Perly's smoked fish board (Photo courtesy Mobelux)
A barbecue joint connected to a car-care garage might be the last place you’d expect to turn out exquisite delicacies to grace a holiday table.
But TD’s Smokehouse is where Tuckahoe Seafood owner Charles Fice says he chooses to outsource his fish smoking, sending over bourbon-cured fillets of salmon to absorb the aromatics of smoldering hickory from a Southern Pride rotisserie smoker at TD's.
Fice is one of a growing crop of purveyors and chefs nudging Richmond, a bastion of cured meats, into an appreciation of the subtler delicacies of smoked fish.
“It’s popular year-round, but especially popular during the holidays,” says Matt White, chef at Yellow Umbrella Provisions, who serves up an in-house, hot-smoked salmon that sits outside for two days after brining, to build up its tackiness for the hickory wood smoke to stick.
The result? A darker-colored fish with a lightly smoky and slightly sweet flavor.
Southbound kitchen staff smoke bluefish, rockfish and sometimes catfish for a brunch salad as well as a creamy dip served with pickle slices and pita chips. Smoking the parts of the fish that get cut away from a fillet aligns with Southbound’s approach of utilizing the whole animal.
Perly’s Delicatessen & Restaurant Kitchen Manager Tyler Cartwright says that staff at the Jewish-style deli in Monroe Ward work as a team to complete the four-day-long process to smoke the whitefish, salmon and trout that end up in eggs Benedict, fish platters and salads. Going for depth of flavor, staffers salt and cure the salmon in a brine for a day and then let it “cool down” for two more days before hickory wood smoke takes over. “We have to always remember the heat control and generate smoke, but also to toss water on the wood chips to keep the fish moist, though it is a dry heat,” Cartwright says. “You walk the line.”
Smoky Selections
Pick up and Go
- Tuckahoe Seafood (1007 Starling Drive, Henrico) Tuckahoe smokes its salmon, trout and mackerel at the nearby TD’s Smokehouse. Other smoked fish selections from distributors are available.
- Yellow Umbrella Provisions (5603 Patterson Ave.) Chef Nat White smokes salmon in-house.
Dine In
- Perly’s (111 E. Grace St.) At this Jewish-style deli with tons of smoked fish on the menu, cooks prepare kippered salmon and smoked trout in-house.
- Southbound (3036 Stony Point Road) This “everyday, neighborhood” South Side restaurant smokes a variety of fish for salad dishes, brunch salad and a dip.
- Heritage (1627 W. Main St.) offers a smoked fish dip.
- Rapp Session (318 E. Grace St.) offers a smoked bluefish dip.
- Little Saint (2901 Park Ave.) The smoked rockfish dip with trout roe and dill is served with fried rockfish-skin “chicharrones.”
