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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j6sxzaj wrote

Reply to comment by doctor-rumack in What happened to the plastic straw law in Rhode Island? by GhostOpera406

If having an official state appetizer was a thing that states do, those would both be excellent choices for such a title as they're genuinely unique to the state/region and not something you can get an Wolfgang Puck Express in the Lincoln, Nebraska airport.

Unfortunately, it is not either of those dishes.

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doctor-rumack t1_j6t47o1 wrote

Ah, calamari.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j6t6bv7 wrote

i wasn't trying to be a dick by not saying it, but i still get annoyed thinking about it lol

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fishythepete t1_j6uyowo wrote

I get that it’s widely available, but Point Judith is the home of like 98% of calamari squid caught on the US. It’s also grown a lot in popularity because it was a cheap and fancy protein that could be marked way up.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j6v0siu wrote

The problem is: that isn’t true. Rhode Island accounts for 54% of squid harvested…..in the northeast United States. The ProJo ram with it because it’s the largest seafood haul from here by a large amount but California still exists.

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fishythepete t1_j6v38w1 wrote

I don’t think those numbers square up either, but I was definitely off.

For Longfin / Shortfin it looks like RI catches closer to 62% of the national total.

CA might fish a lot of market squid but it’s not going into Calamari.

https://dem.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur861/files/2022-08/AnnualRpt_2021.pdf

Longfin: In 2021, commercial landings totaled 23.4 million pounds, and were valued at $33.4 million, according to the NOAA Fisheries commercial fishing landings database.

Shortfin: In 2021, commercial landings of shortfin squid totaled 39 million pounds, and were valued at $19.6 million according to the NOAA Fisheries commercial fishing landings database.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j6v4qoh wrote

Even then, it’s not some local industry. It’s a thing that goes to China and back because of how labor intensive it is to cut it all up.

And that’s still skipping past that no other state has an official appetizer. Or that we’ve got multiple appetizers that are legitimately Kline of unique to here.

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fishythepete t1_j6vohhz wrote

>And that’s still skipping past that no other state has an official appetizer.

Yeah I spent so much time wondering if they could, I didn’t think if they should. You kind of got me here.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j6woamj wrote

It’s one thing if this type of bill is “a bunch of school kids learning how government works so they meet a state rep and draft a bill and get to testify about how the state dinosaur should be a Triceratops because they are cool” and then we go through the whole schoolhouse rock thing.

But, no children were involved in this process. At least not literal ones.

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