Lögberg-Heimskringla - 13.11.1992, Blaðsíða 7

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 13. nóvember 1992 • 7
Kris the Fish hooked on goldeye
Frídayrítual in
Gimli smokehouse
creates delicacy
By LuAnn LaSaile
The Canadian Press
GIMLI, Manitoba —
Goldeye isn’t limited
to Manitoba, but it
has long been considered a
delicacy of the province.
Perhaps that’s because of
the way such folk as ICris Olson pre-
pare and smoke the fish.
Folks are usually led by their noses
to Olson’s place.
Every Friday during fishing season,
Olson is out behind his fish shop
smoking the goldeye that he catches in
Lake Winnipeg.
“It’s a calling card for customers,”
he says of the campfire-like aroma that
fills the air.
“Everybody knows the smell. When
the season is ori, Kris the Fish will be
smoking goldeye. It’S a ritual around
here every Friday.”
A goldeye is rcady to be smoked overan oak
Olson slices a piece of the warm,
orange-pink meat, admires it, then gob-
bles it.
“It’s like candy. When you can eat
your own product, you know it’s
good.”
The trick is not to let the smoke
build up too much, Olson says as he
stokes the fire in the small concrete-
block smokehouse he built behind
Olson’s Fish, a tiny shop just off
Gimli’s main street.
“You don’t want too much of a
smoky taste.”
Olson, 32, is a happy-go-lucky guy
MESSUBOÐ
Fyrsta Lúterska
Kirkja
Pastor Ingthor I. Isfeld
1030 a.m. The Service followed by
Sunday School & Cofíee hour.
First Lutheran Church
580 Victor St., Winnipeg, MB
R3G 1R2 Ph. 772-7444
Minnist
í ERFÐASKRÁM YÐAR
Join
Icelandic
Canadian
Frón
Send membership fee of
$25.00 single or $35.00 family
(includes membership in the Scandinavian Centre)
to: lcelandic Canadian Frón
764 Erin St„ Winnipeg, MB R3G 2W4
Telephone: 774-8047
SUBSCRIBE NOW
Name:___
Address:
City/Town:
Post/Zip Code: Subscription Expiry Date:
□ Renewal Please renew for... — 1
□ New 1 Canada - j (includes $2.45 GST) ....$37.45 1 1
□ Gift , United States / lceland / Others ....$40.00 ,
n b* L J
My cheque is enclosed for subscription renewal $
1 would also like to help with a donation of: $
Total cheque enclosed $
Qivc a Qiff Subscripfion
For anyone interested in the lcelandic culture Lögberg-Heimskringla is the
perlect gift that lasts all year. Gift cards are available upon request.
Make cheques payable & mail to:
Lögberg-Heimskringla Inc.
699 Carter Avenue,
Winnipeg, M8, Canada R3M 2C3
or ash fire just long enough for flavoring.
who likes to share a joke and be called
by his nickname, Kris the Fish. But
he’s serious about tradition when it
comes to smoked fish.
“I smoke the old-fashioned way.”
After scaling and drcssing the fish,
Olson freezes it for about three weeks.
“It tastes a little rubbery if you don’t
freeze it. It tastes like a bouncy ball.”
Before smoking, he unfreezes the
goldeye and soaks it for 12 hours in
brine that salts the fish and changes its
color from silver to reddish orange.
He hangs the fish in the smoke-
house, as many as 500 goldeye at a
time, over an open fire for about five
hours. Olson Iikes to use oak or ash
because the wood is hard, burns well
and adds a smoky flavor.
The job takes its toll on Olson, even
though he’s in the smokehöuse for
only seconds at a time to tend the fire
and to pull out the racks of fish.
“It’s like smoking eight cartons of
cigarettes a day, but it’s part of the
business. It’s just so hard on my lungs.”
Olson comes from a family of
Icelandic fishermen who settled in
Gimli almost 100 years ago.
Popularly known as the Icelandic
capital of North Ámerica, Gimli is a
picturesque town of 1,500 about 100
kilometres north of Winnipeg.
Fishing is the lifeblood of the com-
munity.
“I’ve been around fishing boats
since I was a kid,” says Olson. “I’m out
fishing every morning.”
“My Dad has been smoking for
about 20 years and that’s who I
leamed from.”
His parents have run Dockside Fish
Products Ltd., which catches and sells
fish for processing, since 1965.
Olson also runs a take-out fish-and-
chip business.
Customers start streaming into
Olson’s Fish after lunch to buy goldeye
that’s piled high in plastic trays.
Goldeye weigh about 300 grams
each and provide about the
same amount of meat as-half a
chicken breast. The smoked
fish is generally eaten cold or
reheated in a microwave.
Goldeye was being caught in
the lakes and rivers long
before Manitoba became a
province in 1870. It gained a
prominent place on the menus
of both national railways earli-
er this century, when fine din-
ing was part of rail travel.
The fish is named for its
gold-colored eyes, but is also
known for the color it attains after
being soaked in brine and smoked,
says Roberta York of the federal
Department of Fisheries.
York says commercial fishermen
were the first to start coloring the fish,
presumably to make it more attractive.
“It has become a traditional charac-
teristic of the fish,” says York. “It’s
there by consumer demand. They
expect it.”
Goldeye isn’t limited to Manitoba.
It is caught in the two other Prairie
provinces, parts of Ontario and
Quebec near James Bay, the Northwest
Territories and the central United
States.
Goldeye
Facts about goldeye, which has
become a Canadian delicacy
since it first found its way-on fo
menus in the 1870s:
HABITAT: Mostly lakes and
rivers in the Prairie prov-
inces, the Northwest Territories,
parts of Ontario and Quebec near
James Bay. Also the central
United States.
CHARACTERISTICS: lt gets
its name from its golden
eyes. A cleaned and smoked fish
weighs about 300 grams. Alive,
the fish has a natural silver hue,
but its color changes to reddish
orange when it is soaked in brine
and smoked.
SMOKING: The fish is frozen
for about three weeks then
thawed and soaked in brine for
12 hours. Then lt is smoked over
an electric or wood fire for about
five hours.
We Understand
BARDAl^fé^
FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORIUM
W'innipeg’s original Bardal Funeral Home since 1894.
843 Sherbrook Street in Winnipeg Telephone 774-7474
■