Shelf Awareness Newsletter Review

The subtitle sums up this cookbook--Seafood Recipes and Salty Stories from Alaska's Commercial Fisherwomen--but it's hard to say which is more enticing, the recipes or the tales. The authors have worked for more than 35 years between them as cooks and deckhands in one of America's deadliest industries. (Currently Tomi Marsh is owner and skipper of the F/V Savage.) And boy, do they have stories--being chased by storms, setting up a pizza-delivery boat service in the Pribilofs, Bering Sea rescues, boats stolen by the Russian mafia, cooking while riding the troughs and crests of heavy seas. Then there are the recipes: Alaskan Salmon Niçoise Salad, Cioppino, Sake Steamed Clams, Seafood Enchiladas, Salmokopita, Thai Clam Chowder, Salmon Noodle Casserole. It all combines with photographs, art, a few haiku and sidebars about such things as sailors' superstitions into a wonderful book about Alaska fishing, strong women and delicious food.