Steveston is a rather famous little fishing village south of Vancouver, at the southern end of the City of Richmond. In fact, during the late 19th century, Steveston had the largest commercial fishing fleet in the world and no less than 15 active canneries busy canning – you got it – salmon. Those days are long gone now but the village remains and along with a cannery-cum-museum is noted for its fish market.
2 & 3) here is the fishing docks with all the fisherman lined up to sell you stuff
4) heading down to explore; 5) call it what you may: black cod and/or sablefish .. the taste is the same .. yummy!
In Steveston you can walk along the pier where local fisherman have just docked their boats full of the Pacific’s finest seafood. And there too you can chat with the fisherman and buy fish as fresh you’re going to get it – sole, salmon, sea urchins, black cod, Dungeness crab, BC spot prawns (which if you’ve ever been to Japan is the ‘shrimp’ you’ve eaten at sushi restaurants – a full 80% of the annual catch is shipped to Japan). We enjoyed the morning in Steveston on Saturday and came home with some spot prawns that we turned into a BC spot prawn risotto with summer peas and an entire black cod that was only $25. I say only as you’d pay that for a single serving in a restaurant here and I landed the entire fish.
6) here I am with some of the village’s founders; 7) salmon anyone (plus one I don’t know what?!)
10) these went so fast; 11) here’s where we bought the black cod
12) BC spot prawns can be had live or dead with heads on or off
13) one pound of prawns; 14) I did the dirty work of de-heading and de-shelling them
15) here the prawns; 16) G prepared some veggies for the prawn stock we made with the heads/shells
17) to really enhance the flavour, pan fry the shells/heads/veggies before adding to the water; 18) simmer – not boil – for oh, 45 minutes
19) here’s the result a nice broth that you’ll need to strain through cheesecloth
20) for the risotto, you’ll need the rice; peas, prawns, broth, wine, shallots, garlic, salt & pepper and a pinch of crushed chilli flakes
21) fry up the prawns ahead of the rice and then cut into cm pieces; 22) the secret is to keep stirring as you add the broth a little at a time
23) more broth goes in; 24) getting close to ready now
25) ah, so damn good!
26) now I had to break down the black cod
27) I made six steaks out the fish and then (excuse the serrated knife, we can’t find our fish filet knife … yet); 28) vacuum sealed it all
31) we also ended up purchasing this very highend mandolin for cooking while wandering Chinatown Sunday… looking forward to playing with this soon for a meal
AppsScraps 
I love he Farmers’ Market we have here but also the dock where you can get the catch of the day. Love the fresh seafood the boats unload!! Yummy food!
I’ve never been to Steveston the 2 times I went to Vancouver!I should make this a place to go next time I visit Van~
Okay, did I miss some detail along the way Brent? Are you just on holiday out west or did you move?
I can smell the sea just reading this entry! Love the shrimp! :P