Egyptian Perch

[chow guy]

I was at Fairway in NYC and saw Egyptian Perch. It didn't look anything like the Perch (aka sunfish), I remember from my youth. Has any one tried it? How did you cook it?

[snowangel]

I was at Fairway in NYC and saw Egyptian Perch. It didn't look anything like the Perch (aka sunfish), I remember from my youth. Has any one tried it? How did you cook it?

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I've never heard of Egyptian Perch. Did you buy any? What does it look like? Not all perch look like sunfish; many of them are skinner and fatter (i.e. fillets are thicker) than the flat sunfish I know.

[Carrot Top]

Here is something on Nile perch. I have a feeling, though, that most of those real Nile/Egyptian perch are not exported, but I could be wrong.

I'm sort of wondering if the fish is actually a shad. It *is* the season, here, for shad, and to call it an Egyptian perch might be a mere romantic gesture being made (which seems to happen often enough with some varieties of fish . . . ), a nickname being given to a variety that otherwise might not be purchased as readily.

Edited May 2, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[russ parsons]

my guess is that this is a typical case of "glorified labeling" in seafood, like patagonian toothfish being called chilean seabass. i'm thinking that egyptian perch is actually tilapia. if so, quality varies tremendously according to how it was farmed. it can be a decent, bland fish, or it can be horribly muddy.

[Magictofu]

I don't know about Egyptian perch but Nile perch is quite common and I suspect these two are the same.

I am not a big fan of the fish but it has a relatively firm texture and you can get huge thick filets.

It is also the fish at the center of the documentary Darwin's Nightmare.

[Carrot Top]

It is also the fish at the center of the documentary Darwin's Nightmare.

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Wow. I guess Nile perch *is* exported. Interesting documentary.

[chow guy]

my guess is that this is a typical case of "glorified labeling" in seafood, like patagonian toothfish being called chilean seabass. i'm thinking that egyptian perch is actually tilapia. if so, quality varies tremendously according to how it was farmed. it can be a decent, bland fish, or it can be  horribly muddy.

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I also thought it was a case of "glorified labeling" since it was under ten dollars a pound and, now that you mention it... did kind of look like Talapia, not really like shad, which also would have been more expensive.

[markemorse]

Darwin's Nightmare and global ruin aside...did anyone ever come up with a tasty way to cook this? It's a fish that I see all the time here and avoid because I haven't found a cooking method I like. I love the Vietnamese catfish I buy, I find some tilapia to be OK, but I would rate this slightly below tilapia on my personal edibility scale. Any success stories are most welcome...

Edited February 9, 2008 by markemorse (log)

[scubadoo97]

I don't know about Egyptian perch but Nile perch is quite common and I suspect these two are the same.

I am not a big fan of the fish but it has a relatively firm texture and you can get huge thick filets.

It is also the fish at the center of the documentary Darwin's Nightmare.

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Yes I would quess that it's the same or similar to Nile perch. There are quite a few species. I happen to just see Darwin's Nightmare on Sundance the other day. All that fish and the locals have nothing to eat. It was heartbreaking to watch

[LRunkle]

I was at Fairway in NYC and saw Egyptian Perch. It didn't look anything like the Perch (aka sunfish), I remember from my youth. Has any one tried it? How did you cook it?

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Just to set the record straight, perch and sunfish are not the same fish although the terms are often used(incorrectly) as if they were. The sunfish family includes bluegills, red eared sunfish(shell crackers or bream in the south), pumkinseeds,

large and small mouth bass and numerous other species. The perch family includes mainly yellow perch, walleyes and saugers. True members of the perch family are more cylindrical, while most sunfish are flat and hand-shaped. To make matters worse, the Nile perch is also a misnomer from a technical point of view as it is not a perch either but the largest member of the ciclid family. Tilapia are also cichlids.

[MSRadell]

Just to set the record straight, perch and sunfish are not the same fish although the terms are often used(incorrectly) as if they were. The sunfish family includes bluegills, red eared sunfish(shell crackers or bream in the south), pumkinseeds,

large and small mouth bass and numerous other species. The perch family includes mainly yellow perch, walleyes and saugers. True members of the perch family are more cylindrical, while most sunfish are flat and hand-shaped. To make matters worse, the Nile perch  is also a misnomer from a technical point of view as it is not a perch either but the largest member of the ciclid family. Tilapia are also cichlids.

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Finally, someone that knows about fish! I knew perch and sunfish were not the same based on what I caught as a youth and I certainly didn't know all the terminology. Kind of strange that bass are part of the sunfish group since there not even close to the same shape (actually shaped more like perch).

It's also kind of interesting that Tilapia are cichlids like the ones I have a my fish tank, at least now I know what to do when a fish dies