Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 4, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Cinco de Mayo is a day of national pride for Mexicans around the world, commemorating Mexico’s victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. We join in the celebration with our favorite Mexican food and drink.
Photographs by blair christensen and Nick Kindelsperger
Posted by Emily Koh, April 23, 2008 at 6:15 PM
The commercial fishing industry hasn't been doing so hot in recent years. Fish like cod and king salmon are decreasing dramatically or disappearing completely due to overfishing to meet global demands. The effects of global warming are starting to become evident as well, and let's not forget the hubbub raised earlier this year over the high level of mercury in certain species like tuna or swordfish.
Enter the Kona Kampachi, a "designer yellowtail" bred in Kona, Hawaii. Fortune Magazine goes so far as to even dub it "the wonder fish":
It's not genetically engineered in any way, just well bred. It's sashimi-grade and sustainably farmed without hormones or prophylactic antibiotics. It's richer in omega-3 than just about anything else in the ocean and has no detectable mercury. It melts on your tongue, holds up on the grill, and is so rich in oils that it'll fry in a pan without butter.
Unlike most fish farms, the Kona Kampachi are bred "offshore"—in deeper waters, farther away from land—limiting their exposure to pollution to decrease the potential of contracting disease or contamination. Since they're not genetically modified, any fish that escape also won't impact the native population.
Already popular in the culinary world, it's been seen on the menus of restaurants from San Francisco, Denver and New York. As it is a premium product, it's a bit pricey—almost $20 for a pound—but the benefits might outweigh the costs.
"Scientists are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by swimming into a net when they hear a tone that signals feeding time. If it works, the system could eventually allow black sea bass to be released into the open ocean, where they would grow to market size, then swim into an underwater cage to be harvested when they hear the signal... Even if only half the fish come back after reaching market size, the operation would be more profitable than current methods."
Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, March 17, 2008 at 10:30 AM
My daughter Iris, 4, always used to be interested in helping out with cooking, but lately she's gotten bored. Maybe I told her one too many times to measure the sugar, not eat it. But I think I have a new ploy.
Iris loves fish, and mackerel is her favorite. We typically buy frozen mackerel fillets at the Asian supermarket. Last time, however, Iris pointed out that they sell whole mackerel and suggested we buy that instead. I obliged. When we got home, I flipped through Mark Bittman's Fish, trying to figure out how to clean and cook a whole mackerel.
"Hey Iris," I called. She was in the living room watching TV. "I'm going to clean this fish. Want to help?"
"No."
"There'll be fish guts."
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 27, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Above, plumes of sediment stirred up by bottom-trawling fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico—as seen from space. From MSNBC:
The technique, used all over the world, is a way to catch fish in deeper parts of the ocean with huge, deep nets, now that many near-shore fish populations have been virtually wiped out from over-fishing. Several studies have shown the significant impact that trawling has on ecosystems, killing corals, sponges, fish and other animals.
[via Neatorama]
Posted by Robyn Lee, February 6, 2008 at 12:00 PM
If a specially licensed Japanese chef doesn't correctly cut fugu—a potentially fatally poisonous blowfish—he could kill the diner. If you ever order fugu, just hope your chef is as skilled as the one above.
Watch the fugu go from whole fish to plated dish after the jump. A warning for the squeamish: The fish is prepared while it's still alive. [via growabrain]
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Posted by Ed Levine, January 24, 2008 at 3:00 PM
According to the New York Times, raw tuna lovers were undeterred by the news that some of their favorite sushi bars were serving tuna containing what some would construe as unhealthy levels of mercury.
As we pointed out yesterday, the story in yesterday's paper raised many more questions than answers. I think consumers are getting hip to the fact that virtually every food can be shown to be harmful if consumed in excess. Common sense will rule the day, I hope.
Apparently it did yesterday. I called the kitchen at Esca, which sells many different kinds of tuna in many forms, and I got this report:
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Posted by Ed Levine, January 20, 2008 at 11:00 AM
As we noted earlier on Serious Eats, a London chef is opening a fish and chips shop selling only sustainably caught seafood. A basket of fish and chips is going to cost about $20. This reminded me of the age-old question facing all of us: Are we willing to pay more for food that is sustainably grown, raised, or caught?
Food in the U.S. is still, relatively speaking, incredibly cheap, mostly because of a combination of government policy and the laws of supply and demand. Our food supply is created too efficiently. So people who can pay more should. And I don't think it's an either-or proposition. We produce enough food in this country to feed every man, woman, and child in it. That we don't is downright shameful.
Posted by Robyn Lee, January 16, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Cia B used the above Kona Kampachi, a mildly sweet fish packed with omega-3 oils, in an adapted recipe by Jean-Georges Vongerichten to make Kona Kampachi with coconut, apples, ginger, and basil. If you want to try Kona Kampachi but can't find it locally, you can buy it online from Kona Blue.
British restaurateur Tom Aikens is working on a sustainable fish and chips shop in London: "He has consulted half a dozen environmental groups to decide 'which fish I shouldn’t be using' and to make sure the rest are sustainably fished. He will get most of his fish from 30 British fishermen whose practices he has studied." A typical basket of fish and chips will cost £10 (about US$20).
Farmed fish doesn't taste enough like its wild brethren. The solution? Manipulation and "flavoring compounds."
Posted by Robyn Lee, November 15, 2007 at 5:30 PM
My first thought when seeing Jon Cheng's photo of o-toro (fattiest part of the tuna) in Tokyo was, "That's a big chunk of tuna." And then a moment later, "That's a huge-ass knife."
Posted by Erin Zimmer, October 18, 2007 at 4:45 PM
As one of our leading popular writers on seafood (he's the author of The Secret Life of Lobsters and, most recent, The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi), Trevor Corson has done a gazillion interviews and op-ed bits exploding sushi myths and revealing the truth about wasabi. He knows everything there is to know about eating sushi, omakase traditions and soy sauce usage. Though we recognize that's his forte, Serious Eats wanted to hear his thoughts on quasi-fish. The kind that, well, doesn't really come from the sea. C'mon, Trevor, spill it. You were a child who hated fishy flavors once, too.
What'd you eat instead? Childhood snacks?
I grew up in America in the 1970s, which as you know was pretty much the pinnacle of humanity's culinary appreciation of fish. While spending every childhood summer growing up on a small Maine island, surrounded by the sea—and there were fish everywhere—some of those fish lying around in kitchen cupboards were actually in paper bags. Yes, those were goldfish. I'm pretty sure the Pepperidge Farm brand? More technically I guess, they're referred to as crackers. They were awesome.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, July 11, 2007 at 5:30 PM
New on my list of "Things to Eat Before I Die" is ayu, specifically skewered, salted, and roasted over hot coals as seen in bobby stokes's photo. Ayu, also known as sweet fish, is regarded as "the queen of freshwater streams" in Japan.
Posted by Wan Yan Ling, July 3, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Photograph by Shimin Wong
By Wan Yan Ling | The one thing that continually amazes me here is that people fry perfectly good fish. Not fish that’s starting to pong, or has been sitting for yonks in the depths of the freezer, but beautiful, glistening fillets fresh from the ocean. Back home, where only the crummiest, one-day-short-of-being-fed-to-the-trash bin specimens are given the hot oil treatment, doing so with prime fish would scandalize frugal housewives and start off a neverending chorus of "what a waste!"
You see, among the Chinese, fresh fish is exulted. It’s almost always steamed, with maybe a splash of soy sauce, ginger, some sesame oil, and a few delicate sprigs of cilantro—nothing that would overwhelm, compete with, or otherwise obliterate its sweet, delicate flavor. Which leads me to speculate that maybe Americans don’t really like the taste of fish and therefore strive to mask it with beer batter, mayo, cheese, and buttered breadcrumbs?
In Asia, the fish of choice has not been filleted and snugly cling-wrapped on a Styrofoam tray but is displayed in full undecapitated glory. Buyers unabashedly prod the fishmonger’s wares, checking that flesh is firm, eyes are glossy, and the lifting of gills exposes bright, ruby-red insides. Pails of water with bobbing lemon slices—the finger bowl’s working class cousin—ring the stall for a quick rinse. Of course, in the quest for great fish, some things are universal: It helps to be BFF with the friendly neighborhood purveyor ;)
About the author: Ling is an impoverished grad student, sourdough finger-crosser, and stone soup extraordinaire. She can usually be found procrastinating on "real work" in the kitchen or online tracking down obscure recipes, and thinks eating alone is no fun. She still believes in hand-mixing.
About the author: Wan Yan Ling, Serious Eats's overseas summer intern, is an impoverished grad student and sourdough finger-crosser living in Singapore. She can usually be found in the kitchen procrastinating on "real work," or online tracking down obscure recipes. Ling thinks eating alone is no fun, and she still believes in hand-mixing.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 19, 2007 at 7:30 PM
My friend and favorite photographer Rion Nakaya now lives in Paris and goes on weekend jaunts all over Europe just like the locals do. Her most recent set of photos is of fish vendors in Bilbao's Riverside Market, which has been the city's center of trade since the 14th century.
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 22, 2007 at 5:00 PM
Did you pay attention in biology when the teacher covered taxonomy? I hope at least as much attention as Ms. Chicken in Every Granny Cart. It comes in handy.
Case in point? Escolar, aka Snake Mackerel , aka Lepidocybium flavobrunneum, which is sometimes passed off as Chilean Sea Bass (another misnomer as they aren’t even bass), aka Patagonian Tooth Fish, aka Dissostichus eleginoides and I believe also Butterfish of which there are three kinds, Alaskan (Anoplopoma fimbria), American (Peprilus triacanthus) and Pacific (Peprilus simillimus), but may actually be a kind of Oil Fish (Ruvettus pretiosus).
Savory, with a Side of Sunshine [A Chicken In Every Granny Cart]
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 21, 2007 at 11:44 AM
If you like halibut, rejoice! The time to eat it is upon us! Karen Gaudette of the Seattle Times says the first shipments of the new season have begun to arrive from Alaska. "Halibut should continue arriving until late fall, when fishermen reach their permitted limits. Prices likely will fluctuate throughout the season, depending on the size and quality of shipments, but right now are between $18 and $20 per pound for steaks and $20 to $23 per pound for fillets."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 13, 2007 at 3:59 PM
Last month I wrote about a British study that found the children of women who ate more fish while pregnant than the suggested USDA guidelines had significantly more advanced fine-motor, communication and social skills than those born to women who ate less or no fish at all. The Daily Telegraph's Xanthe Clay makes the point that we'd all benefit from eating more fish, especially the oiliest kinds:
Oily fish contain Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which lower blood pressure and raise levels of "good" HDL cholesterol, while reducing "bad" triglycerides in your blood. There's increasing evidence that these fatty acids also protect against heart attacks, since they make the blood less sticky and prone to forming clots. Put simply, eating lots of oily fish is good for your heart.
So which are the oily fish? Salmon, trout, mackerel, herrings, sardines, pilchards, kippers, eels, whitebait, anchovies and sprats all qualify, whether they're tinned or fresh. Tuna counts only if it's fresh, so no points for that tuna mayo sandwich, I'm afraid. (And since tuna is overfished and has worrying levels of mercury, it's best left off the menu anyway.)
Related: How To Buy Fresh Fish, How To Cook Fish Like A Pro
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 8, 2007 at 11:28 AM
"While fish consumption has climbed steadily since 1970, rising by more than one-third, averages are still low enough to conclude that some Americans (maybe many) don't eat fish at all, or rarely. And those who do more often leave the cooking to others, since surveys show that fish is savored in restaurants twice as often as it is served at home." Most of us are apparently too scared to prepare fish ourselves since we don't understand how to do it, so the Philadelphia Inquirer's Marilynn Marter talked to chefs Guillermo Pernot and Anthony Goodwin and came up with thirteen key points to choosing and cooking fish right, like cooking to what traditional instructions consider slightly underdone ("less dry and flaky, and slightly translucent at the center"), and only salting after the fish is cooked in order to preserve moisture.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 26, 2007 at 11:14 AM
"In 1962, Lou Groen was desperate to save his floundering hamburger restaurant, the first McDonald's in the Cincinnati area. His problem: His clientele was heavily Roman Catholic. In those days, most Catholics abstained from meat every Friday, as well as during Lent, the 40-day period of repentance that begins this week with Ash Wednesday. His solution: He created the Filet-O-Fish — a sandwich that saved his restaurant and eventually would be consumed at a rate of 300 million a year."
I've never really given much thought to the classic items on the McDonald's menu so it was a trip to discover that the Filet-O-Fish was invented by a franchise owner and not headquarters—the same is true of the Big Mac and the Egg McMuffin, as it turns out! And while it seems like a no brainer to me that Hawaii leads the US in weekly Filet-O-Fish consumption, I'm kind of surprised that Ohio comes in at number two, even if it is the Filet-O-Fish's home state!
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 23, 2007 at 2:07 PM
I love fish but I don't buy it to cook at home very often, mainly because I don't really know how to pick the freshest one out. CeCe Sullivan over at The Seattle Times interviewed a few experts and wrote a starter guide to picking fresh fish out and also what to do once you've gotten them home: "Once home, "all fish, whether fillets and steaks or whole fish, should be unwrapped and released from their packaging," said Dale Erickson, owner of University Seafood and Poultry Co. in the University District. "The foul air that collects can produce bacteria quickly." He suggests covering the fish with a wet tea towel or loose piece of plastic wrap, refrigerating it, and eating it within a day or two of purchase. "Quality seafood is not meant to be stored," said Erickson."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 21, 2007 at 4:56 PM
Yesterday marked the start of the Lenten Season, during which Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays to honor the Passion of Christ. Seafood is exempted and so in many communities with large Catholic populations, parish fish frys on Lenten Fridays have become a tradition. Nicki Britton of the Houston Chronicle visited parish fish frys in the area and talked to the people that run them: "The fries "build relationships,'' she says. "Many of the (volunteers) are retired. They may not have an organized plan for every day. But they know that every Friday for six weeks, they will be coming together and sharing an experience.'' The recipes for fried fish, coleslaw and potato salad come in two scales each: one for big groups ("Makes 200 pounds fish") and one for six people.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 16, 2007 at 2:58 PM
Whole fish is a Chinese New Year tradition that comes from "Cantonese phrases associated with whole fish, that is, fish with heads and tails intact. They mean "happy endings and beginnings," "everything is perfect," and there will be leftovers every year -- a sign of prosperity." Kimberly Moy includes a recipe for steamed whole fish, which is pretty simple to make but requires that you use the best freshest fish possible, because "in old-school Cantonese cooking, steaming a fish with the barest of ingredients is the best way to show its freshness".
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 16, 2007 at 2:32 PM
A study of 9,000 British families has found that the children of women who ate more seafood during pregnancy than the US guideline of 12 ounces a week have significantly more advanced fine-motor, communication and social skills than the children of women who stay within the guidelines or eat no fish at all. "The research suggests that those who avoid fish or do not eat enough of it risk depriving their unborn children of important nutrients that are needed to help brain development. (...) Those children whose mothers had eaten no fish were 28% more likely to have poor communication skills at 18 months, 35% more likely to have poor fine-motor coordination at three-and-a-half, 44% more likely to have poor social behaviour at seven, and 48% more likely to have a relatively low verbal IQ at the age of eight, compared with the children of women who had eaten more fish than advised by the US guidelines."
If you're pregnant, avoid fish at the top of the food chain like sharks, tuna and swordfish as they're more likely to contain pollutants; if you don't like fish or can't have fresh fish regularly, omega-3 supplements are an alternative. (Raw shellfish is listed as a no-no but not raw fish altogether; some but not all Japanese doctors tell women to avoid sushi during pregnancy, but recommend they keep eating fish.)
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 13, 2007 at 7:02 PM
On Fla. Menus, a Favorite Fish Experiences Identity Theft: "The alleged grouper at 17 of 24 area restaurants sampled by the investigators was actually another, less desirable species, according to a DNA analysis conducted for the state attorney general's office and released earlier this month. Asian catfish. Emperor. Painted sweetlips. And twice, types of fish that could not be identified." The Washington Post's Peter Whoriskey on how and why cheaper, less popular fishes are widely and routinely substituted for desirable, expensive ones like grouper and red snapper, and how it's hard to be sure what arrives at your table is what you actually ordered.
