Slow Fish

Fisherpoetry & The Art of Storytelling

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By Nick Mendoza

You’ve probably never heard of the annual FisherPoets Gathering, but this unique event, with community at its heart, has been growing in size and popularity since its founding 20 years ago. Indeed, one might raise an eyebrow at the idea of fishermen and fisherwomen from across the country ascending a stage to perform prose, music, and storytelling for three days, but sink into the essence and quality of what takes place at FisherPoets and you’ll quickly be reminded of something. Fishing, like storytelling, is as old as mankind. Subsequently, this community is very talented at both.

“Fishing, like storytelling, is as old as mankind.”
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Held each February in Astoria, Oregon, where the mighty Columbia River meets the even mightier Pacific Ocean, FisherPoets delivers exactly what the name promises—and so much more. Astoria is a picturesque coastal community with a legendary maritime history. A dozen or so venues around the town host each evening’s readings (a bit like SXSW, but also nothing like SXSW). These venues range from cluttered local bars, where rowdy patrons loudly knock their glasses in approval, to a spacious Cannery Museum, to the grand and regal Liberty Theater. All of them fill to capacity for each evening session. The performers and patrons of FisherPoets are as diverse in character as the venues that host them. On stage and in the crowd are the weathered faces and worn XTRATUF boots of fishers who have seen their fair share of rough seas and Alaskan winters.

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You also notice the crowd sporting their smart glasses and Patagonia vests, who made the trip out from Portland or Seattle to soak up the essence of FisherPoets. In this way, I feel the event is the best kind of coming-together of community. For many fishers, coastal-dwellers, and Tall Ship sailors that have attended the gathering for decades, this is a chance to share and reconnect with their people. They discuss last season’s catch and predictions for next year, but they also take this time to organize and stand together against existential threats to their livelihoods and the fish they depend on. This year, for example, many attendees wore “No Pebble Mine!” t-shirts and planned action against a proposed mining operation that would threaten one of the most important remaining salmon runs on earth. For the newcomers, lured in by the charm and mystique of this world, it is an opportunity to know your fishermen, and to better understand the lives of hardworking people who bring food to our table—their joys, their emotions, their trials and tribulations.

“It is an opportunity to know your fishermen, and to better understand the lives of hardworking people who bring food to our table—their joys, their emotions, their trials and tribulations.”
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The first poem I experienced at FisherPoets, arriving late Friday night, was read by a 20 year old woman from Bristol Bay, AK, born and raised on a salmon Troller. In beautiful prose, her poem described how her fisher-mother “gave her daughters to the sea.” To this day, the hair on my neck still stands on end when I recall the last line of her poem, which asks the question: “Did my mother really give her daughters to the Sea, or did she give the Sea to us?” Those wouldn’t be the last shivers I’d feel that evening. Shortly after, there was a Coast Guard veteran with a 15 minute, heart pounding account of 7-seconds in his helicopter that were almost his last—a close call during the rescue of a cargo ship in a raging gale.

You could have heard a pin—or a fishing hook—drop in the room of 200 patrons as he described the gyrations of his aircraft as its blades skimmed the surface of Force 5 seas, kissing that line at which ‘all is lost’ before miraculously stabilizing, elevating, and ascending to safety. The only thing I could hear was my own elevated heart rate, drumming behind my ears. My emotions would continue to be piqued in three dozen readings and performances I attended over the weekend.

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When I take a broader lens in considering why a gathering like FisherPoets is so special and so important, it brings me to a realization. These spaces, where people can come together to share openly, listen patiently, let go cathartically, and empathize thoughtfully, are increasingly rare. It breaks stereotypes, opens hearts, and all at once serves as the cement of a broad fishing community, a foundation for its persistence, and a friendly window in from the outside. There is a lesson for all of us at FisherPoets.

Nick Mendoza is the CEO and Founder of OneForNeptune, which makes healthy, sustainable white fish jerky that is traceable back to the fish, fisher, and fishery where it was caught.

Thank You for Joining Us at Good Food Community Fair!

The times challenge us. Slow Food Urban San Diego is grateful for our community - you uplift us in times like these and help to ground us in others. Thank you for your important contributions to our Good Food Community Fair: True Cost of Food and to our local food system. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, skills, knowledge, sense of hope, resiliency, successes, humor and delicious food and drinks.

This year's Fair celebrated how we are addressing the True Cost of Food in our region and acknowledged the work we have yet to do.

We discussed the true cost of food and farm labor, sustainable seafood, wasted food, soil health and land management, preserving cultural traditions and more. Thank you for sharing your stories and local treats, for teaching us about heirloom seeds and gyotaku, how to prepare "three-sisters," and how to connect to our farmers and fishermen and support healthy food systems. Slow Food looks forward to continuing the effort with you, our community. Thank you to all who contributed and volunteered, and all who attended, and to the WorldBeat Cultural Center for being our gracious host.

We're grateful to our generous sponsors who made it possible to charge only a "suggested donation," so that we can truly bring the Slow Food mission of good, clean and fair food to ALL. Creating opportunities to connect that are accessible is important to us.

Thank you to all who attended and partook of this community event. If you missed this year's good, clean and fair food fun, you can catch the next one in 2018. And of course, you can find us planting, eating, learning, teaching, connecting, cooking and expanding community with our partners in the meantime.

From all of us at Slow Food Urban San Diego, eat well, grow well, and be well.

Meet Your Fishermen

Their days usually start with listening to the weather. And are filled with doing what they love: fishing. Not slave to traffic patterns so much as the winds and currents, they harvest the food we eat in ever changing conditions.

Meet our fishermen on Feb 25th at an evening of local seafood & local wine!  Sea bass and box crab caught by San Diego's fishermen  and crafted into delicacies by MIHO Gastrotruck Wine produced by J*Brix

Seafood Demonstrations by the pros!

San Diego’s fishermen* harvest a diverse array of species: from swordfish, the most cunning of catches, to sea urchins, the sessile ocean starbursts. From 60+ species of rockfish which most restaurants call snapper to opah, a warm-blooded newcomer on the San Diego seafood scene with three distinct cuts of meat ranging from the fatty belly to the beef-like abductor muscle. Plus albacore, sardine, snails, whelks, black cod, octopus, spot prawns and more. The list of our local abundance goes on.

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San Diego is a unique location for the seafood industry in the world. We have a large diversity of year-round species. We have seasonal migrations of pelagic fish. And we have weather that makes seafood available year round.” – Kelly Fukushima, first generation San Diego fishermen.

On Saturday, February 25th, San Diegans have the opportunity to meet some of our local independent fishermen. The folks who chose a life of constant change – weather, regulations and fish availability – to provide our food. Slow Food celebrates these food producers. Box crab demonstrations all night and sea bass breakdown at 7pm. 

Kelli and Dan Major Fishing Vessel: Plan B Fishes: Box crab and just about anything available from Point Conception to the Mexico border and out 200 miles – lobster, octopus, whelk, rockfish, bonito, yellowtail…

Kelly Fukushima Fishing Vessel: Three Boys Fishes: swordfish, squid, crab, lobster, seabass, groundfish

Antonio Estrada Fishing Vessel: Caroline Louise Fishes: sea bass, including the one we’ll be eating on Sat

U.S. fisheries are among the most stringently regulated in the world.

“When San Diegans eat seafood from California fishermen, they are making a great choice for sustainable, responsible seafood and they are supporting artisanal fishing families.” – Kelly Fukushima

Box crab, harvested by Dan Major.

*Most people who fish commercially, whether man or woman, prefer the term fisherman over fisher, fisherwoman, etc.

And Evening with San Diego’s Independent Fishermen and Small-Production Winemakers

Slow Food Urban San Diego invites you to a Slow Fish & Slow Wine event featuring small-production winemakers and San Diego's independent fishermenHometown heroes MIHO Catering Co. will provide sea-to-street cuisine on-site with support from Hostess Haven, who’ll be handling the décor and look of the evening. The night will feature seafood demonstrations by the fishermen who caught the night’s sustainable fish as well as tunes, visuals, and antics provided by the Wine Not? team. 

GET TICKETS HERE

This February 25th, Wine Not?, the L.A.-based event and lifestyle unit of Bon Appétit Wine Editor Marissa A. Ross and event producer Evan Enderle, comes to San Diego in support of Slow Food Urban San Diego and J. Brix Wines. 

The event takes place from 6 to 9pm on the 25th. Tickets are $25 and include admission, wine tasting and small bites. Advance purchase is strongly recommended as space is limited. Tickets are available via WineNOT. Proceeds will benefit SFUSD’s programs to promote good, clean & fair seafood in San Diego.   The Rose is located at 2219 S. 30th Street and can be reached via telephone at 619.281.0718.

In San Diego, local seafood is limited to the coast

We are very pleased to share the following guest blog from California Sea Grant on local seafood in San Diego: Most of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported. Even in California, it is likely that less than ten percent of the seafood consumed is domestic. With our coastal location, why aren’t San Diegans enjoying locally caught seafood?

A new study shows that just eight percent of the city’s 86 seafood markets consistently carried San Diego-sourced seafood. Fourteen percent of markets carried it on occasion. The majority of markets that did carry local seafood were located within a mile and a half of the coast.

“Locally landed San Diego seafood isn’t that accessible to San Diego consumers,” said researcher Nina Venuti. “Few seafood markets in the city sell San Diego-sourced seafood.”

To buy locally-caught fish in San Diego, many shoppers have to visit the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market in downtown. It is one of few seafood markets that consistently carry local catch.

San Diego-based commercial fishermen Luke Halmay and Nathan Perez see the Port of San Diego redevelopment as an opportunity to reevaluate how space is distributed

One of the potential limitations to local seafood access identified by the study was a lack of waterfront workspace, including space for docking boats, maintaining gear, offloading and refrigerating catch, and for selling catch directly to the public. To maintain local seafood systems and the fishing heritage of many waterfront cities, reliable waterfront infrastructure is needed. With the Port of San Diego reviewing plans for a radical redevelopment of Central Embarcadero. San Diegans have an opportunity right now to fulfill this need.

The study also pointed to a lack of urban infrastructure as a potential barrier to establishing and supporting a local seafood system. Unlike agriculture, seafood production is limited to the coast. Therefore, local distributors may play a larger role in increasing community access to local seafood, bridging the gap between the waterfront and the city’s restaurants and markets.

“Urban infrastructure like seafood processing, packaging and transport facilities, as well as markets and restaurants to sell our locally sourced catch are all needed to increase access throughout the city,” said study author Theresa Talley. “This will ensure that more of the fish landed by our fishermen ends up on more of our plates here in San Diego.”

#knowyourfishermen

A version of this post first appeared on the California Sea Grant website

Keep San Diego Seafood Local

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On August 24th, stakeholders of San Diego fisheries began meeting with Protea Waterfront Redevelopment about their plans to redevelop the Downtown waterfront. This meeting was important. That the fishing community is meeting at all with the likely developer may affect whether our local and sustainable seafood industry will persist, diminish or flourish in the redevelopment.

Learn more about good, clean & fair seafood in San Diego.

The Port of San Diego envisions redeveloping the “Central Embarcadero” an area that includes Tuna Harbor, where the majority of San Diego's active commercial fishermen dock their boats. “Tuna Harbor is central to San Diego’s cultural history as a fishing community,” says Pete Halmay, San Diego sea urchin fisherman. “It was the hub of San Diego fishing for a 100 years and is central to our local industry today.”

Today, San Diegans have little access to locally-caught seafood, even though we are a waterfront city. The U.S. imports over 90% of its seafood and San Diego fishermen are hard pressed to sell their catch locally. The redevelopment represents anopportunity to invest in our local fisheries and reconnect with our local seafood system. It's up to the San Diego to commit to this.

Want to help? Write a letter to the Port of San Diego in support of local commercial fisheries and sustainable seafood.  

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While it is still early in the planning process, it is important that we let the Port (and City and County) know now that San Diego wants to support a thriving commercial fishing industry by keeping Tuna Harbor solely as a working fishing harbor. One of the early draft alternatives presented by Protea for Tuna Harbor shows a mixed use harbor, combining fishing with another yacht club. This would reduce the number of slips and total space allocated to fishermen, and create unsafe conditions with little room to maneuver boats and allow for daily boat traffic. Plus, “Creating a mixed-use marina conflicts with the Port Master Plan which delineated this area, among others to commercial fisheries,” says Halmay. The preliminary plan also reduces the size of the on-site processor and sets it back from the water behind retail stores and a taco shop. “Santa Monica Seafood provides vital services to the fishermen: ice, loading dock, crane, etc. We need these things to operate and keep our seafood fresh.” While this plan is only one of several draft alternatives, it reveals the extent to which commercial fishing could again be reduced in San Diego. Setting commercial fishing as a priority in San Diego needs to happen now.

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At the 2nd meeting in September, facilitated by Dr. Theresa Talley of SeaGrant California, stakeholders chose Mike Conroy, of the American Albacore Fishing Association, to Chair future meetings. They also presented their vision of Tuna Harbor, which is a single use harbor for commercial fishing vessels only, including necessary infrastructure like cranes, squid pump, freezer and net mending space plus, signage illustrating San Diego's fishing history and present, and an open-air fishermen's market. The vision maintains Santa Monica Seafood and their infrastructure, as well. All intended to support the current and likely future local fishery.

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Click here for larger version of fishermen's sketch.

San Diego needs fishermen to harvest our seafood. It’s not much further for us to get to importing 100% of our seafood. The redevelopment of the Central Embarcadero represents an opportunity for San Diego to invest in its fisheries, in its local seafood system, in community. We can make room for more yachts and chain restaurants or we can invest in Good, Clean & Fair Seafood for All. The success of Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, the popularity of restaurants serving local seafood, and the move to eat locally, all point to the potential of our local fisheries.

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Maintaining and improving the fishing infrastructure at Tuna Harbor will keep locally-caught sustainable seafood in San Diego. Keep San Diego Local. Support your local fishermen, and fresh, tasty local seafood.

Watch this video to learn more about the value of San Diego commercial fisheries.

Want to help? Write a letter to the Port of San Diego in support of local commercial fisheries and sustainable seafood.

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Save San Diego's Sustainable Seafood

San Diego's sustainable seafood needs your help. San Diego's fishermen need your help. Our good, clean & fair seafood system needs your help.

The Port of San Diego plans to redevelop our Downtown waterfront, but the proposals they are considering, by and large, fall short of sustaining our local fishing industry. You can speak up and let them know that we support our fishermen and need a fishing harbor. No fishing harbor means no local fish. You can do two things to help:

  1. Send a letter to the Port of San Diego and ask them to support a healthy, local seafood system and a distinctly local Downtown waterfront. More details below.
  2. Attend the Port of San Diego meeting to review the proposals October 13th. Provide public comment in support of our local fisheries. Details here.

Read San Diego fishermen's Downtown waterfront vision

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Support good, clean & fair seafood for all San Diegans.

Help maintain our access to some of the most sustainable seafood in the world by sending a letter to the Port of San Diego. Points to include in letters and contact information for Port Commissioners and staff are below and downloadable here.

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Points to include in letters:

  • A world-class community fishing commercial fishing harbor on the Embarcadero is a crucial and beneficial part of the fabric of the waterfront and the San Diego community. Our fishing harbor and the people within provide food security, economic value, legal consistency, and strengthen connections to our history and culture.
  • We encourage the Port to work with the San Diego fishing community to ensure that their needs are incorporated into the redeveloped waterfront. Please ensure that San Diego fishing will have the infrastructure, visibility and community involvement it needs in order thrive.
  • San Diego fishermen provide food security. San Diegans want access to safe, secure and healthy food. While 90% of the U.S.’s seafood is imported, with most from unknown origins, San Diego fishermen provide a local source of traceable seafood. This seafood is a safe, secure, healthy and affordable option for the community, and is some of the most sustainable seafood in the world.
  • San Diego fishermen contribute economic Value. The San Diego fishing industry has an extensive economic value to our community and this should be maintained. The San Diego fishing industry supports 130 commercial fishing vessels, including crew members and their families. In the San Diego area, 2.3 million pounds of seafood were landed in 2014, at a value of $10.3 million. Our commercial fisheries bring other values to San Diego including: networks, stewardship, lifestyle, income, fishing expenses, gifting and trading seafood, culture and tradition, education, spiritual, intergenerational, and transportation.
  • The Port should maintain legal consistency. The Port should redevelop the waterfront in a manner consistent with local and State plans and acts that protect the coast and its people and consider proposals for Central Embarcadero development. Redevelopment should meet the requirements of the Unified Port of San Diego Master Plan and the Commercial Fisheries Revitalization Plan to maintain a working fishing harbor at this location; the State Land Commissions Public Trust Doctrine that holds the waterfront in trust for the people of California; and the Coastal Act that states that fishing harbors should be maintained.
  • We want to maintain our history and culture. San Diego wants fishing operations in sight. Downtown San Diego is the cultural and historical home of San Diego fishing. Young San Diegans need the opportunity to view fishing and consider it as a viable line of work in order to keep our food sources secure. Once fishing is not visible, it will disappear along with the food security, economic stability, jobs and local identity it provides.
  • Please keep our local sustainable seafood system within reach. San Diego deserves a thriving local food system, of which fishing is an integral and respected part. We want access to fresh, healthy, sustainably sourced seafood, that we can afford. A thriving fishing industry in Downtown San Diego is critical to this future.
  • Downtown San Diego, like many other downtowns, has its share of large hotels, chain and non-local retailers and restaurants, and a lack of fresh, locally sourced food. Redevelopment represents an opportunity to highlight San Diego’s local treasures and create a beautiful, unique, accessible, and purposeful world-class waterfront.
  • San Diego deserves a world-class, working waterfront. To accomplish this, we need a thriving fishing industry. Downtown San Diego can be known for its healthy, sustainable seafood; its strong fishing heritage; and its beautiful, fully operational fishing harbor accessible to all.

Support food security, economic value, our cultural identity. Support local fisheries. 

#knowyourfishermen

Email the San Diego Port Commissioners Marshall Merrifield (Chairman)- City of San Diego mmerrifield@portofsandiego.org Robert “Dukie” Valderrama (Vice-Chairman)- National City rvalderrama@portofsandiego.org Rafael Castellanos (Secretary)- City of San Diego rcastellanos@portofsandiego.org Bob Nelson - City of San Diego bnelson@portofsandiego.org Ann Moore- Chula Vista amoore@portofsandiego.org Dan Malcolm – Imperial Beach dmalcolm@portofsandiego.org Garry J. Bonelli - Coronado gbonelli@portofsandiego.org

Email the Port Staff Jim Hutzelman jhutzelm@portofsandiego.org Randa Coniglio rconigli@portofsandiego.org Wendy Ong wong@portofsandiego.org Penny Maus pmaus@portofsandiego.org Sofia Bayardo sbayardo@portofsandiego.org

Red Sea Urchin

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Seafood Saturdays

13230112_10154229939483824_7682329547428895334_n We'll restart our seafood Saturdays tastings in 2017! Stay tuned!

Join SFUSD, Chef Cindy and local fishermen Saturdays from 9-11am at Tuna Harbor Dockside Market to learn about San Diego's local seafood, how to cook it, what it tastes like, where it was caught, and who caught it. Check out our Facebook page to see which Saturdays we'll be there and what's cooking.

Chef Cindy's user-friendly recipes are always delicious and fun. Plus, local fishermen share how they caught the bounty and they might tell you their favorite ways to cook it. If you love seafood or don't know what to do with it, this is for you.

Guest chefs and volunteers wanted. Meet fishermen, learn about local seafood, taste yummy dishes. email: Sarah@slowfoodurbansandiego.org

 IMG_2351Sheephead Recipes
Basic Recipe – Sheephead Salad
1-1/2 lb  Sheephead fillets, skin-on
¼ cup  Celery, diced
¼ cup  Red onion, diced
¼ cup Parsley, minced

To taste  Lime juice, salt and fresh-ground black pepperSteam fillets until just cooked (145 degrees), wrap and refrigerate. Chill completely, at least 2 hours. Flake the flesh off the skin, into a large bowl. Mix with celery, red onion, parsley and lime juice to taste. Continue with one of the preceeding recipes.

Sheephead Louie

Think the “king of salads” aka Crab Louie, a California favorite going back to the early 1900s!

1 lb  Sheephead Salad (basic recipe, above)
4  Eggs, hard-cooked, diced, sliced or wedged
¾ lb Heirloom cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
¾ lb Asparagus, par-cooked, bias-cut
12oz Crunchy lettuce, like iceberg, chopped, or hearts of romaine, cut crosswise ½” thick
1 cup Louie*, Thousand Island or Green Goddess dressing

Arrange lettuce on chilled plate. Top with sheephead salad. Garnish with egg, tomato and asparagus. Serve with your favorite dressing. Variations: Use avocado instead of asparagus. Add kalamata or other olives, pitted. Add cucumber and/or radishes, thinly sliced. Sub shredded brussel sprouts for the lettuce.

Louie Dressing

Traditionally a mayo-chili sauce blend, Evening Land president and sommelier Larry Stone kicks it up a few notches with this version.

1 cup mayonnaise 3 tablespoons ketchup 1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 garlic clove, minced 1 teaspoon Tabasco 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1/4 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika 1/4 teaspoon chili powder Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a bowl, whisk the mayonnaise with ketchup, relish, lemon juice, garlic, Tabasco, Worcestershire, paprika and chili powder; season with salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.

Online at http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/crab-louie

Sheephead Cocktail
1 lb              Sheephead Salad (basic recipe, below)
¼ cup          Carrot, finely diced
1 Tbs           Capers, tiny, drained
1 tsp           Jalapeño, ribs and seeds removed, finely minced
¼ cup          Olive oil, high quality, extra-virgin
3 Tbs           Lemon juice, fresh (from 1 large lemon)To taste
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper

Optional  Seafood Cocktail Sauce Combine sheephead salad with carrot, capers, jalapeno, olive oil and lemon juice in a large bowl. Gently fold ingredients together, being careful not to break up the fish too much. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt and pepper if needed. Serve immediately, or chill up to 6 hours. Divide mixture between 8 wine glasses. Optionally serve with your favorite seafood cocktail sauce. Inspired by a recipe from Sheila Lukins of Silver Palate Cookbook fame.

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Seafood Saturdays!

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Chef Cindy Quinonez will cook Sweet and Sour Rockfish with Bok Choy and Opah Meatballs (recipe below) this Saturday. 

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Opah Lampris guttatus (aka moonfish). Opah is a bycatch fish in the tuna and swordfish fisheries off California and around the Pacific Islands.  They are available year round, but landings seem to peak from April through August. In 2015, San Diego scientists discovered that opah are warm-blooded fish.

For more information on opah go here. 

Lettuce-Wrapped Spicy Opah Meatballs

Spicy meatballs made from ground opah, served on lettuce or other greens with a lime dipping sauce. Variation of recipe of same name from Pacific Flavors by Hugh Carpenter.

Spicy Opah Meatballs: 1 pound ground opah 2 green onions, minced 2 tablespoons minced fresh coriander 2 tablespoons light soy sauce 1 egg 1 teaspoon grated orange rind 3/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon Chinese chili oil 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 4 cloves garlic, finely minced 1 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced Cornstarch for dusting

Spicy Lime Dipping Sauce:

2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce 2 tablespoons lime juice 2 teaspoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon Chinese chili oil 1 clove garlic, finely minced 1 head Bibb lettuce or other greens* 1 bunch fresh cilantro 20 mint leaves 1/2 cup peanut oil * Baby bok choy leaves, kale, chard, spinach, etc.

Preparation: In a bowl, combine ground opah, green onions, coriander, soy sauce, egg, orange peel, nutmeg, chili sauce, pepper, garlic, and ginger. Mix thoroughly, then rub a little oil on your hands and form 20 meatballs about 1 inch in diameter. Arrange on a lightly oiled plate and refrigerate until ready to cook.

Pull leaves from Bibb lettuce or other greens and cut into 20 pieces about 3 inches square. On each lettuce square, place a sprig of cilantro and 1 mint leaf. Arrange lettuce leaves on a serving platter and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cooking: To broil meatballs, preheat oven to 550 degrees. Place the meatballs on a small baking sheet. Turn oven to broil, place the baking sheet about 4 inches from heat, and broil meatballs until no longer pink in center, about 3 to 4 minutes. To pan-fry meatballs lightly dust with cornstarch. Place a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When frying pan is hot, add oil. When oil just begins to give off a wisp of smoke, add meatballs and pan-fry them, turning them over in the oil until golden brown and no longer pink in the center, about 4 minutes.

Place meatballs next to lettuce cups on the serving platter. Serve at once, accompanied by the dipping sauce. Each person wraps a lettuce cup around a meatball and dips one end of the package into the sauce.

In a small bowl combine dipping sauce ingredients. Add 2 1/2 tablespoons water and refrigerate. Serves 6 to 8 as an appetizer; 2 as an entree.