I was reading an article in Food and Wine magazine the other day regarding corked wine which made me think about – of all things – fish.
The author presented some stats regarding wine contaminated by chloroanisole (o.k. science speak ends here), more commonly referred to as ‘corked’ wine. Wines stopped by good old fashioned cork run the risk of flaw from said cork at a rate of anywhere from 1 percent (according to the corkmakers) to as high as 5 percent (according to the winemakers).
Ultimately, there are far more bottles corked than there are wine drinkers who can spot the flaw. The unfortunate result is a great deal of people being disappointed by a lousy bottle of wine. Do they know it is flawed by a mechanism, by equipment, by an unfortunate but natural process?? No. They just know they paid money for something that wasn’t very good.
The end result in many cases with the novice consumer blaming the vintage, the varietal, or even worse (and most likely) the producer.
Enter my thoughts on fish.
As a cheffer this far from the ocean (or any clean freshwater source), fish is a bit of a challenge. I have the advantage of using knowledgeable and trustworthy wholesalers, but serving fish is still a challenge. I know about fish. I know about handling it, cooking it, and garnishing it. A good piece of fish is far superior to most meats and fowl (please don’t tell pork I said that). I have a hell of a hard time selling it. We pitch fish, the client wants chicken. We serve fish, suddenly 3 people come down with last second nondescript ‘fish’ allergies.
Editorializing (wait, isn’t this one big editorial? nevermind), I would say that – like with corked wine – too many people are exposed to flawed (and by flawed I mean OLD) fish. It’s not their fault, the fish guy pulled it out of the counter and charged them 12 bucks a pound for it. I know people who’ve said “I’m going to try mussels, they look so good” and marched down to the grocery store (which shall remain nameless), unknowingly bought old mussels sitting in their own ‘ick’, brought them home, followed the recipe, stunk up their kitchen and said “gross, I hate mussels”. I’ve known too many people, this happens way too often. It isn’t always malicious, the 17 year old student behind the fish counter making $9.50 an hour may not know a bad mussel from a good cheese, but he should.
I can’t count the times I’ve served fish to a fish hater and heard “that was great, and I don’t even like fish!”.
You do like fish, you just don’t like rotting fish.
So. Use your head. First, your eyes. Dry = no good. Filmy = no good. Looks like mush = no good. DON’T BUY BROWN TUNA FOR $20 LB!!! Bobby flay may have told you it’s great, but he doesn’t know your grocer.
Next, your nose. If they won’t let you smell it, don’t buy it. If you smell it and decide you wouldn’t flirt with it, don’t buy it. It may sound strange, but fish shouldn’t smell fishy.
Finally, your brain. Buy whichever fish looks best, it’s probably freshest. If possible, buy it alive – can’t get much fresher.
Actually on second thought, forget it. Come to the Good Earth. I’ll cook it for ya!!
Chow.