they taste it . . . Salmon.

My wife Peg and I have eaten salmon from Copper River to Columbia River and beyond. The great thing about salmon is that it not only tastes great, it’s good for you as well. Salmon brothers and fishy kin are almost always at the top of our list to eat. Mackerel doesn’t usually make the list, but we’ve eaten it prepared at Asian restaurant and enjoyed it. The top of our list is salmon, steelhead, trout, and smelt. Sardines make my snack list, but don’t make it very high up on Peg’s.

We’ve eaten Alaskan salmon shared by relatives as well as purchased from local Native Americans along the Puyallup River. To supplement fresh salmon, we always have a supply of canned salmon in the cupboards for salmon salad, or salmon croquettes. I love croquettes hot from the skillet with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice and lots of ketchup, or cold out of the refrigerator for breakfast. There are never enough left-overs. thesubtimes.com/2021/03/12/salmon-croquettes-just-cheap-delicious-food/

“One of the local seafood shops has a steady supply of steelhead. These are seagoing trout. Trout are from the salmon family. The steelhead are farm raised, too but here in Washington in the cold north Okanagan area of the Cascades and eastern Washington. The flesh is paler than ocean salmon, but very, very moist. Priced below comparable Pacific salmon they taste every bit as good . . . or better, but that might be Peg’s cooking. I’ll have to investigate their omega-3 oil and vitamin D content, but I’m hoping they’re as good as the Pacific wild-caught salmon numbers.” live2agewell.com/Salmon.html

When dining at restaurants, you need to tell the server how you want your salmon cooked. Most restaurants will over-cook the fish if you don’t specifically tell them how you want it prepared. Another trick is to keep your eye on the food counter sitting under the warming lights. Just sitting there can overcook and dry out your salmon. Peg always ask for “just underdone.”

I’m a history fan and subscribe to Archaeology Magazine. Here was a recent comment on salmon and Washington State:
“Washington Salmon is an excellent source of lean protein, but eating too much of it isn’t healthy. It has long been thought that indigenous populations of the Pacific Northwest ate an almost exclusively salmon-based diet yet were somehow unaffected by “salmon starvation,” a toxic condition caused by an overly protein-intensive diet. A new study suggests that Native communities were well aware of these nutritional pitfalls and relied on trade, hunting, and agriculture to supplement their diet with acorns, root crops, and fatty marine mammals.” – Archaeology – July/August 2021

At current prices for salmon, overeating salmon is not a major problem; however, it is nice to have something other than salmon with your meal. We like grilled asparagus, a crunchy salad and fruit for dessert.

Keep an eagle eye out for prices on salmon and steelhead.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.