Calamari could feed R.I. food identity

FARE SEA: Matthew MacCartney, chef at Jamestown Fish, says that a seafood supplier from Portland, Maine, that he does business with regularly offers Point Judith calamari. / COURTESY HILARYBPHOTOGRAPHY
FARE SEA: Matthew MacCartney, chef at Jamestown Fish, says that a seafood supplier from Portland, Maine, that he does business with regularly offers Point Judith calamari. / COURTESY HILARYBPHOTOGRAPHY

There is an interesting aspect to the definition of “appetizer.” A secondary definition after its main meaning – a food or drink usually served before a meal to stimulate the appetite – describes an appetizer as a before-dinner food served if there is to be a long wait for the main dish.
Therefore, you or your guests won’t be ravenous when dinner finally arrives. It appears that this is how things are these days in the General Assembly, where calamari is concerned.
When our lawmakers on Smith Hill decided to again work on legislation to designate calamari as the state’s official appetizer, it was met with a heaping helping of derision from several quarters. What business do elected representatives have taking up frivolous matters such as this when the future of the state is in jeopardy, some asked. If the distinguished members of the Assembly take the usual tack and act on this as just another honorary title being bestowed on a popular food item that is somewhat indigenous to the state, the wags are right.
But the giving of an official designation to calamari just may be the opportunity to get the state’s economy back on track. If the state gets behind this like other states that have granted official status to their iconic foods, it could be a serving of real benefit.
Rep. Deb Ruggerio, D-Jamestown, who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Joseph McNamara, D-Warwick, was recently quoted as saying, “Calamari could be to Rhode Island what lobster is to Maine.” In 2013, Maine state legislators passed a bill allowing the lobster industry to tax itself so it can market what has become an overabundance of lobster. The industry raised $2.5 million. “The money will be used to market the Maine lobster brand,” Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, told a public radio interviewer. The industry will also put its brand on new food products containing Maine lobster because “lobster is becoming an ingredient,” McCarron said. By the way, lobster sales in 2013 in Maine totaled over $360 million. And as a sidebar, chef Matthew MacCartney, of the restaurant Jamestown Fish, told me recently that a seafood supplier from Portland, Maine, that he does business with regularly offers Point Judith calamari.
How about working toward a goal to make calamari to Rhode Island what citrus fruit is to Florida? That state has an entire Department of Citrus. Back in 1935, the legislature in the Sunshine State passed a Florida Citrus Code. The Florida Citrus Commission and the Florida Department of Citrus were established as an agency of the state government to provide marketing, research and regulatory support to the fruit industry. Marketing activities account for most of the department’s work. Although it is a state agency, the Department of Citrus is not funded through Florida’s general tax revenue. The industry pays its own way in the form of an excise tax placed on each box of citrus that moves through commercial channels. The oranges pick up their own tab, as do Maine’s lobsters. Why not Rhode Island calamari?
Anecdotal reviews abound from my listeners who toss off the state’s connection to calamari with the ease of a Federal Hill chef handling a saute pan of crispy fried rings and tentacles and thin rings of pickled hot peppers. According to chef Jasper White, Rhode Island has the largest squid-fishing fleet on the East Coast. Seven million pounds of squid were consumed in 2012 and more than half of the calamari sold along the East Coast is from Rhode Island.
Perhaps “appetizer” is not the most accurate word to use here. It may be that we should think of calamari as the state’s official hors d’oeuvre. In the culinary arts, the term is used interchangeably with “appetizer.”
But there are some differences. Hors d’oeuvres can be served instead of dinner at a reception or cocktail party. In fact, fashionable fundraising events in Rhode Island routinely list the menu for the evening as “heavy hors d’oeuvres.” The term literally translates into “before the main work,” which may be the most precise description of the job that lies ahead.
It is well-established that the food industry and the restaurant and hospitality industry are among the few successful revenue generators in the state these days. Before the main work of revitalizing the rest of the state’s economy, a little taste of success is in order, beginning with a proper statewide designation of calamari. Hopefully it will not be a long wait. •


Bruce Newbury’s “Dining Out” food and wine talk radio show is heard on WADK-AM 1540, WHJJ-AM 920, WBLQ-AM 1230, online and through mobile applications. He can be reached by email at bruce@brucenewbury.com.

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