Dealing with John Q

I am spending more time in the stores these days, and for the most part, we have great customers. The unfortunate thing is that the occasional bad customer is the one that really sticks with you. Here are just a few examples of what our staff - and I - have experienced in the last couple of years.
1) The Grinch: Late on Christmas eve two years ago, I was doing my usual in Glenview, giving out samples and helping people with items in the freezer, answering questions about how to cook lobster tails etc. A car pulled up into the patio area outside the store - not a parking spot - and the driver came in and walked directly to the lobster tail freezer next to me. He pulled it open, looked at the prices and started swearing. I asked him if he would like me to suggest some alternatives, and he snapped "yes." I asked if they were doing "surf and turf," he said yes, and I made some suggesting for less expensive items he could substitute for the lobster, or as they were also serving beef, they could divide the lobsters in half. His response to my suggestions? He turned on me, and said if I didn't "shut up," he would walk out without buying anything. I was stunned. He obviously didn't realize that I was the boss's wife, and felt quite comfortable treating "the help" as he assumed I was, like dirt. On Christmas Eve. He bought a couple of lobster tails and left, and I hope I never see him again.
2) The Good Wife: Our credit card machines went down in Glenview, something that happens rarely, and something over which we have no control. A woman came in and chose some fish, but when she got to the check out, she had no cash or checks. The clerk suggested two solutions: she could go to the ATM in the parking lot and get some cash, or she could give him her credit card number, and he would enter the information manually when the machines were back up. (This is how people pay for party trays on the phone all the time.) Her response: "Give me the fish and I'll pay you the next time I come in." She was not a regular customer, and she said we should trust her to pay for the fish eventually, but she would not trust us with her credit card info. The clerk told her he couldn't do that because he might lose his job. She stormed out of the store, and had her husband send me an irate email, about how we didn't trust his wife. Never mind that she didn't trust us. I responded politely to the husband that his wife had put our clerk in a very difficult position, that he had tried to come up with a solution, but the only thing that she would accept was us giving her the fish for free. Had this happened in Macy's, for example, would she have expected them to let her leave with the merchandise without paying?
3) Forgetful: A young professional woman, probably early 30s, nicely dressed, came into the store with an unopened package of fish that had been purchased the day before on her lunch hour (one of the staff remembered waiting on her). She wanted a refund, because the fish was "off." It was July, and it was obvious to everyone that she had forgotten to take the fish into her office and refrigerate it, hence the rather smelly package. She had ruined her fish, but wanted us to give her money back, which we did. It was another customer waiting to pay who said after she left that "you shouldn't have given her her money back, she obviously left the fish in her car." But we didn't want an unhappy customer. When someone does this to us, we can't go back to our supplier for a refund, we eat the loss.  Her screw-up became our problem.
4) Lobster Lady: Just recently, a woman called our Glenview store claiming that she had bought 4 lobster tails from us, and two of them were "bad." When asked if she had her receipt, a copy of her credit card bill, the packaging or the product, she said no. She was offered a store credit, even though we have no proof she ever bought anything from us. She came in when the manager was out, demanding cash. The clerk gave her a credit for over $50, but she just wanted the money. No receipt, no product, only an occasional customer.
     We buy only restaurant quality lobster tails, which are shipped frozen, and we individually package them, so we can easily see if a tail looks like it's not good quality, and we return them to the shipper if they don't meet our standards. As far as we know, this woman never bought lobster tails from us - maybe she did, maybe she didn't, and yet we tried to make her happy. If she had bad tails, she probably got them somewhere else.
5) Crazy Like a Fox: Several years ago, we had a woman who would come in every Friday, and loudly complain to the staff (with other customers in the store) that we'd "sold her bad fish" and that she wanted a store credit. She had her receipt, but never brought back any of the fish. She did this 4 or 5 times, until the manager told her no more refunds unless she brought back the product. She showed up the next Friday with the same routine, so they got the Fish Husband, who gently lead her to the door, and told her that we would be unable to serve her any more, since obviously, we couldn't meet her quality standards. Of course we all knew that she'd eaten all the fish. She was stunned that she'd been fired as a customer. She actually came back in periodically and bought fish, but never again tried to get it for free.
     Perhaps because we are a small business, some people feel that we should be more willing to give them their money back or put up with abuse. My experiences have been few in number compared to our staff who deal with the public every day. That horrible man telling me to "shut up" on Christmas Eve still sticks with me.  It made me very aware of what a hard job it is dealing with the public, and I make an extra effort to be nice to sales staff wherever I shop.
     I also now see that Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi" was on to something - rude customers never bothered him, he made all the rules, no exceptions. If we were in New York, I'd say "stop being so nice to people who are being rude/dishonest with us." But we're not.  I wish I knew what the solution was.
Suggestions, anyone?

Seafood for Guys

The more time I spend in the fish stores, the more I realize that we have a lot of male customers, a lot more than you see in the grocery store. They seem to gravitate towards the fish that they can grill in the summer time, which is a lot of it. According to staff, the guys zero in on the meatier, more flavorful fish,like salmon, halibut, swordfish, marlin, mahi mahi, and the wild Gulf shrimp. They're going to cook it on the grill, so they want to get what they want to eat. (They also like to tell us about their last fishing trip in Florida or Canada or Scotland or Chile - guys will go a long way to catch a good fish).
     This year for Father's Day, the Fish Husband is getting shrimp kebabs and salmon, grilled by the Fish Son out on our deck. He'll top the salmon with some fresh Burhop's pesto, and serve it with whatever I get at the farmer's market on Saturday morning.
     Eating seafood in the summer time is the best, because you can get your guy to grill the main course, and you can get all kinds of wonderful fresh vegetables, at the farmer's market, or from Burhop's in an already prepared state - less work is good, right ladies?
     But for Father's Day, of course, Mom and the kids do all the work - so we always go for something simple. Both our kids are good cooks, so thankfully the onus is off Mom these days.
     One of the secrets to making your guy happy with your fish choice - ask him. If you know absolutely positively that he loves sockeye, that's what your should get - but maybe he's really dreaming about that last mahi he caught and would love some of that. I never assume that I'll know what the Fish Husband wants from the fish store - and he likes it all!  Like the guy on the TV commercial, some guys hate surprises.
     Just ask him what he fancies! Besides you!!
   

We are a hockey family...

I fell in love with hockey in college, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison - I was dating a player, so went to all the games my sophomore year, not so many after we broke up. But still loved the game.
     Fast forward 15 years, and I married a hockey player, the Fish Husband. He started as a boy in his back yard, flooded by his dad each winter, so the kids could play hockey, and mom and dad could practice their ice dancing. He played all through high school and college, and went on to become a hockey coach in Wilmette for many years. Being a coach entitled him to play in a coach's game on Sunday mornings, something he continued for decades.
     Our son played hockey as well, from Peewee, Squirt and on up. He changed to tennis in high school, and I must admit I'm very glad, especially with what I know now.
     Hockey is a beautiful, exciting game, but it's also a violent game. Checking is violent, and the fighting is violent. The refs have the ability to stop the players from fighting - if players would get thrown out of games, they would stop fighting. Why then, you might ask, do they let the fighting go on? Because the pro hockey team owners think it sells tickets.
     The Fish Husband gave up hockey when he was 50, not because he wanted to, but because he started having headaches after he played that were so severe, he could do nothing but go to bed. It seemed like a sign that perhaps he should hang up his skates, and he did. But it may have been too late.  Even no check hockey takes its toll.
     Last year, he was diagnosed with memory loss. The doctors can't definitively tell us what the cause is, but certainly the banging around his brain took during all those years of hockey didn't help. In the early days, getting your "bell rung" was a common occurrence - the coach would let you sit on the bench a little longer, then back out you'd go. The equipment is better now, back when he started over 60 years ago, the kids didn't even have to wear helmets.
     This is why he retired rather abruptly last year from the fish business. It's been a rough time, for all of us. We still love watching hockey, but I cringe whenever a player gets smashed into the boards, or they pull off their gloves and start pounding each other.
     We will be cheering on the Hawks Monday night, with friends and family and lots of Burhop's shrimp - and hoping that no one gets hurt. Everyone is talking about the brain injuries in football, maybe they need to look at how to make hockey safer as well.
     Just read in the Chicago Tribune this morning about Stan Mikita and his memory loss - I'm guessing that even if he knew what could happen to his memory, he still would have played hockey. My husband would go out and play today if he could - it's a wonderful game, I just wish that they could make it safer.

Why does fresh wild Alaskan fish cost so much?

Even we get sticker shock at some of the current wild fish prices - our suppliers are having trouble just getting some of the fish, much less selling it cheaply. So far this year, prices on Alaskan salmon and halibut have stayed high, and the Copper River sockeye "season" was 16 hours long.
     What's changed?
     Many things:

• It costs more to run a fishing boat, because the fuel is more expensive, labor is more expensive. And it's dangerous. Fishermen probably have a hard time getting life insurance.
• Competition for the resource is growing - once it was mainly the Japanese who were buying vast quantities of Alaskan seafood, now the Chinese are buying it up as well. And there are billions of them, many more with money to spend than a few years ago. Asia is gobbling up our Alaskan fish.
• Climate change is warming the oceans - fish that rely on cold water and full rivers to spawn are finding warmer oceans and rivers that have shrunk due to lack of rain and not enough snow in the winter. 
• In order to preserve the resource, regulators are monitoring the salmon migration. If there aren't enough salmon laying their eggs ups stream, there won't be enough salmon in future years, so they shut down the first opening on the Copper River after only 16 hours. There should be more openings, but they may be short as well. 

     If you are seeing sockeye at a cheap price, it's thawed out from last year - there just isn't any cheap, fresh wild salmon. Even if you went to Alaska to get it, it wouldn't be cheap.    

     This is one of the reasons we've researched top quality suppliers of ocean raised salmon - we get it from two pristine operations, one off the east coast of Canada, the other off the west coast of Scotland. This is good, sustainably raised fish, no chemicals or antibiotics. While there are some fish farming operators who have over crowded pens and poor environmental practices, we don't do business with them.

     We wish that wild salmon was cheaper as well - we love wild salmon, too. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the next opening on the Copper River is days, not hours - we'll keep you posted! 

Memorial Day Memories of Grandpa Burhop

I knew Vern Burhop from a very early age, or at least I knew who he was. My mom would sometimes call him in Chicago and ask him to bring home some special seafood item, like shrimp or lobster tail, which he would bring by our house before going home, about 3 blocks away.
     When I married his son, I enjoyed getting to know him better, most memorably when he helped me paint the porch on our newly purchased home 34 years ago. It was probably the first time I'd been alone with him for any period of time, and he told me about the war.
      Married and in the food industry, the government at first wanted him to stay home. Then as the war dragged on, he was called up, and joined the US Navy. His wife Janis followed him to various ports during his training, while Vern's retired father, Albert E. Burhop, returned to run the seafood business while Vern was gone.
     While Vern was doing his training, as a radio operator, Janis discovered that she was expecting their first child, Jeff, who was born while her husband was off fighting for his country. Before he left, Vern got Janis situated in an apartment in Evanston, just a few blocks from Evanston Hospital. (Janis told us that she practiced walking to the hospital, in case she had to get there on her own!)
     Vern was on a destroyer escort, a smaller ship that in storms would be buffeted around pretty badly. He told of a few occasions where he had to captain the ship, because he was the only one of the entire crew who never suffered from sea sickness. Perhaps being around all that fish his whole life made him less susceptible to mal de mer. Or he had super human inner ears.
     After the Allied victory, he spent time in China and  Japan before being shipped home to meet his one-year-old son. He said that was the hardest thing to bear, knowing he had a little boy who was learning to walk and talk and he'd never even met him. Meanwhile, Janis waited for her husband to come home, with the constant worry that he might not.
     Memorial Day was always important for Vern - his American flag hanging outside, perhaps a game of golf with his buddies at the Glenview Naval Air Station. Vern and Janis had a lovely back garden with a small swimming pool, and we would go there for a grilled fish fest, and if it was warm enough, a first dip of the summer. (The kids pretty much always thought it was warm enough.)
     When Vern died in 1995, it was of brain cancer, something we suspected might have been caused by his exposure to radiation in Japan after the war. Back then, no one fully understood the lingering effects of something you couldn't see.
     The sacrifices that our military make, and their families make, especially during war time, should be remembered every day, not just Memorial Day. But do something special for your favorite veteran next weekend - grill him or her a nice piece of fish!  
     

The Joys of a Mother who's a good cook

Both the Fish Husband and I had the good fortune to have mothers who knew their way around the kitchen. Mine excelled in German and Italian cuisine, growing up in Milwaukee, Grandma B was great with seafood.
     The foods I remember most from my mom were her incredible marinara sauce, and her amazing Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. My sister and I get together every Thanksgiving, to make her apple and onion stuffing recipe, and at Christmas to make her stollen - a lengthy process, but worth every minute. Christmas breakfast wouldn't be the same without stollen.
     For Christmas dinner, we would either have a huge leg of lamb, marinated in garlic and lemon juice, or standing rib roast with Yorkshire pudding. I can't really digest red meat any more, but my mouth still waters when I think about those wonderful meals she put together.
     In later years, she moved more towards seafood, grilling fresh salmon at least once a week, and I loved her shrimp curry, a recipe that sadly died with her.
     Marrying into the Burhop family opened me up to many new possibilities - when I lived in England, I started eating fish several times a week - raw oysters were a favorite, and French turbot, absolutely the best fish in the sea. For dinner parties, making a baked salmon recipe became one of my favorites, with fennel, garlic and tomatoes. The fresh seafood in London was wonderful, the choices many. So I turned to my mother-in-law for cooking advice once I moved back home and married her son.
     I've known my mother-in-law since I was 5 years old, not something many people can say. We lived 4 blocks or so from the Burhop's, and they bought a house from some close friends of my parents. Grandma B and my mom became friends, working at a charity shop in Chicago together for years, magically disappearing many of our treasures into the shop. The Fish Husband claims she gave away his Mickey Mantle rookie card, I know my mother gave away all of my Nancy Drews.
     But I will be forever grateful for the time they both spent with me, teaching me their favorite recipes. There's a bond with family recipes that keeps family members closer - I love the time I spend with my little sister making stuffing and stollen, even though I know she can do it very well without me. We both miss our mom, and that's a way of keeping her memory alive.
     To all of you who still have your mothers, spend some special time with her - on Mother's Day, but other times as well. And if you're a mom, cook with your kids. It will stay with them forever.  

Getting Grilled Fish Right

Fresh fish and seafood have become the preferred alternative to red meat and chicken on the grill, and for good reason! From fresh Alaskan salmon to grilled Florida snapper, seafood offers by far the widest range of wonderful choices.  And it’s good for you as well.  But what if you've never cooked anything but brats or burgers?  We take the mystery out of grilling seafood, and make it easy to enjoy the delicious grilled fish you usually eat in restaurants, right in your own back yard. But remember, once you've tried grilled seafood, it’s tough to return to burgers...not that we’d be disappointed if you never looked back.
Tools of the Trade:
As they say in scouting, be prepared.  Having the right tools can make your job easier and your results better:
Grill Toppers - stainless steel, aluminum or porcelain-covered metal  grill toppers to set on top of your grill grate.
Sandwich-style Grill Basket - makes turning small whole fish, fillets, steaks or kebabs a breeze.
Skewers - wood or metal, for easy and elegant kebabs.
Electric starter or chimney - makes starting coals easy, eliminates starter fluid which will adversely affect flavor. They really can make your fish taste like jet fuel.
Wood Cooking Planks - placing your fish on one of these, which you soak in water first, adds a delicate extra bit of flavor, and keeps the fish from falling through the grate. Best when using the lid on your grill so that the fish cooks without turning.
Mesquite & hardwood lump charcoal - use some of each to impart a sweet, naturally smoky flavor to fish. Confession - after decades of starting bonfires in our old Weber kettle, we have made the switch to Weber gas and are grilling a lot more often, because it's so much easier!! And less messy!
Other handy accessories:
Spring-loaded tongs, metal grill brush and towel to clean your grate; a long handled spatula.
Dry herbs and wood chips - dried herb twigs or bay leaves dropped into the fire are a trick used by the French to add flavor to grilled fish.  Oak, hickory or apple wood chips soaked in water can be sprinkled over charcoal or gas grills to impart pleasant, smoky flavors to your seafood.
Spray bottle of water - to douse flare-ups on charcoal grills that can quickly turn beautiful fish to cinders.
Non-stick vegetable spray - to spray your grate before putting over the fire, to prevent the fish from sticking. (So far this hasn't seemed necessary on our gas grill.)

Choosing your fish: 

The following selections are easy to cook because of their firm texture, and can easily be placed directly on a well prepared grate.  Beginners, start here!

salmon fillets or steaks, tuna steaks, swordfish steaks, halibut steaks, grouper fillets, Chilean sea bass, sturgeon, shrimp & scampi, mahi mahi, marlin steaks, wahoo/ono

Once you've mastered the first list, try some of these:

scallops (on skewers), lake trout, lobster tails, halibut fillets, live Maine lobsters, whole flat fish, black sea bass, red snapper fillets, whitefish, rainbow trout, squid (calamari), whole snapper, other whole fish, tilapia (use grill topper for more delicate fish)

Cleaning/Heating Things Up: 

      Before you put your fish on the grate, make sure that the steak or burgers you cooked last aren't hanging around. Scrape the grate with a metal brush. For gas grills, make sure the grate looks free of cow before putting on your seafood. On charcoal grills, after scraping, spray a little non-stick spray on the grate before starting the fire. 

      Adequate pre-heating is essential to the success of your seafood grilling.  Start by using enough charcoal to cover the the grill bottom when spread out, and allow it to burn to a light ash before cooking.  Spread the coals evenly. Remember -- 10 minutes cooking time per inch of thickness of your fish, measured at the thickest point, over medium high heat. Don’t overcook! Stay by the grill, don't wander off for an extended chat with the neighbors. Fish cooks really fast, and keeps on cooking even after removed from the grill. Err to the rare! 

      Gas grills should be set to medium high, around 450 degrees. Test the temperature by holding your hand about 5 inches from the grate.  If you can count to 5 slowly, it’s just right. If it’s too hot, let the coals burn longer, or turn down the gas. Always pre-heat your grate, and spray vegetable oil on grate BEFORE putting it over the fire.  Remember, fish tastes best when bought fresh and cooked quickly.

      Marinating - placing your seafood in a flavorful marinade for 15 to 30 minutes before cooking can turn a good meal into a great one.  Try one of Burhop’s delicious all natural marinades - ask your sales clerk for ideas.

      Toppings - we have some outstanding rubs plus great salsas and relishes that are fantastic with grilled fish - check our Burhop’s Pure & Simple® case and ask your Burhop’s clerk for items that are great additions to grilled seafood! If you don't live near one of our stores, think fresh salsas, pestos, marinades, rubs. 

      The Evanston Farmers Market is opening next week, can't wait to have fresh greens to go with our grilled fish!  One of our favorites is a beautifully grilled piece of salmon placed on a bed of lightly braised fresh arugula topped with just a drizzle of Lemon Dill Sauce. My mouth is watering in anticipation...

NEXT WEEK: Favorite Grilling Recipes for Mother's Day