Have you ever encountered someone who challenged you to identify Canada’s national dish?
It happens to me a lot. The challenge is most often issued in a smug or confrontational way, revealing the presupposition that Canadian cuisine is impossible to define.
While there is some truth to this idea, upon closer analysis it is clear that Canada’s indefinite culinary apex is not actually grounds for criticism of our nation’s food contributions.
The fact is, it is nigh impossible to authentically proselytize the notion of a national dish in a country where food culture (and culture generally) is so decidedly heterogeneous. I would suggest that nearly every Canadian’s grandmother once prepared some dish of proud cultural heritage that has, in its own small way, improved our country’s collective culinary climate. So how can you possibly pick one to represent us all?
Despite the obvious challenges involved in isolating a singular creation to herald the quality of Canadian cuisine, I do feel that in B.C. we live at the production epicentre of a food that approximates a truly national culinary contribution: smoked salmon.
OK, now before any of you point out that smoked salmon is, in fact, an internationally celebrated food that defies our humble claims to ownership, let me tell you a quick story.
I recently went to visit a man named Masaki “Masa” Nagatomo at his place of business, a North Shore artisanal fish-smoking facility called, appropriately, Masa’s Salmon Smokehouse. Nagatomo has been cold smoking salmon for 17 years and knows a thing or two about the fish that has shaped his life’s work.
“In my opinion,” says Nagatomo, with a quiet humility that betrays his reluctance to offend, “the very best salmon in the world comes from B.C.”
In many other places in the world, Nagatomo explains, salmon is intercepted before it is even close to reaching the final leg of its journey to spawning grounds. If you catch the fish too early in its journey, it has not matured adequately to develop the concentration of fats and oils necessary for the production of world-class smoked salmon.
Sitting at my own dining table later in the day, tucking into a morsel of Nagatomo’s expertly smoked, unbelievably moist sockeye salmon, I felt an overwhelming pride-of-place and a desire to lobby for the inclusion of salmon imagery on our national tender; beavers, moose and loons suddenly felt so inadequate.
Masa’s Salmon Smokehouse performs double duty as a smoker of salmon that has been either commercially caught or reeled in by independent sports fishermen. Incredibly, irrespective of the volume of fish submitted for smoking, Nagatomo does not employ a one-size-fits-all approach to smoking, but rather considers the species, shape, weight, and oil content of each individual fish to obtain optimum smoking results.
Fish received by Nagatomo are typically (and ideally) cleaned on the boat and put onto ice immediately. Once dropped off, Nagatomo and his small crew of smoking experts get to work by dry-rubbing each fish with a blend of salt and sugar, custom applied to each fish based on the aforementioned criteria.
The fish are then cured for 24 hours in a walk-in cooler after which time the salt and sugar are rinsed off and the fish are transferred onto racks in a hickory wood smoker. Masa’s Salmon Smokehouse only “cold smokes” fish, meaning that the temperature of the smoking is typically between 20° and 23° C.
Fish in the smoker are moved from one spot to another every four hours or so based on size to ensure uniformity of smoking. Immediately following smoking, the fish are vacuum-packed and frozen.
Unlike hot smoking, in which the fish is essentially cooked while being smoked, cold smoking preserves the natural moisture and oils of the salmon. The trade-off for the preservation of moisture is that the fish must remain frozen until time of consumption and should be eaten within five days of thawing.
This is a small sacrifice for what is, in my estimation, some of the very best smoked fish I have had in B.C., a province that prides itself on the stuff.
Small packages of Masa-branded cold-smoked salmon are available for sale to general consumers, but the real magic comes in heading out into the open water and catching your own salmon with a view to having Nagatomo and his team carefully transform your fish into a work of art.
Also available from the smokehouse is maple-scented Smoked Chum Candied Salmon, a twice-smoked fish that is cured for four days between smoking sessions and is finished with Canadian maple syrup and black pepper. It is a heady, boldly flavoured treat that pairs well, as I discovered through disciplined research, with a neat dram of generously peated single malt Scotch whisky (think Ardbeg or Caol Ila).
Masa’s Salmon Smokehouse is located at 130 Garden Ave. in North Vancouver. Phone: 604-988-8785
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. Contact: [email protected].
