Canned seafood has been having a moment. It’s the current darling of food media and lifestyle Instagram, and was even dubbed “hot girl food” by Vice earlier this year. If you’ve yet to hop on the tinned fish train, you need to understand that we aren’t talking about the grocery store cans of tuna that stunk up your middle school lunch table—we’re talking smoked oysters, briny sardines, mackerel packed in olive oil with whole lemon slices and garlic cloves. Tinned fish is the flavors of a Mediterranean vacation in shelf-stable form; something you can slap on a piece of toast and convincingly call a gourmet meal.
When it comes to seafood, sustainability can vary wildly, and it’s sometimes difficult to decipher the different environmental buzzwords and labelling iconography. But I did some research and tried my best to find tinned seafood in Portland that isn’t overfished, unethically obtained, or otherwise problematic. The results were something to savor.
If you’re looking for no-stress sustainable seafood, it’s best to go for oysters, mussels, or clams—otherwise known as bivalves. They’re the easiest seafood to farm or fish sustainably, and there’s even an argument to be made that bivalves can technically be considered vegan food. I’m not wading into the rocky waters of that conversation, but I will say that there are some divine canned bivalve options out there for those who wish to partake
