What fish fillet are all of these?
March 2, 2015 10:09 AM Subscribe
I live in the Northeastern United States. I have an Asian market near work with beautiful specimens of fresh seafood. I'm hard pressed to find an English speaker who can tell me what species of fish a beheaded and skinned fillet is. I only recognize salmon .
Is there a website guide where I can find names and images of intact fish next to its fillet after processing?
Seconding the "it's hard to tell once it's been filleted" warning.
Important question, though - are you asking because you're allergic to certain kinds of fish or are trying to watch your mercury? Or are you asking because you're looking for cooking advice? If it's the latter, the good news is that not only do a lot of fish look the same when filleted, they also all cook the same (thin-filleted white fish get cooked one way, thicker-cut fatty fillets get cooked another way), so you don't necessarily need to knock yourself out trying to get halibut specifically for something.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:27 AM on March 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
Important question, though - are you asking because you're allergic to certain kinds of fish or are trying to watch your mercury? Or are you asking because you're looking for cooking advice? If it's the latter, the good news is that not only do a lot of fish look the same when filleted, they also all cook the same (thin-filleted white fish get cooked one way, thicker-cut fatty fillets get cooked another way), so you don't necessarily need to knock yourself out trying to get halibut specifically for something.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:27 AM on March 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
I've run into this problem before. It really depends on the main demographic who is shopping at the market. It would be like shopping at a "European market." That covers a pretty wide breadth of languages and traditions; same goes for Asian markets. There's probably a primary ethnicity that the market caters to. Around here (Portland, Oregon) its mostly split between Korean/Chinese/Japanese and some of the smaller markets are Thai run. The first step is finding out what ethnicity and language you're dealing with. If you're dealing with multiple markets,
I made one market my home market, it's primarily Chinese, but I often cruise over to Japanese and Korean markets for specific goodies. My primary market is awesome in the fact they label everything with a roman alphabet, not Chinese characters…so when I find something new I either look it up on the old smartphone, or write down the name of it and look it up later.
I've searched high and low for such a guide, and they're not super helpful.
posted by furnace.heart at 10:29 AM on March 2, 2015
I made one market my home market, it's primarily Chinese, but I often cruise over to Japanese and Korean markets for specific goodies. My primary market is awesome in the fact they label everything with a roman alphabet, not Chinese characters…so when I find something new I either look it up on the old smartphone, or write down the name of it and look it up later.
I've searched high and low for such a guide, and they're not super helpful.
posted by furnace.heart at 10:29 AM on March 2, 2015
Oh, also--it's important to note that the fish that they sampled in the reports I linked to were found in big grocery stores (like Wegman's and Whole Foods), restaurants, and sushi supply places. And salmon was one of the species that was mislabeled as well. So I think your question about ethnic grocers is a red herring;)
posted by epanalepsis at 10:33 AM on March 2, 2015
posted by epanalepsis at 10:33 AM on March 2, 2015
Other commenters are right that some types of fish can be hard to tell apart, but that definitely doesn't mean that you shouldn't bother learning what different fish look like at all. I have seen loads of labeling errors that are super easy to spot even with my pretty limited knowledge (tilapia labeled as halibut, no I'm not gonna pay $18/lb for that), so knowing a little bit can definitely be helpful even when the display is in English. It doesn't matter if you will never be able to discriminate perfectly, learning more will still be useful.
Note that in the fish mislabeling studies posted above it is almost always small groups of very similar fish that are being confused, such as the specific type of salmon being wrong, or the different soles/flounders being confused. This is still a big problem for environmental and health reasons, but suggesting that it is really hard to tell what is salmon and what isn't is a bit disingenuous.
Unfortunately I don't know of a good guide for learning this stuff, but please don't be dissuaded from your quest!
posted by insoluble uncertainty at 1:08 PM on March 2, 2015
Note that in the fish mislabeling studies posted above it is almost always small groups of very similar fish that are being confused, such as the specific type of salmon being wrong, or the different soles/flounders being confused. This is still a big problem for environmental and health reasons, but suggesting that it is really hard to tell what is salmon and what isn't is a bit disingenuous.
Unfortunately I don't know of a good guide for learning this stuff, but please don't be dissuaded from your quest!
posted by insoluble uncertainty at 1:08 PM on March 2, 2015
Take some pictures, label the fish 1,2,3 etc and post them? Hivemind might know.
Alternately ask other shoppers if the fish counter doesn't speak english. That's what I do.
posted by captaincrouton at 2:19 PM on March 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Alternately ask other shoppers if the fish counter doesn't speak english. That's what I do.
posted by captaincrouton at 2:19 PM on March 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by epanalepsis at 10:21 AM on March 2, 2015