Keta Salmon on the Hyrdrogrill

The fall run of keta is coming in now from the high seas (well, any day now; we haven't had quite enough rain yet); follow their progress here.

They've been out there for three to six years, those poor fish. Undervalued, underused, under-appreciated, and mis-named, the under-dogs of salmon are schooling up at sea with their fellow chums to give us a little taste of the last salmon run of the season.

In fact, the keta are also the last intact, sustainable salmon run left in Puget Sound, according to their champion, John Foss of Eelgrassroots, a PR firm. Says Foss: "Our local fishing fleets are out daily working to bring these beautiful fish to market, and put some dollars in their pockets after a tough season fishing up north in Alaska."

He calls the keta the zeitgeist salmon of our tough economic times. Mild of flavor, a great friend of all sauces, and a smokers dream. And affordable. Keta retail for $8 or less for filets. Tens and tens of thousands of pounds are getting shipped out weekly to the Midwest and East Coast, but relatively few keta are consumed in locally. Unfortunate. Seattlest thoroughly enjoyed the sample cooked up by Foss and his pals out at Golden Gardens on a giant salmon-grill sculpture "hydrogrill" designed by Don Hennick and welded by Dave Charles. The cool-temperature hydrogrill was ideal for the keta's mild flavor, cooking the fish perfectly without any of the charring we usually associate with barbecues.