Chefs are trying to get diners to eat inexpensive, delicious fish with goofy or obscure names.
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| Monkfish - nasty looking, but very tasty |
For centuries,
fishermen around Cape Cod caught…you guessed it: cod. Cod and haddock. The
ocean provided a seemingly endless supply of these fish — until a few years
ago.
These days, there
aren’t so many cod or haddock left for fishermen to catch. Now, if you go to
Cape Cod and order cod, you’ll get cod from Iceland.
That doesn’t mean there
aren’t any fish in Cape Cod. There are plenty of dogfish, hake, and pollock.
These fish are delicious and abundant. Hake and pollock are mild, white, and
flaky, just like cod and haddock, and dogfish is extremely popular in Europe.
The dilemma? Nobody’s
ever heard of them. And who wants to eat something called dogfish?
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| Dogfish |
This isn’t the first
time a table-friendly fish has been cursed with an unappetizing name. Mahi mahi
is also known as dolphinfish. And nobody would buy Chilean seabass when it was
called Patagonian toothfish.
Quite frankly, this is
a stupid problem to have. We have an abundant supply of inexpensive, delicious
fish with goofy or obscure names, but all we want to eat are fish we’re used to
eating. We do this even though there are so few of them left that the
government literally declared the Cape Cod fishery a disaster.
Anywhere there are
fish, you’re bound to find several species that are abundant, easy to prepare,
and unpopular just because nobody’s ever heard of them.
Wouldn’t you prefer a
fresh-caught fish of an obscure species over a well-known one flown in from
halfway around the world?
Fortunately, several
chefs are taking the lead in educating American eaters on the tasty so-called
“trash fish” we’ve never heard of. Since most fish in this country is consumed
in restaurants, the switch to sustainably fished and farmed seafood will have
to happen in restaurants to make a sizable difference.
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| Patagonian toothfish, a.k.a. Chilean Seabass |
An organization called
Chefs Collaborative began holding “trash fish dinners” around the country over
the past year. “Trash,” of course, is a misnomer for these delectable species
and meals. Each dinner highlights under-utilized seafood species local to that
region, prepared by talented chefs who make them taste great.
These dinners can
promote awareness, but they won’t save the oceans on their own. The good news
is that the way to do that is by eating great seafood at restaurants of
conscientious chefs.
Such restaurants can
be found all over the country, like Lumière in Newton, Massachusetts, Table Fifty-Two in Chicago, and the Border Grill in
Los Angeles and Las Vegas. If you can’t find a restaurant that serves
sustainable fish near you, ask your favorite restaurant to switch their menu to
better seafood choices.
With so many species to
choose from, one complicating factor is that something that might be a more
sustainable choice if it’s caught in one part of the world would make a bad
option if it’s caught somewhere else. Then there are different fishing methods
to consider. It’s enough to make your head spin. Clearly, it’s hard to become a
responsible seafood consumer.
Fortunately, the
Monterey Bay Aquarium has done all of the homework for us — and restaurants —
with its Seafood Watch program, which produces a handy online and printable guide.
Next time you eat out,
ask if the restaurant serves sustainable seafood. If not, point the staff
toward the Seafood Watch guide. It’s a simple action and it might feel like it
won’t help, but it only takes a few customers speaking up before a business
changes its ways.
Eating trash fish is a
win-win. It lets you please your palate while saving the planet. You may even
save money because these abundant species are often cheaper than the more
over-fished varieties.
OtherWords columnist
Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food
System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. OtherWords.org
