Fish and Seafood

[Prawncrackers]

ya know as a foodie i'd try just about anything once... cept for maybe bugs and raw squid or octo or even life fish..... creeppppyyyyyy!

I've never had the opportunity to eat live fish, like Ikizukuri, but the thought of the fish gasping back at you whilst you dine on it's flesh is a little disturbing. Mind you the Japanese don't have a monopoly on this, there is the Sichuan delicacy of Fried Live Fish too, not sure about this dish...

[Peter the eater]

ya know as a foodie i'd try just about anything once... cept for maybe bugs and raw squid or octo or even life fish..... creeppppyyyyyy!

I've never had the opportunity to eat live fish, like Ikizukuri, but the thought of the fish gasping back at you whilst you dine on it's flesh is a little disturbing. Mind you the Japanese don't have a monopoly on this, there is the Sichuan delicacy of Fried Live Fish too, not sure about this dish...

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There's an important difference between raw food and live food.

The fish in that video seems uneasy with the people picking at its burned-alive body. It may be a delicious treat, but I think I'll pass.

[petite tête de chou]

ya know as a foodie i'd try just about anything once... cept for maybe bugs and raw squid or octo or even life fish..... creeppppyyyyyy!

I've never had the opportunity to eat live fish, like Ikizukuri, but the thought of the fish gasping back at you whilst you dine on it's flesh is a little disturbing. Mind you the Japanese don't have a monopoly on this, there is the Sichuan delicacy of Fried Live Fish too, not sure about this dish...

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This seems to be a completely unnecessary and cruel cooking method. Fresh fish is wonderful but this is wholly unappetizing.

[Peter the eater]

ya know as a foodie i'd try just about anything once... cept for maybe bugs and raw squid or octo or even life fish..... creeppppyyyyyy!

I've never had the opportunity to eat live fish, like Ikizukuri, but the thought of the fish gasping back at you whilst you dine on it's flesh is a little disturbing. Mind you the Japanese don't have a monopoly on this, there is the Sichuan delicacy of Fried Live Fish too, not sure about this dish...

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This seems to be a completely unnecessary and cruel cooking method. Fresh fish is wonderful but this is wholly unappetizing.

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Roger Ebert said that one valid measure of a film is how long it stays with you, in your head. That Youtube half-alive Sichuan delicacy has been haunting me for 24 hours now. That fish's gaping mouth sucking air . . . as if to say "catch and release . . . catch and release".

Damn you Prawncrackers! And thank you, too. Read, chew, discuss.

[Prawncrackers]

I first came across the Fried Live Fish dish in a BBC documentary called "Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World" a few months ago. Like you Peter the images stayed with me for while. It was only when i was googling for that program that i came across the YouTube clip.

I can't condone the dish but if it was presented to me i wouldn't automatically decline it either. I can appreciate that it displays in the most visual way possible the freshness of the dish. Though unlike in Japan where they serve live sashimi (Ikizukuri), there is little skill in making the fried live fish dish.

[Peter the eater]

I first came across the Fried Live Fish dish in a BBC documentary called "Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World" a few months ago.  Like you Peter the images stayed with me for while.  It was only when i was googling for that program that i came across the YouTube clip. 

I can't condone the dish but if it was presented to me i wouldn't automatically decline it either.  I can appreciate that it displays in the most visual way possible the freshness of the dish.  Though unlike in Japan where they serve live sashimi (Ikizukuri), there is little skill in making the fried live fish dish.

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Context is important. I'd like to think I could be a trooper and eat like a polite visiting diplomat, there are things in this world more important than an unhappy fish.

At least it's not a monkey fastened to the underside of a table with leather straps.

[johnnyd]

Shrimp harvesting has begun in the Gulf of Maine,

Every year during the season I run commentary on eG regarding prices, press and recipes in an effort to promote this sustainable fishery beyond the local arena.

Check it out here: *CLICK*

[Peter the eater]

I'd never heard of Ocean Perch until a few years ago. These creatures are hugely under-appreciated in the area where I now live.

They're beautifully colored rosy pink, with a big head and big eyes for deep water. This one I bought whole weighed a pound and a third. I gutted, stuffed with lime slices, and baked unscaled for 12 minutes at 425F, and served with fries and slightly cooked mushrooms and scapes.

My spouse and one of my two preschoolers approved.

[Domestic Goddess]

Thank you for posting pictures and a recipe for this kind of fish Peter. I have seen Ocean Perch sold at our local grocery store and wondered how I could fix it. Your recipe seems simple and delicious enough. This will be a future meal in our household soon.

[Peter the eater]

Thank you for posting pictures and a recipe for this kind of fish Peter. I have seen Ocean Perch sold at our local grocery store and wondered how I could fix it. Your recipe seems simple and delicious enough. This will be a future meal in our household soon.

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I didn't bother scaling this one since I wasn't planning to eat the skin. They're easy enough to gut, but watch out for the pointy fins.

It's hard to beat a fresh fish roasted whole. Now if I could only muster the courage to eat the eyeballs.

[Domestic Goddess]

Peter - that is the best part! The eyeballs, you open up the fish head by lifting one gill and the whole head splits into two. Scoop up the eye cavity and slurp on the meaty eye part on the bottom of the eye. Then just spit out the hard white eyeball (not digestible). Then proceed to split the skull in two and now attack the brain. Lotsa good omega 3 nutrients in there. Plus it's creamy and oh-so-good. Hmmm, I wonder if there's Ocean Perch now at my grocery store? I'm hungry!

[Prawncrackers]

Beautiful fresh lemon sole today fat with roe, just simply steamed for 9.5 minutes exactly:

But it's got me thinking about something stuck in my mind, a nagging quote from a chef/fisherman/some-other-kind-of-expert saying the flesh isn't as good from fish that are fat with roe. Has anybody else heard of this? The theory is that the flesh is leaner or less succulent because the fish's metabolism is geared towards egg production.

Is it purely a subjective thing? It would be very difficult to do a direct side by side comparison of the same breed of fish from the same waters because they would obviously be in the same breeding cycle. So really it's down to individual opinion as to whether there's a taste difference. Personally i think there is a noticeable difference, especially with Lemon Sole as my family eat a lot of it throughout the year. Though what you lose in the flesh you make up for in delicious roe. So basically we're happy eating this fish all year round.

[Peter the eater]

But it's got me thinking about something stuck in my mind, a nagging quote from a chef/fisherman/some-other-kind-of-expert saying the flesh isn't as good from fish that are fat with roe.  Has anybody else heard of this?  The theory is that the flesh is leaner or less succulent because the fish's metabolism is geared towards egg production.Twenty-five years?

I've heard that said for salmon that's swimming upstream to spawn. Those creatures can hardly be called "fat from roe" as they near the end -- they undergo a dramatic transformation. The bears don't seem to mind.

I've purchased flatfish with and without eggs and can't them apart taste-wise.

[Ce'nedra]

I don't know about the difference in flesh taste but recently, I had baked sea mullet with its roe still intact and my goooodness, it was delishhhious. Especially because sea mullet (in my experience) can be quite fatty and when baked with honey, the roe was tinged with the golden goodness -sweetness from the honey, creaminess from the fats.

[Ce'nedra]

My mother cooked this beautiful fish tonight, it's a type of grouper but i have no idea what kind.  Any ideas?

Pre and post steaming with salted pork and shitake musrooms, deeelish!

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That looks goood! Did your mother flavour the fish with soy sauce or anything? Or was it simply topped with the salted pork and shiitake?

My mum also tends to steam fish in similar ways.

[Prawncrackers]

My mum always adds soy after steaming just before sizzling with the oil, i don't know if it makes a difference but it's just the way it is.

Mullet roe is delicious and there's always so much of it. We get grey mullet over here and the fat ones have this yellow tinge just below the skin. The yellow fat leaches out during cooking and has a very distinct flavour, very under-rated fish imo.

[johnnyd]

The Gulf of Maine is a major source of green sea urchin. The Wall Street Journal Magazine sent a reporter there to find out how urchins get to the table and filed this report.

A 30-knot north wind builds along the northeast coastline of Maine and the seas rise to a choppy 8 feet. Snow falls sideways; nearly 2 inches of it since first light on this early spring day. Rob Odlin, a commercial fisherman, sits in the cockpit of his 36-foot boat, the Maine Lady III. He’s half-dressed in a dry suit, staring at the floor like a boxer before a title fight. Odlin is preparing to dive 40 feet in 33-degree water to fetch the green sea urchin—the spiky jewel of the echinoderm family.

Rob is an old friend and Captain of F/V The Maine Lady III, the boat I dove for urchins from in the late '90s. A 3rd generation fisherman, he is very active in the State capitol on behalf of fishermen on the Maine coast.

WSJ Article and VIDEO - click here.

The video takes you out on a typical urchin-dive on a snowy day in March. Having done it a zillion times, I say they got it totally right. Check it out.

[ChrisOC]

A nice fresh set of Shad roe.

Served with a perfectly boneless piece of Shad filet

[Tsulli1]

The things that drive me nuts:

1) Fresh Frozen:  Grrrr...it's either fresh or it's frozen, it's not both!

2) Walleye Pike/ Pike Perch:  Neither of those names makes a lick of sense.  Depending on where you live, you may expect the former name to mean a walleye or a pike (typically a Northern Pike).  Pike Perch is just inane.  Either use the scientific name for a fish or the accepted local/colloquial name, but don't use more than one!

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I've always thought that walleyed pike are so called because of the special character of their eyes. They reflect light and look like a moon and can be very striking. I imagine this name came to differentiate wall-eyed pike from northern pike, etc., through analogy with wall-eyed humans. It's a fine way to distinguish between northerns and walleyes. These are also the accepted local names where I've lived.

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I've always wondered about these names too.

Here's the google results:

Pike Perch (fish)

Main

any of several freshwater food and game fishes of the family Percidae (order Perciformes), found in Europe and North America. Although more elongated and slender than perches, pike perches have the two dorsal fins characteristic of the family. They are, like perches, carnivorous, and as adults they feed largely on other fishes.

The North American pike perches include the walleye (S. vitreum), found in clear, cool lakes and rivers, and the sauger (S. canadense), found in lakes and rather silty rivers. Both are darkly mottled fishes native to eastern North America. The sauger, the smaller of the two, does not usually exceed a length and weight of about 30 cm and 1 kg. The walleye rarely weighs more than 4.5 kg and has a maximum length and weight of about 90 cm and 11 kg.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/...h#ref=ref119873

Pike (Fish)

Main

any of several voracious freshwater fishes, family Esocidae, caught both commercially and for sport. They are recognized by the elongate body, small scales, long head, shovellike snout, and large mouth armed with strong teeth. The dorsal and anal fins are far back on the tail.

The northern pike (Esox lucius; see photograph) of North America, Europe, and northern Asia has pale, bean-shaped spots on the body and lacks scales on the lower parts of the gill covers. It is a fairly common and prized game fish with a maximum size and weight of about 1.4 metres (4.5 feet) and 21 kilograms (46 pounds). The muskellunge and pickerel are North American pikes similar in habit to the northern pike.

Solitary hunters, pikes, pickerel, and muskellunge lie motionless in the water or lurk in a clump of weeds. As the prey comes within reach, they make a sudden rapid lunge and seize it. They usually eat small fishes, insects, and aquatic invertebrates, but larger forms also take waterfowl and small mammals. They spawn in weedy shallows from late winter through spring.

Pikes are of the order Salmoniformes. Wall-eyed pikes are not true pikes; they are members of the perch order (Perciformes).

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/...e#ref=ref223713

[Evan]

Speaking of roe, I've always had a hankering for Japanese salted mullet roe otherwise known as karasumi. My grandfather would bring some over from Taiwan every time he went. Interestingly enough, I had dinner over at a friend's house who is from Sardinia, Italy. She had actually brought over smoked tuna roe last time she was home on her island. The way she used the tuna roe was different from the way I've had karasumi (she had grated the tuna roe on top of a toasted bread as opposed to eating karasumi straight) but the taste and texture was exactly the same. She also told me that she would also grate the tuna roe on top of pasta as another means of preparing it. Its very interesting to me because one of my favorite dish is salted cod roe spaghetti, which is just out of this world. I'm thinking I need to try the karasumi on top of pasta when I have a chance.

[Peter the eater]

I've come across another example of extreme seafood that tests my comfort zone.

served up in a restaurant in Busan, South Korea.

Has anyone encountered a dish like this?

[Domestic Goddess]

Peter, I have. But I waited until the tentacles stopped moving. It was plain raw squid tasting, with a hint of sweetness. I wish they had soysauce and wasabi in the restaurant. I thought it was a better pair to the fresh tentacles rather than the staple red pepper paste.

[Peter the eater]

Peter, I have. But I waited until the tentacles stopped moving. It was plain raw squid tasting, with a hint of sweetness. I wish they had soysauce and wasabi in the restaurant. I thought it was a better pair to the fresh tentacles rather than the staple red pepper paste.

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Domestic Goddess, in your opinion does this dish benefit from being so fresh with all that wiggling on the plate, or is that a restaurant gimmick?

[Peter the eater]

I'm pretty sure I've had marlin in restaurants down south while on vacation, but I've never brought it home to cook. I found a nice looking blue marlin steak for a good price, applied some olive oil with salt and pepper then grilled it outside.

Wow. I was expecting something more like the decent tuna or swordfish we get around here, or even a generic shark steak. This experience was quite different, it was firm and resilient, clean-tasting and mildly sweet. Sometimes I like the center of a fish steak to be like sashimi, but this time it was brilliant cooked through.

I'm definitely feeling the call to protect this species from extinction!

I claimed the lion's share but this chunk fed the family, along with grilled russet slices, mixed baby greens and baked brown beans. My piece had Thai fish sauce and sriracha.

ETA: that's equivalent to $6.99/lb

Edited November 13, 2009 by Peter the eater (log)

[rlibkind]

Besides whisky, one of the Scots' great contributions to good eating is finnan haddie, a.k.a. smoked haddock. Today I found some tasty examples at the Wegman's store in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a Philadelphia suburb, priced at $8.99/pound for tray-packed fillets. The light smoking gives these small sides of haddock a long shelf-life; the pack I bought has a pull date of December 31.

In conversation with the knowledgeable fish manager at Wegman's, I learned these babies came from a Massachusetts supplier (New Bedford, iirc). He opened a pack so we could taste some. Haddock is a fish that needs to be lightly smoked, and the sample I tried was done right. The flesh was very firm, the pellicle lightly-colored and thin. It was smoked not quite as much as one of the classic Scottish varieties, Arbroath Smokies, but I don't find that a negative.

How to use the smoked haddock?

Since I'm fond of fish soups, Cullen Skink is one possibility. This classic Scottish milk-based chowder relies on mashed potato as its thickener, otherwise it's not at all that different from a classic New England fish chowder (done with milk, not thickened absurdly so a spoon can stand in it, as many fish house versions would have you believe).

I could also do fish on a shingle, i.e., prepare it the same way you could creamed chipped beef and serve over toast or home fries. Now that's a breakfast of champions!

Most likely I'll make a spread, mashing up the fillet with cream cheese, adding some onion, parsley and fresh ground pepper.

Sitting in the Wegman's refrigerator case next to the smoked haddock were packs of dressed and headless kippered herring. Another possibility for a champions' breakfast when served along scrambled eggs. Think of kippers as the bacon of the sea.