By: Ady
Now largely forgotten, but Albany beef used to be a 19th Century American haute cuisine and a legitimate part of Americana. Sourced from Atlantic sturgeon / common sturgeon - a once plentiful fish in the US East Coast. The name Albany beef was due to this sturgeon's bright red colored flesh reminiscent of premium quality beef. A must sample cuisine that has recently revived in Albany and other fine restaurants elsewhere in NYC due to the successful restocking of the Atlantic sturgeon and successful anti-pollution measures.
The town of Albany was once known as "Sturgeontown" because Atlantic sturgeon was so plentiful during its heyday in the 19th Century that catches are stacked like logs in New York's major fishing markets back then. Then came the scourge of overfishing and pollution of polychlorinated biphenyls that nearly wiped out the Atlantic sturgeon off the face of the planet. fortunately, we just saved it from the brink of extinction and made it a valuable food fish and a source of American caviar again.
