WOOLWICH, Maine — Steve Dodge, who has been helping with springtime alewife harvests in Woolwich for 54 years, held up a stick with 10 smoked fish Sunday and told a reporter to “write us up big.”
“Tell ’em they’re smoked golden brown and incredibly delicious,” said Dodge. “Even if they’re not.”
Dodge, who first helped scoop alewives out of the Kennebec River tributary at age 11, said he prefers his cooked fresh, not smoked. But judging by the steady stream of people who made their way down to the little-known smoke shack near the Woolwich Town Office Sunday, there are plenty who enjoy the gray-and-silver fish, which are known to be bony and oily if not prepared correctly. On the spectrum between the lovers and haters, Brad and Donna Allen, who have a summer home in Phippsburg, are way on the “love” side.
“They’re absolutely delicious,” said Brad Allen, who says a minute in the microwave on a paper plate is all it takes to prepare one perfectly. “They’re ridiculously good. You’ve just got to go easy with the bones. Biting off a big hunk just isn’t going to cut it.”
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