Pot/trap caught off the picturesque East coast, Maine Lobster is a well-managed delicacy that is both tasty and sustainable!

This delicious dish makes a fantastic addition to any meal and pairs nicely with your favorite pasture raised fillet mignon to create a fun spin to traditional surf and turf.

Ingredients:
- 1lb red potatoes, quartered
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp butter (added to potatoes while mashing)
- 2 tbsp butter (used in drizzle)
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 lb cooked Maine Lobster claw and knuckle meat, chopped and shredded

Preparation:
- Bring pot of water to boil
- Cut potatoes into quarters and add to boiling water
- Boil until tender but still firm (Approximately 45 mins)
- Drain water from the potatoes and add the potatoes back to the pot
- Begin mashing the potatoes while adding the milk, 1 tsp of butter and pinch of salt
- Mash until most, but not all of the potato chunks are gone
- Stir lobster chunks and shredded meat into the mashed potatoes
- In another pot saute 2 tbsp butter and minced garlic until it is slightly brown. Set aside and keep warm
- Serve the mashed potatoes and drizzle garlic and butter over the top

Enjoy!

This recipe is a team favorite and is a guaranteed crowd pleaser every time!

Ingredients:
2# Littleneck Clams or Green Lip Mussels
1 cup chardonnay
2 tbsp black pepper
2 large shallots, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter or EVO if preferred
handful of fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 french baguette loaf

Preparation:
- Soak Littleneck Clams (Mussels are already clean and ready to go) in cold water for 30mins
- Add black pepper to the water to assist the Clams in sand removal
- Drain water and rinse Clams to remove any oceanic remnants
- In a large pot, saute butter or EVO, shallots and garlic
- Saute for 5 mins or until shallots and garlic are tender
- Add handful of chopped fresh parsley, 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and 1 cup of chardonnay
- Boil all ingredients until liquid reduces in half. Approximately 3-5 minutes
- Add Clams or Mussels
- Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes
- Remove and discard any un-opened Clams or Mussels
- Serve Clams or Mussels in a bowl with the reduced sauce and french baguette for dipping

Enjoy!

These delights are a natural aphrodisiac and one delicious way to start off a romantic evening. We recommend serving them raw with a cucumber mignonette and a glass of chardonnay (which can also be used in the next course)

Ingredients:
2 dozen Marin Miyagi oysters
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1 shallot, minced
1 small piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 cucumber, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preparation:
- In a small bowl, combine the rice wine vinegar, shallot, ginger, cucumber, sugar and black pepper
- Mix with a fork
- Cover and set mignonette aside in the fridge for one day, allowing the flavors to fully combine together
- Shuck oysters and set over bed of crushed ice
- Pour a splash of mignonette over each oyster and enjoy!

The first and most important is trust. If you can't trust that your fish market knows fish, more than just about anything else, look elsewhere. It's also crucial that they have some sort of verifiable commitment to source sustainable seafood. Everyone uses that word so ensure that they have something to back it up. i love blue sea is the first and only San Francisco fish market to partner with Monterey Bay Aquarium in order to source according to their guidelines. This is good for your health too because we don't fish that are high in contaminants are not considered sustainable seafood.

Quality is the second most important aspect to look for in a San Francisco fish market. It's second to trust, because a trustworthy fish market will not sell anything that is not the best seafood in San Francisco. All of our seafood is sushi quality. Often times, you hear this called sushi grade or sashimi grade. We don't use these terms because they are misleading - there is no such grading that occurs. It really comes down to how quickly the seafood gets to you. Instead of setting out our seafood on ice until it is purchased, we fillet your fish and procure your seafood right before you get it. Unless you caught it, this is as fresh as fish gets.

One easy way to find out what others consider to be the best seafood in San Francisco is to look at the 'best of lists'. 7x7 Magazine puts out a highly regarded list each year ranking what they consider to be the best of The City. i love blue sea was voted Best Seafood in San Francisco in 2011.

Astoundingly Fresh

Unless you harvested it yourself, we've got the freshest products to be had.  We are tirelessly searching for the best on your behalf.  It's also about our credo towards sustainability - local means more fresh and less footprint.  That's what we're striving for.

Healthy for all!

We believe in eating lower on the food chain.  It's more sustainable for our planet.  It's also a great idea for your life.  Wild fish that are high on the food chain are high in contaminants.  If it's not something we eat, it's not something we sell.  Period.

Sustainable Seafood

Like 'organic' the term has been watered down.  There's no regulated definition and anyone can use it.  We explain why we sell every product and have agreed to follow, across the board, the recommendations of the leading authority on the subject, Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Now you can order from over 100 of the most fresh and sustainable seafood products and pick up at your SoMa neighborhood spot, Radius Cafe.  You get seafood fresh from the water that doesn't sit around in a display case until you're ready to buy.  All fish is filleted  just hours before you pick up.  It's super easy and we promise you won't buy seafood elsewhere again!

• Browse 100+ products
• Order by 9am for same day pickup.  Pickup is Tuesday - Saturday from 1-8pm.
• If you just can't wait to get home and eat, try one of Radius' amazing dishes.  They use our seafood too!

Oh yeah, use coupon code welovelocals to get 20% off on any order over $50 !  Please tell your friends about us - together we're trying to save our oceans by supporting the fisheries leading the recovery!

While aquaculture promises a consistent supply of seafood, not all fish farming is created equal. Here's the rundown of the main problems associated with aquaculture and what some operations have done to mitigate and make fish farming a great sustainable option:

Problem #1: Use of Wild Fish in Farming Operations: Wild fish, such as anchovies and sardines, are frequently used to feed farmed fish, further depleting wild fish populations. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, a single salmon requires “over three pounds of wild fish for every pound of weight it gains.”   Solution: Species such as catfish and tilapia eat a very small amount of fish, making them great candidates for aquaculture. Certain kinds of shellfish, such as oysters and mussels, are also perfect candidates, as they collect their own food by filtering the water actually cleaning the ocean!

Problem #2: Pollution of the Water: Just as pollution into the surrounding environment is a serious problem when cattle and chickens are raised, it is also a serious problem in aquaculture operations. Fish waste, pesticide and antibiotic residues, and even diseases pollute the surrounding waters, potentially harming or killing wild fish and plants. In addition, farmed fish can escape into the wild, becoming invasive species. The escapees breed with wild fish, passing on genes that have been genetically modified and that can be potentially harmful.  Solution: Closed containment operations do not release wastewater into the surrounding environment or allow for fish to escape.

Inside a mangrove forest

Problem #3: Habitat Destruction: This is particularly a problem when coastal mangrove forests are cleared to make way for large-scale shrimp farming. After a few years, the build-up of waste and pollution causes farmers to leave their current sites, clear more mangroves, and move their operations. This contributes to the worldwide loss of mangrove forests and threatens the many plants and animals that depend on the mangroves for their habitats.  Solution: Inland ponds, or recirculating water ponds, are a great option.  This is being done well here in the States and is quickly spreading worldwide.

So aquaculture can be good or bad, it just depends how the specific operation. Please be sure to check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program to help you choose the most sustainable types of farmed fish!

Worst case scenario...

This was just the beginning...

Six months after launching I approached Groupon to run a deal.  They were at their peak with a half million San Francisco subscribers and little competition. As a startup selling sustainable seafood I thought this would be the perfect way to garner awareness and raise some capital. Since people have a year to redeem, we could use the cash up front and slowly pay back as they cashed in.

I was told by the Groupon sales rep they always do a 50/50 split but we agreed to 60/40 split after I negotiated.  A few weeks ago they offered me an 80% split. After the deal ran, we realized that they put the wrong map on the coupon. They also put our redemption code in small letters and their own, unnecessary code, in huge letters up top. We probably got 500 calls on these mistakes alone.

We love our customers, but every once in a while...

How to run a flash sale (Groupon, Living Social, etc)
1. Negotiate a good split. There are hundreds of companies out there so don’t be afraid to walk away. You should negotiate at least a 70% take.
2. Make money on the deal. They will try to sell you on a losing proposition in order to ‘gain exposure’. Not worth it. Many customers will not return and there’s no reason to lose money on them. Ensure no possible way for people to use the coupon that would result in a loss.
3. Ensure your costs will not increase before the deal expires. One year later as people frantically redeem their coupons our COGS has increased by about 10%. Ouch.
4. Make it so a five year old understands how to redeem. Seriously. Even still, you will get calls from people asking “so, uh, how does this work?”
5. Prepare for mayhem. It will be incredibly busy up front, then steadily slow, and then even more busy as the coupons set to expire. Make sure you’re ready and that you’ve budgeted for the product you will be giving away a year later.

We ran a deal with Living Social a few months later, employing these tactics, and it was a much, much better experience. If you’re thinking about running a deal I’m happy to discuss with you and even make some intros to companies we’ve worked with that put your business first.

Guess which one eats krill for color and which is chemically added...

Let me start by saying not all farmed salmon is bad. Some farmed salmon, a very small percentage of it, is quite sustainable. Anything marketed as “Atlantic Salmon” is farmed as wild populations are commercially extinct. Issues with most farmed salmon:

1. Pens are in pristine areas where they foul surrounding waters with waste and antibiotics.

2. Pens are often near migrating wild salmon, exposing them to disease from farms and where farmed salmon, bred for sedentary lives and rapid growth, can escape and breed with the wild natives. This destroys highly specific genetics developed over many moons to be perfectly adapted to the tributary they call home.

3. Unfavorable feed conversion ratio - meaning it takes more protein to than it creates. By most estimates, Three kg of wild fish make one kg of farmed salmon. These are usually small forage fish, like anchovies and sardines, which are incredibly healthy to humans and contain more Omega 3s than the salmon.

Like wallpaper... this is how the color of your supermarket salmon is chosen

What to do?
Eat wild salmon or a try something new and sustainable. Both Arctic Char and Steelhead trout taste very similar and are farmed in closed-containment systems and fed primarily vegetarian feed so these problems are eliminated.

What can I do?
1. Ask questions to let people know it's important to you.
2. Use your dollars to support fisheries doing good.
3. Tell others!