Fish

[St. Ajora]

Silly topic I know, but this has been on my mind for a few days and I figured I pose this question to a forum and see what everyone thinks!

Lately, I've been trying to incorporate more fish into my diet, more than meat anyway. Well I'm a newcomer to the fish industry, even though I live in sea wonderland- the east coast of Canada. I don't know what I should try. A lot of seafood looks so disgusting that I never bothered to give it a second look. But I'm trying to pick up new taste sensations, but since fish is a bit expensive, I don't want to waste my money trying anything.

I like haddock fillets, and smoked salmon, as of now. And I eat fish sticks, but they don't count. Cooked/barbequed salmon doesn't taste good to me...I've been wondering about shark steaks, has anyone had them before? Apparently they're excellent, but I don't know anyone who has eaten them. My mom told me that calamari is good too, but I've haven't had that either.

What should I start buying? Do you have any seafood suggestions? Stuff to stay away from?

[Cedric]

Well there's always sushi. Try going to some sushi bars (if you're o.k. with eating Sushi) and see which ones you enjoy. Yes they're raw, but some of the fish there when cooked usually taste the same when they're cooked. I'm a Sushi person, but I am incredibly picky. Sushi wise, Salmon, tuna, Shrimp (Tempura's especially nice), Unagi (Grilled Eel), Scallops, muscles are nice to try. Everything else, it'll depend what's on it

Stay away from urchin. ALWAYS. Never ever eat it. A while back, my friends took a plateful of the stuff from the sushi bar and shared it. They couldn't eat solid food for a week. I thought it was hilarious because I specifically told them to stop eating it, but they forced the entire plate down.

Something common my family happens to cook up is tilapia. It's cheap and not fancy at all. You can either bake it or fry it like we do. When it's cooked, it tastes a bit salty, but I usually drown it in soy sauce.

My absolute favorite is Chilean Sea Bass. It's not really a bass, it's actually something they call a "toothfish" whatever that means. Doesn't matter, I don't eat the head or anything. When marinated and grilled over a barbecue, it tastes exactly like crab meat. I'm not talking about the fatty part of the crab which I don't enjoy at all, but the white part of the crab that has the slight flavor to it. I usually eat it with a soy sauce/small amount of vinegar/spices combination. Unfortunately, the price for it has been rising steadily. We used to be able to get this fish relatively cheaply. now though, because of its increasing rarity, the best price I found it was around 13 dollars per pound. Frankly, I don't have that much money, so in the rare times I buy it, someone else has to cook it for me. It's too expensive to mess up. :D

Calamari is squid just in case people don't know. Fried squid to be more precise. That's the only way I like my squid. Fried. People broil it sometimes, and I can't even look at it. I'll take calamari over French fries any day of the week.

Shrimp is also pretty good. whenever this is made over in my place it's usually broiled. For some odd reason my rents add 7-Up to the broth and it actually tastes good. But you could also dip it in a flour/egg mixture (You guys can tell I can't cook huh?) and fry it to make Tempura. From there it's all about finding the perfect complementary dip. I have it for dinner, but if someone here serves it as a snack, then you're pretty rich!

Lobster *anything* is an instant win too. But obviously, it's a bit pricey.
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[St. Ajora]

Ah your post made me hungry, hehe.

[Cedric]

[Siertes]

This topic is giving me a huge craving for seafood. I absolutely love seafood! I think it's because I rarely have it that I enjoy it so much.

Personally, shrimp is my favorite. I don't see how anyone could hate it. It's so delicious. Unfortunately my dad can't enjoy it because he's allergic. Poor him...

[Lunarblade]

It's funny, but I've lived in a coastal area all my life but I haven't had seafood um...ever. It just looks disgusting, and the smell is awful. Plus, for some reason I feel really bad for Lobsters and what they go through, so I could never eat them. :(

I know it's probably healthier than eating red and white meats, but I figure if God wanted us to eat fish he'd give us fins. :)
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[Goldy]

Fish? Yeah i enjoy a bit of fish now and again.
There is nothing like fried fresh smoked haddock with chips......well you ususally eat fish with chips......
Fresh Cod is nice, in bread crumbs, batter or smothered in a smooth creamy sauce. Plaice is tasty too, especially in bread crumbs.

[Axiose]

I've always disliked fish. I don't know what it is (probably the taste lol).

I do begrudgingly eat fish every once and a while for a "balanced" diet, but I don't do it happily. Most of my friends hate fish as well. I wonder if it's the curse of living on an Island surrounded by fish and smelly fishermen.
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[Axiose] [Fliktor]

[Cedric]

Hah, well don't get me wrong. In reality, I barely eat any fish at all. For someone originally from the Pacific Islands, my seafood diet is small if not invisible. No sane person can ever afford a strict diet of all the stuff I mentioned. Sushi itself is expensive. If my diet consisted of all the seafood I mentioned earlier, for every day of the week, there would be holes in my wallet. Quite frankly aside from Sushi, baked salmon and the two fish that I mentioned, I don't eat any other fish period. When I'm at the table, I'm reaching for the pork chops. As a matter of fact, the family keeps saying I don't eat enough fish. I'm inclined to agree. Most of them really don't taste that good to me.

A lot of the fish I enjoy the most are the priciest ones because they are known to have flavor. But I didn't mention any of them because the next time I eat fish like that, I'll probably be making subsequential trips to Hawaii years from now. Stuff like Yellowfin Tuna, Blue Marlin, Mahi Mahi, and Moonfish are also recommended. They are the best fish I ever tasted. But have a restaurant prepare them for you, and they will run about 30 dollars or more for some small fillets. In times like this, have someone else pay for you. :D
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[Kalidor]

I too live in a fishing wonderland, except I'm on the western coast of Canada. Don't you love our bountiful natural resources, St. Ajora? Coast to coast, and great fish on both sides :P

Where I live the thing that we get a lot of us freshwater salmon. We are reknowned around the world in fact for our sport salmon fishing. The largest fresh water salmon ever recorded as caught, in the entire world, was caught here, weighing in at about 97 pounds I believe. That is a -lot- of fish. Anyway, since there is so much pacific salmon caught, we can get it just about whenever we want. I simply love grilled salmon steaks. You might find that you like pacific salmon more than atlantic salmon, St. Ajora, it definitly has a different flavour. The biggest difference is that pacific salmon mean is a beautiful colour of red, quite appealing to both the eye and the pallett.

Out in the ocean we have halibut fishing. Halibut is a divine tasting fish. It is light and fluffy, and all around delicious! Halibut are absolutely massive fish too. People can catch 200 pound halibuts. They take shotguns with them on the fishing boats so that they can kill the fish to get it into the boat. There is no way you are handling two hundred pounds of live fish. Apparently they give up quite the fight too. It's a real challenge for an average sized woman for example to bring in a halibut without assistance. Try taking a look for halibut if you get the chance.

The most disgusting fish I've ever had is the dreaded sur stremming (I don't recall the spelling precisely) from Sweden. It is herring, which is actually quite a tasty fish, but with a twist. This stuff is fermented. That's right, it's actually being rotted (though I suppose it's a controlled rotting) and then you eat it. The smell is simply terrible, a smell you'll never forget. The flavour is so strong it will knock your socks off. I tried it, but it is not something that I would eat again if given an alternative. And the funniest part is that in Sweden it's a delicacy. It must be something some people like though, because they gobble it up like cake.

[Arenegeth]

*Drools*

I only had Sushi for the first time earlier this year and I must confess it was good.

*Drools*

I like fish is one of my favorite dishes and that is probably because I don't eat often (other than Tuna Sandwich) I usually consume no meat, though I'm not a vegetarian.

Fish is healthy food however and my favorites are shrimps and salmon, which again I eat once a drooling eh, I mean once a year if I'm lucky, eh...

I'm really hungry now...

Anyway I advice anyone to start eating a bit more fish but watch out for those bones...

I'm craving some fish now look what you've done...
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"I am ye who walks his own path and thus I walk alone"

[Noot]

I usually stick to salmon when I have fish on those rare occasions. But if I ever get the chance to go to Wisconsin, I always try to have perch if I can. Perch is easily my favorite fish--I don't know what it is about it that makes it so good!

I'm not too big on seafood, and living out in the desert I don't really get the opportunity to try fish that could actually be considered "fresh". The closest body of water to Las Vegas is Lake Mead, and there are enough dead bodies and chemicals floating in there to keep you away from seafood for good out here. If you're ever out in Las Vegas and you go to one of our famous buffets, stay away from the fish! The buffet is all you can eat for $5 for a reason! Don't say I didn't warn you.
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~~Harmonian Tenhei Star~~

It's hard to bargle naudle zauss with all these marbles in my mouth.

[Justice Johnny]

Sushi... have I even eaten sushi? Gosh, I don't remember. Raw fish... I know I've definitely eaten raw fish.

I hate seafood in soup except maybe crabs (the seafood, not the other kind) and lobster, albeit the latter one's expensive. Fried is always the way to go for me. I guess it's because of the color of the fish. Usually, when my parents cook fish with soup, it turns out pale-ish, but when I cook them fried, they have this golden brown color that just attracts me. Also, I don't like getting my fingers wet when picking through the fish, and sometimes the cartilage of the fish mixes in with the soup, and my tongue or my lip gets wounded when digging through the soup like a madman.

My favorite hands down by a huge margin is tilapia. I suppose it's the only exception to the "no soup with fish" rule, though I much much prefer it fried, batter or no. My brother hates it, which makes me like it even more. Salmon's a very close second, but tilapia's just heaven. At least for me.

I especially hate squid. I just hate it. HATE IT!!! My mother cooks it "adobo", and it the whole meal is black, and I hate that color when coupled with rice (no offense to African-Americans. I lurv you all.) Plus, when the soup gets on my shirt, it's a bad bad stain. Fried is the way to go with it.

Oh, and Arenegeth, thanks for mentioning "tuna sandwich". I'm going to have to prepare myself those every morning so that I have a decent snack at school, not some cafeteria junk.

Perhaps "junk" is not a good way to end this post. I just want to say that tilapia is the best. Try it.
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"Oranges can't fit into circles because rectangles are made of cheese."

[sybillious]

salmon is a good choice; you can cook it so many ways. some trout are good as well, but not as tasty as salmon; we also like orange roughy, but that's a bit expensive these days, so it's been awhile. i'm not a big fan of catfish or any other bottom fish for some reason.

sushi is great; my son and i like to go out and eat it together as a mom/son activity-you know you have something if a 12 yr. old boy will eat something 'strange' like that.

we also like shellfish, but they are also expensive, making them a rare treat for us.
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prinny...DOOD!

gotta gotta get a...SPICE WEASEL!

to paraphrase my fellow mod, parallax:
I hate my job with the passionately burning intensity of a thousand fiery suns.

[Marshmallow]

MY PARENTS OWN A SEAFOOD RESTAURANT, which is also my place of employment.

Tilapia: Really, really good in certain ways. I take casino mix (basically bacon, yellow/red/orange peppers, onions and some spices, and sauteed in a pan) and put that on top of tilapia with some cheese. Awesomeness.

Salmon: Another good choice. Make sure, if you want to take advantage of the health factor in the Omega 3 fatty acids to NOT buy Atlantic Salmon, because it's farm raised and doesn't have the Omega 3.

Hawaiian Butterfish: It's like chilean seabass+1. Goes well really any way.