There are gifts, and then there are Gifts, those that don’t arrive in a box or wrapped with accouterments of ribbon and tinsel (or perhaps sustainably packaged with dry ice and full of nutritious, wild-caught seafood). These Gifts I speak of are instead cradled in the spirit of tradition — rituals of humanity passed along like a currency of the heart, etching our special moments into time. They are Gifts of lived wisdom that tell stories of people, Gifts that allow us to taste one another’s worlds. I’ve found that more often than not, these gifts are made of either time together, shared meals, or ideally both.
In our home, for instance, we love to enhance the ritual of eating potato latkes on Chanukah by punctuating them with a taste of our Alaskanness — so we top our latkes with flakes of hot smoked sockeye and a dollop of sour cream.
This week, it’s my absolute pleasure to share with you the Gifts of our own WAC team’s favorite holiday seafood traditions. Across cultural backgrounds, cities, states, suburbs, and small towns alike, the unifying common denominator of each of these traditions is that they are shared with love.
“Every holiday we have cod and rice with my Portuguese mother-in-law’s famous Mozambique sauce. A big bowl of it has its traditional spot on the stove next to all the other great food and is always the first dish to go!”
— Drew P, Associate Director of Email & SMS Marketing, New Bedford, MA
“I’m making Pacific halibut and king salmon for my holiday feast! I think I’m going to try a peppercorn halibut sauce from our blog I’ve had my eye on.”
— Melissa Allen, Senior Member Experience Specialist, Anchorage, AK
“Wild Alaska Pollock Chowder is on the winter food menu, likely happening this upcoming weekend. We usually cook special food all throughout November and December in my house.”
— Matt R, Member Experience Specialist, NC
“An Italian-American tradition my family celebrates is Feast of the Seven Fishes. It's a potluck where we all bring different seafood-based meals. Last year I cooked spot prawn pasta, and this year I’m bringing salmon fillets, baked with a balsamic vinegar glaze. Each year we try to top ourselves to see how many different fishes we can incorporate into our feast! “
— Kristin G, Content Strategist, Haddonfield, NJ
“It's a Polish tradition to serve fish on Christmas Eve, and we abide by that every year! This year, I'd love to use Wild Alaskan Company salmon. We will oven bake it with dill, but sometimes we shake it up and do maple or honey or mustard.”
— Jenna M, Member Experience Specialist, Spokane, WA
Ultimately, nothing powers the art of gift-giving like the force of reciprocity, so if you have any of your own seafood traditions for special occasions, we’d love to hear about them.
Live Wild!
Monica
Pictured above: A kitchen table laden with a seafood spread that can anchor the Gift of shared meals and holiday traditions, featuring the gift of wild-caught fish from the Wild Combo Box.
