Fish Fight!

The Second Annual Seafood Throwdown is this Saturday at Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket. Unfortunately, it doesn’t actually feature various kinds of fish duking it out for top honors (snapper vs. halibut GO!), but it does feature the next best thing: an Iron Chef-style competition designed to show off the magic of locally-caught sustainable seafood.

A collaboration between the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA), GrowNYC/Greenmarket, and New York Sea Grant, the competition is more than a très Brooklyn-style fish fry. NAMA’s Brett Tolley explains:

NAMA’s not-so-secret agenda is to raise awareness about the ecological and economic importance of locally caught seafood in our efforts to rebuild commercial fisheries, ensure our access to locally caught and sustainable seafood, and protect the marine environment.

Last year, Chef Nate Courtland of iCi and Chef Rebecca Weitzman of Thistle Hill Tavern faced off over Alex Villani’s locally-caught bonito. This year, representatives from Applewood will go head-to-head with folks from Cheryl’s Global Soul, striving to out-do each other with delicacies heretofore unimagined. (Inherently true, since the secret ingredient is still secret.) That, and hopefully inspire market-goers to think about where their fish comes from.

The ultimate verdict will be passed down from judges Alex Villani (Blue Moon Fish), Ralph DiGennare (food and style writer), Iain Kerr (Spurse Artists Collective), and Nancy Romer (Brooklyn Food Coalition), as mediated by emcee Erin Fairbanks (Heritage Radio Network), who’ll be providing a real-time play-by-play of the action.

Inspired? Pick up some Blue Moon Fish fish at Saturday’s market for a private Throwdown of your own. There’s also the Mermaid’s Garden CFS, which also boasts sustainably-caught local seafood, and is currently open for new members — season 2 begins the first week in August.