Fish Heads

[bloviatrix]

I have serious fish head issues. They freak me out. I think I was traumatized by a smoked whitefish as a child, but I'm not sure. I'm ok in the fish store when it comes to checking out the fish eyes to make sure they're not clouded over, but I will not buy a fish unless it's beheaded.

Does anyone else have the same reaction to fish heads? How do you deal with it?

(BTW, my husband teases me about this phobia. He actually dared me to start this thread )

[tejon]

I have that reaction to fish in general

[alacarte]

I hate fish heads too. Also hate being served jumbo prawns with eyes, legs & feelers.

A tastefully draped napkin does wonders.

You can also ask the waiter to take the plate back to the kitchen to be decapitated.

[vengroff]

Fish heads are a sign of freshness. It's much easier to tell if a whole fish is fresh by looking at its eyes and gills than by examining some filets. If a whole fish starts looking cloudy-eyed, the fishmonger can generally still fillet and sell it. With shrimp, the head rots fastest, so complete shrimp with firm heads are a good sign of freshness.

[fresco]

Fish head curry:

http://www.kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=1588

Think Marcella Hazan has a recipe for fish head pasta sauce

[Suzanne F]

WARNING!!!!!!

Bloviatrix, read THE FISH SKIN THREAD at your own risk; you will definitely be freaked out.

Your friend, Suzanne F

[ambra]

Just to further gross you out, I used to work in a restaurant that served Branzino al Sale. Mediterranean Sea Bass baked whole in an encasing of Sea Salt. We would filet it for the customers, before serving it to them. The hostess used to love this fish so much, that she would ask the kitchen to save the heads for her off all the Branzini fileted (sp?) thru the night. At the end of the night, she would sit at a table with a BOWL OF FISH HEADS (usually a dozen or so) and tear into them one by one.

She said the meat from the cheeks was the best part of the fish.

Doesn't bother me to see the head at all. A lamb's head, thats another thing. A delicacy on my Dad's side of the family that grosses me out in ways I can't even describe.

[bloviatrix]

WARNING!!!!!!

Bloviatrix, read THE FISH SKIN THREAD at your own risk; you will definitely be freaked out.

Your friend, Suzanne F 

What do you think reminded me to start this thread?? I'm gonna have nightmares from that photo.

[bloviatrix]

Just to further gross you out, I used to work in a restaurant that served Branzino al Sale. Mediterranean Sea Bass baked whole in an encasing of Sea Salt. We would filet it for the customers, before serving it to them. The hostess used to love this fish so much, that she would ask the kitchen to save the heads for her off all the Branzini fileted (sp?) thru the night. At the end of the night, she would sit at a table with a BOWL OF FISH HEADS (usually a dozen or so) and tear into them one by one.   

She said the meat from the cheeks was the best part of the fish.

Doesn't bother me to see the head at all. A lamb's head, thats another thing. A delicacy on my Dad's side of the family that grosses me out in ways I can't even describe.

I've actually eaten lamb's head. But all we had was the lower jaw. If it was the whole skull, I'm sure I would have had a bad reaction.

It's tradition on Rosh Hashana to eat either lamb's head or fish head's. I've given the husband the responsibility of prepping the heads.

[bloviatrix]

Fish head, lamb head -- my darling 'trix just has an aversion to head.

~bloviator

[Coop]

What about woodcock head? I hear the brains are quite a delicacy. There is a recipe in the Roux bros. cookbook and a picture of it presented with it's head and neck split for easy access to the" tasty " bits.

Here in North America we forget that the animals we eat were in some ways the same as us at one time (heads, feet, gonads etc). I think this is very unhealthy. The sooner we realize this the better. We need to show more respect to those below us on the food chain. Yes they have heads and in some cases we need to see those heads on our tables.

[torakris]

I love fish heads!

Larger head I dig out the meat, but on smaller ones like shishamo, sardines, and small horse mackeral I jst pop the whole head into my mouth! It is quite good actually.

[fresco]

Fish head, lamb head -- my darling 'trix just has an aversion to head.

~bloviator

No comment.

[Katherine]

I always have the opposite feeling - that if the head and tail have been chopped off, there's someone in the kitchen either completely fish head phobic, who lays the fish on the cutting board, raises the cleaver high, and looks away before the blow, or who is guessing that I'm fish head phobic, and want my fish to look hacked up.

Which I don't. I can handle the fact that fish have heads and tails, meat comes with bones, fat, and connective tissue, etc. Most Americans seem to think that you can grow giant slabs of deli meat in culture vats, with no bones, fat, or organs. Sheesh.

[dumpling]

Hey Bloviatrix! Right with you on this one!

HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE(Did I say) HATE FISHHEADS!

When I was a little kid, my father was convinced that these things were very healthy. He really couldn't cook much. But what he remembered from China from when he was a kid was Fish head soup. Also, he used to be able to get it really cheaply, intially for free from Western groceries here that just liked to throw it away and then for 50 cents a pound if he got a particularly big one with really good eyeballs. He'd bring these things in from the store and torment us with them and we'd run screaming from the room yelling, "FISHHEADS! FISHHEADS!" which he thought was very funny.

While he was eating them at the table we'd hide our faces behind our napkins. "Umm, Umm," He'd say. "Nothing better then a nice juicy fishhead!" he said, chomping and slurping very loudly. "Would anyone like an eye?" My mother, who usually did not accede to our requests for special food, would, in this one instance, often allow us not to eat the fishhead and eat something else instead. I think that was because it kind of grossed her out as well.

Later on, as an adult, the business side of me sort of emerged and I considered what one could do with this concept. What could you do if you had all these Asian people who liked fishheads and Western groceries often just throwing the heads away? Gather up all the heads you could get for some ridiculously cheap price, chuck them in a refrigerated truck, haul ass to Chinatown and sell them like hotcakes. My father and I actually discussed this idea at great length but I think what ultimately killed it for me was that I was going to have to be the one doing the transportation and the selling. I couldn't see myself riding in a truck and then standing on the street with those things for such a period of time.

I could have made a million but I couldn't stand those stinky things!

[wesza]

It's all in the belly of the beholder. In NYC there used to be several "Italian Restaurants', that specialized in serving "Whole Roasted Lambs Head", don't know if they are still in business, but since they've been there over 60 years they probably are. Also many Asian restaurants most famous dishes are variations of Fish Head dishes, especially soups. Gefelte Fish, properly prepared uses the body and heads of the fish meat that was ground up for the stock. The best tasting meat comes from the cheeks. Halibut Cheeks are the most expensive part of the Halibut with good reason, they taste better. In Asia, the head and tail of the live "Monitor Lizard", selected from a cage for dinner is served to the guest of honor. Lamb Eyes, are also served to the honored guests in Muslum Countries. The only negative utilization of heads, is from "Chinese Myths", that at a New Years Party if the Host served his employee a Chicken Head, it signifies that the employee is fired.

[Jinmyo]

Mmmm. Cod cheeks and tongues.

[Cipollina]

Hi. Im new, had to get in on this one though.

But what i dont get is this statement:

I can handle the fact that fish have heads and tails, meat comes with bones, fat, and connective tissue, etc. Most Americans seem to think that you can grow giant slabs of deli meat in culture vats, with no bones, fat, or organs. Sheesh.

Cus I think the proper words to describe those people would be Living under a rock or better yet-- VEGETARIAN...

Nobody I know thinks that way, they eat meat KNOWING where it came from, and are fully comfortable with it. But the idea that you have to eat organs, and scoop out lamb eyeballs to truly be comfortably carniverous is.....well........strange.....

and this statement....

The sooner we realize this the better. We need to show more respect to those below us on the food chain. Yes they have heads and in some cases we need to see those heads on our tables.

Dont people who slaughter their own animals, tend to use the whole animal? Are you saying that we have to go out and buy heads, brains, eyeballs and intestines to truly respect the animal that we are eating?

dont get that either. Are we ALLOWED to NOT like the taste?

My opinion anyway, for whatever its worth.

[Rachel Perlow]

I gotta get dumpling to come with us to China 46 for some Fish Head Casserole. Yum, yum!

• 
  picture came out a little blurry, sorry.
  

I like getting whole fish at Thai restaurants. After the body is separated, I use the head like a puppet and tease Jason, "how you could let her eat me?" I squeal. I love that bit of meat on the top of the head, reminds me of the oyster of a chicken, not in taste but in diggingoutedness.

[Jon Tseng]

My mum loves fish heads! - can get salmon heads very cheap (which also appeals to the frugal housewife)

Don't really are for them myself - too bony, apart from the cheeks

There a passage in one of Tony Bourdains books about him schlepping a grilled fish head in Japan

cheerio

J

[sparrowgrass]

I bought a hog last fall from a friend, who butchered it himself. There were 2 packages in there marked "head". I slow cooked them and pulled the meat off--I think I put some bbq sauce on it. (Tasty, too.)

No eyeballs--what freaked me out was the palate and teeth--looked just like I had been boiling a dog.

[alanz]

I've made gefilte fish from scratch only once.

Traditionally, it's "stuffed" fish... that is fish skin or heads that have been stuffed with or wrapped around a ground fish mixture.

I have some photos of the project, including making the fish stock from the heads, bones, etc. Take a look at this page if you like.

My mother is one of those people who loves picking apart a fish head... she's always relished the opportunity to do so.

Personally, I think it's a lot of work for a few tasty morsels, but I understand the attraction.

As far as people having an aversion to certain parts of an animal, it reminds me of the joke:

A man walks into a diner and asks the waiter "What's the blue plate special?"

The waiter says "We have some nice boiled tongue today"

The patron says "That's DISGUSTING, I'd never eat anything that comes out of an animals mouth!!"

The waiter says "Well, how about a nice poached egg then?"

I respectfully contend that if one can eat an egg, one can eat most things on the planet. Fortunately the fact that unfertilized chicken ovum tastes great overwhelms the idea of what it is and where it comes from

[bernieberman]

hi everyone,

What are the words to that roly-poly fishheads song?

thanks, bernie

[Suzanne F]

Sing along here (words only)

or maybe listen here with mp3 (under "Fishy Songs")?

[beans]

I've been singing this around the house today -- the Hamster Dance version in that little cartoon voice.

Halibut cheeks They are heavenly.

Although, I get them already cheek'ed.