Liamog Kelly, Ring.

From   GoEire.com

Liamog kelly from Ring

Catching up with Liam Kelly, seafood specialist with Curtze Food Service's North Shore Seafood, is a lot like going fishing. Sometimes you just have to wait it out. Kelly travels a lot with North Shore, covering more than a half-dozen states, visiting restaurants and clients of North Shore. When he's not on the road regionally, he's checking on catches along the coasts.

Kelly is a fifth-generation fisherman, which he still considers himself, despite spending more time on land than at sea these days. He left school at 12 to do what he knows and is passionate about -- fish. So it was worth a bit of phone tag (think of it as nibbles) to finally reel him in for some one-on-one time at Frankie & May Fresh Grocer to help Lake Erie LifeStyle readers stop floundering when it comes to ordering fish.

The full interview will be in Lake Erie LifeStyle, in home-delivered copies of the April 28 Erie Times-News.

Kelly had made a guest appearance at one of my fish classes at Frankie & May in 2012 and wowed the participants with just how great fish tastes. He cut thin strips of the scallops so we could all get a taste of what a fresh scallop should taste and look like -- not packaged in a container with milky liquid, which is a chemical preservative.

For Kelly, tasting raw fish is the best way to tell if what he is buying is fresh, aside from a general look-see, which works for whole fish (you want clear eyes), but is hard for those of us only looking at fillets.

At this time of year, fresh flounder and sole are on the market and worth the price. The fine, delicate flavor requires little more than a hot pan, salt, lemon juice and maybe some butter. I took it a bit further with some herbs in the flounder recipe today, but it's still little more than a half-dozen ingredients.

Scottish salmon is perfection and beats any Alaskan salmon (except the one my brother caught) I've tasted. The reason is the time between the water and the plate. My brother's fish literally went from the stream to the smokehouse to overnight mail. Most don't. During the time between the water and the plate, the fish deteriorates. And if it's frozen, the ice crystals will change the texture of the fish.

So these are two key times to keep in mind -- time of year and time from water to plate. If you ask your fish seller or your waiter, he or she should know where the fish is from and how long ago it was caught. If not, order something else.