Farewell to Surf and Turf--Fulton Fish Moves, Chicago Stockyards Dwindle Down
"The smoky riverbank dawn, the racket the fishmongers make, the sea-weedy smell, the sight of this plentifulness always gives me a feeling of well being..."
--writer Joseph Mitchell
After over 180 years of flashing knives and flying scales, New York's Fulton Fish Market is headed out of Brooklyn and into the Bronx, at Hunt's Point. The state-of-the-art indoor facility will certainly be more comfortable for both vendors and buyers---and the fish will be well-refrigerated, not tossed on mounds of ice.
Evidently the market began in the early 1800's as a site for the sale of meat, veg, as well as fish.
"The Fulton ferry then was a hub of activity, and the site was chosen because of its convenience to the ferry and for the benefit of Long Island farmers who said they could provide the public with vegetables at four to six cents less per bag by saving the cost of carting to the so-called Fly Market.
When the market opened (sometime after 1815) it was the most spacious and costly edifice of its kind in the country. It carried a wide variety of meats, including display of exceptional quality."
-----from Barry Popik's The Big Apple
By 1824 the market became entirely given over to fish.
The catch that used to come into South Street by boat to the market's first permanent structure built in 1869 has long been trucked to the market.
The FOOD Museum has dubbed Fulton Fish Market's original location a Global Food Heritage
Site. This describes a place integral to the history of food, and one that could either be devoted to a museum about such history, or at the very least honored by a plaque. Many suich places, large and small, exist around the country, and many are in danger of evaporating along with their valuable stories of food.
If the fish are moving, the animals of Chicago's Packing district are almost gone. One small operation remains, devoted to the Kosher and Muslin slaughter of lamb and veal, about 1200 lambs a day, and 300 calves a week. According to the Washington post's Kari Lydersen, Chiappetti's Lamb and Veal has been the only slaughterhouse in town since the 475 acre Chicago Union Stockyards closed 35 years ago. The company is moving to an industrial park about a mile from its present location.
Developed in 1865 along with the railroad that made it all possible, the stockyards once shipped fresh meat up, dopwn and across the U.S. The Chicago-style slaughter of animals evidently caused a light bulb to gleam over the head of Henry Ford.
" The Chicago stockyards are widely credited with providing the inspiration for industrial assembly lines. The slaughter process was known as a "disassembly line." It is said that Henry Ford observed it and reversed the process to put cars together, instead of taking cows apart. "
The Chicago Union Stockyards area is already becoming an upmarket, martini-bar-filled, condo area but it, too, deserves recognition as a Global Food Heritage Site.
Last winter Foodie and spouse visited the once immense and bustling Fort Worth Stockyards and stock market where daily a handful of longhorns parade up and down the street. (Interestingly, Foodie learned that the cattle who once were driven along the street to be slaughtered never lived long enough to grow long horns--an animal doesn't show off any for at least five years. )
Photo of Fulton Fish Market by Philip Greenspun
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