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THE BEST: Fish (Your favorite)


Fat Guy

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Mentioned above, mine might be bluefish. Also, most fish that stand up to acid marinades/pickling, like anchovies, sardines, herring, and mackerel. My understanding is that these get lumped together under the Japanese term aozakana, or blue fish, and I'll take pretty much any of them at any time.

Edited by emannths (log)
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My favorite way to make bluefish - take fillet, salt and pepper, and coat top with a thin layer of homemade garlic aioli. Thinly slice lemons and lay these on the top and bake until just flaky. Heaven. But it is also among the best fish to smoke.

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Very Very fresh Salmon, (wild) filet, cut just behind the head. 'Pan-roast' with Penzies Chicago Steak seasoning, starting skin side down in a hot, heavy pan. After turing over, finished in a 350 oven until still rare in the middle.

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Wild Pacific spring (chinook/king) salmon. It's so rich and oily and delicious. Especially the toro, the stomach part.

Mackerel is a very, very close second.

Most fun fish to eat is whitebait prepared Chinese-style - battered, deep fried, with hot chilies and garlic.

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The definition of a favorite fish for me is not only how it tastes, but must include low toxins and sustainably fished. Being on the west coast I would agree with David Ross that the best all-around fish these days is wild Alaskan Sablefish (black cod, butterfish.) I eat black cod about once a week, and it's super versatile and yummy. Ten years ago I would have said wild Pacific King Salmon. But now it's available sporadically and is very pricey. I still love it, and consider it a treat.

I also really like fresh wild Pacific sardines, but gutting and boning them isn't a favorite activity, so I have to buy them somewhere they are willing to do that for me. They are not terribly available; I suppose demand is low. The price is right, though. They are dynamite cooked on the grill.

Yellowfin Tuna (Ahi) is also a favorite of mine, but it takes finesse to cook it just right, and it isn't cheap, and it isn't easy to determine how it is fished.

When I'm on the east coast I admit to a weakness for bluefish, if I can every find it, but it has been so long since I lived in NY that I look at most of the fish sold when I visit and just get confused. When back east I tend to eat the shellfish of my childhood, which isn't available in CA.

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The definition of a favorite fish for me is not only how it tastes, but must include low toxins and sustainably fished. Being on the west coast I would agree with David Ross that the best all-around fish these days is wild Alaskan Sablefish (black cod, butterfish.) I eat black cod about once a week, and it's super versatile and yummy.

Been a few people who like the Sablefish. I love the stuff, but rarely see it fresh back here in NYC. It's a classic when it's smoked, though.

These days, at Russ & Daughters, smoked sable is about the same price as smoked sturgeon. They tell me it is much harder to source and much more expensive. My guess is that's been the case ever since it became a hit at Nobu (who can forget the much ballyhooed miso marinated black cod?), and then appeared on practically every other menu in town.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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It is considered a trash fish, but I love amberjack. Great taste and texture that stands up to any cooking method.

Trash fish? gulp

I'm on the Florida west coast and for me there is no best fish. Fresh fish is quite available. My job is to not screw it up. Here are some amberjack fillets I cut a few weeks ago. I like it a tad pink in the middle for best texture. Currently amberjack is a favorite since it is plentiful, fresh and down right tasty.

amberjack fillets.jpg

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Being from the Mid-west!!

Walleye

Spring Crappie and Blue Gill-- from cold water ( killer )

I like wild caught salmons.. preferably from deep water.

Halibut ( Sorry )

When I can get--Rainbow/Brownies YUMMMMM

Its good to have Morels

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So many fishes -- so little time.

As previously noted, much depends on where you are, and when. If I'm in Tokyo (not nearly often enough, I might add), it's ahi tuna sashimi at 6 a.m. at the Tsukiji market. If I'm on the U.S. Gulf Coast, it's grouper or corvina.

But if I'm at home, in the Mid-South (Tennessee-Arkansas-Mississippi), and within shouting distance of a farm pond or a flatland lake, there's no contest. It's bream, caught that morning, dressed, dusted in cornmeal with salt and pepper, and panfried. There is nothing better.

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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If you're eating "local" wild striped bass in NYC at this time of the year, here's a tip: either it's not wild, or it's not local, as the NY State season runs from July to December.

The chef I spoke to said that the striped bass season for most of the fishery opens on April 15 but that there are some coming in from up north on the Hudson where the fishery opened a week or so ago. That may very well be wrong.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Ecuador, South America - it's a tie between Red Bellied Piraña, Arrowana, Tilapia, and Pargo Lunar (a type of snapper local to our coast). And this will always depend on where in the country I find myself; upper Amazon is best for Piraña, lower Amazon for Arrowana, and coast for Pargo Lunar. In the Sierra, I tend to eat locally farmed rainbow and steelhead trout or, when in Ibarra, Tilapia freshly caught out of Lago Yaguarcocha.

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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New Zealand / King Salmon sashimi style.

Fatty. Tasty. Unctuous.

http://aquaculture.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/salmon-block-thumb-465x330.jpg

If I feel like explosive toilet action, sashimi butterfish/escolar:

http://www.osakasushilafayette.com/08.%20Escolar%20Sashimi.JPG

For mercury poisoning, it has to be swordfish belly sashimi:

http://www.foodex.hk/upload/product/2009103014161216002.jpg

Edited by infernooo (log)
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If you're eating "local" wild striped bass in NYC at this time of the year, here's a tip: either it's not wild, or it's not local, as the NY State season runs from July to December.

The chef I spoke to said that the striped bass season for most of the fishery opens on April 15 but that there are some coming in from up north on the Hudson where the fishery opened a week or so ago. That may very well be wrong.

Let me just say this about the striped bass fishery in NY State. Or rather, let the Dept. of Environmental Conservation say it:

New York State also has a commercial striped bass fishery. Striped bass taken commercially must be caught east of the East Rockaway Inlet on the south shore of Long Island and east of Wading River Creek on the north shore. The Hudson River and waters near New York City are closed to commercial fishing because of health concerns due to past concentrations of PCBs in those areas. In order to participate in the commercial striped bass fishery, you must possess both a striped bass commercial harvesters permit and a food fish license. At this time no new striped bass permits are being issued by DEC. Detailed rules and regulations for commercial fishing can be found in 6 NYCRR Part 40 of the fish and wildlife regulations of New York.

And here are the regs.

The commercial season runs from July 1 - December 15th.

Bottom line is restaurants should not be serving NY State wild striped bass other than from July 1st to December 15th. And if it's coming from the Hudson, don't eat it. Or at the least, don't feed it to your kids.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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What's your recipe for curing this? Looks delicious.

hi beebs, there's almost no recipe for this it's mostly technique! Fillet your mackerel but leave the pin bones in. Sprinkle with salt and sugar, let rest for 2 hours, rinse, soak in rice vinegar with a small piece of kombu for another hour. This is for a very fresh fish, cure for longer each stage if not supremely fresh. When you're ready to slice, pin bone it and carefully peel the skin off. If you're not careful with the skin you will tear up the fillet.

Steamed turbor is also a fave. The slippery bits around the head, the skin and frilly nuggets on the fins. Engawa in sushi terms but with the added sticky gelatinous skin. I'm weary of the dark skinned wild turbot nowadays, they can taste very muddy. The consistently best fish at the market is the farmed light skinned Norweigian variety. Every scrap of the fish is so clean tasting. The real gems are the livers, truly the foie gras of the sea forget monkfish liver.

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