Fresh Direct
The Daily - Saturday, July 14, 2012
The helicopter flight north from Masset, British Columbia, floats over the remote wilderness of the Haida Gwaii. The archipelago’s thousands of acres rest quietly off the coast of British Columbia, just south of Alaska. For local fishermen, however, the catch comes in, reels screaming.
Formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, the Haida Gwaii are “Land of The Lost†wilds with a human population under 4,000. Along the shore, fish arrive by the millions. Lingcod, rockfish and salmon — chinook, coho and pink — gorge themselves on masses of baitfish. The local halibut can grow to more than 100 pounds.
Chef Walter Pelliccia has had his pick of the freshest fish in the world for more than 20 years at North Island Lodge, one of a handful of fishing lodges that dot the coast of Langara Island, the northernmost dot of the Haida Gwaii.
“This is the cleanest water you’ll find anywhere,†said the Italian-born chef of his stretch of the Pacific. “The Dungeness crab you get here makes what you find in Vancouver and Seattle taste like crap.â€
Pelliccia rattled off a laundry list of easy-to-access seafood — a supply to make any chef jealous.
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