My favorite local fish market (Elias Fish Market – Tilghman & Front Sts, Allentown PA) has a unique way of selling fish. All the varieties are sold whole (gutted but heads on) so you can see what you’re buying. You select your fish and they’ll fillet them if you desire and you can take the remains home or leave them there. Prices per pound are lower than for fillets but equate to regular (not special sale) grocery store fillet prices. If you cook the fish whole, the prices are excellent.

Those huge Tiger shrimp from Bangladesh, Thailand or wherever over there are just plain bad. The texture will send you running even before you taste them.

Catfish – they’re a bottom feeder. Pond raised are superior compared to what comes out of the Mississippi River.

Almost all Atlantic salmon is farm raised.

And almost all american catfish is also farm raised.

While I would probably prefer my salmon wild from Alaskan seas, I have no desire to have my catfish pulled out of the Ohio or the Missouri.

I love my salmon and I can tell the difference between farm raised and wild and to me that difference is major. I eat salmon at least once or twice a week. I take as much care as I can to hopefully make sure I am not duped. It does cost a bit more.

The majority of Americans that eat salmon are eating farm raised fish. They are fed food with a certain amount of dye in it so that all the flesh looks the same.

We (of course) fish wild Alaskan salmon. A king salmon from the Kenai looks nothing like a king from the Yukon River. We are lucky that we have this natural resource and can tell the difference. I haven’t eaten farm raised salmon in many years. We fish our own, smoke our own and eat our own.

With having more and more farm raised fish coming from South America and Asia, purveyors are changing the names to be more "American friendly" and something they can semi-identify with.

Skate is in very short supply and would not make an economical substitute for scallops.

I recall 60 minutes doing a piece on this on Sunday night several years ago. It seemed that many places cheated selling fish that was not what they were suppose to be.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Jimeats

There was a report on the Today Show within the past year about farm raised and wild salmon. It appears that many large and respected supermarkets are selling farm raised but advertised as wild salmon. From what I gathered from the story it’s very hard to tell which is which.
They had to send samples to a lab to define the wild product. It comes down to trusting your supplyer. Chow Jim

If it’s so hard to tell, I’m assuming it tastes, smells, looks, etc just like wild. Maybe it’s just me, but what’s the problem then? Is it just a principle thing or do people object to something they do in farm raising, like the dye suggested? Maybe a desire to support the Salmon fishermen?

I know they do this with scallops /skate wing.. which is why for a while I thought I really didn’t like scallops [:(!]

Article in the local rag this morning about a few places that just got snagged for fake grouper.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimeats

There was a report on the Today Show within the past year about farm raised and wild salmon. It appears that many large and respected supermarkets are selling farm raised but advertised as wild salmon. From what I gathered from the story it’s very hard to tell which is which.
They had to send samples to a lab to define the wild product. It comes down to trusting your supplier. Chow Jim

Don’t they have to make the farm raised salmon swallow die to make them pink?

BEWARE OF THIS FISH!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escolar
I could not leave the house to go
to work.[xx(] It was one of the
best tasting fish I have ever eaten,
moist, buttery, delicious!
There should be a warning or an
out right ban.

quote:

Originally posted by Adjudicator

I would think a fish could be identified before it was carved up into a filet or steak (hint-hint ;)… [8D]

Now, as indicated in a current AP article titled "Fake Grouper Turns Up Around Florida", the Florida Department of Agriculture and Seafood has posted high-resolution pictures of real and fake grouper (as well as the prices you should expect to pay for grouper in various classes of restaurants) on its website at: http://www.fl-seafood.com/consumers/grouper_substitution.htm

Unfortunately, this soaking of scallops in tripolyphosphate is totally accepted by the FDA. [:(] As is the "flavor enhancers" (sodium and water) that are now being injected into fresh chicken and pork. [:(]

Along these same lines. I asked my wife to pick up twenty pounds of imported FROZEN shrimp at the local grocery store for a church party. I generally only buy fresh local shrimp but the church is not quite as pickey.

She comes home beaming that she got fresh shrimp for the same $4 per pound price. I looked at the packages and she had bought defrosted shrimp from Thailand. Don’t think you get fresh shrimp from Thailand in NC. I went a head and boiled them…they won’t be as good but no one will spend hours in the little room.