It’s (Oceans) Alive!
This’ll probably wreck any food blogger street cred I may have, but I must reveal I have never cooked fish of any sort, ever.
No, wait — I take it back.
I steamed some shrimp for a shrimp cocktail once, sometime around 1998.
Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy fish — in a restaurant. But as far as selecting and cooking it myself…? I never know how it should look (or smell) and more importantly, what’s the safest to eat, for me or for the environment.
And that’s where the Environmental Defense Network’s Oceans Alive - Eat Smart site comes in.
If this site had nothing more than its list of best and worst seafood choices (with a printable pocket-sized PDF!) it would still deserve mentioning here, but it also has recipes (Spot Prawns with Garlic, Chiles, and Tomato Confit by Suzanne Goin caught my eye), a guide to your local fishmonger, and even a list of which fish oil supplements to avoid.
After poking through this site least a month now, I think I’m finally ready to take on my final food frontier.
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January 29th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I rather thought you’d be riffing on Michael Pollan’s NY Times food article. Not that I want to encourage you or anything.
January 29th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
don’t feel so bad, i’ve only done it once. it’s damn easy though — at least the way i did it (broil).
I am in love with your glasses. Great pic at the top!
January 29th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Interesting list. I have monkfish “on tap” and am thankful that I only bought one. My understanding is that if you blend cilantro with the “bad” fish you’ll neutralize the bad stuff. Or, like the site says, eat it sparingly, if at all.
If you take a notion, check my recipe pages for amazing sockeye salmon. Tilapia is another good one - melts in your mouth if prepared correctly.
January 29th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
You’ve lived in Florida and Massachusetts and you’ve never cooked fish? Wow! Once you do it, you’ll see how incredibly easy it is. And there’s so much fresh fish here in NY, it’s hard to go wrong.
January 29th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I was at a seafood restaurant last week and they had lots of things on the “worst” list that you link to in your post. The only one I knew about was the Chilean sea bass, but I was trying to avoid fish that had been shipped from halfway around the world, for the same reason that I won’t drink water from Fiji, for crying out loud!! I just don’t want to participate in that kind of profligate fuel consumption. Of course, living in Pittsburgh, that doesn’t leave me with too many options….
January 29th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
theboy: What on the what now? I’m-a go read it right now.
Linda: Thanks; my friend Alex sent me the frames when they were too small for her. Hooray for my freakishly small head!
Lisa: I don’t think I cooked anything during the six months we lived in Florida. My father-in-law’s got a lot of dietary restrictions, so I left the cooking up to my mother-in-law.
My family doesn’t cook fish either, come to think of it. My mom’s family just doesn’t like it and my father’s family would always just go out if they wanted fish — and they still do. My grandfather heads out of the assisted-living home every week to get fish chowder.
Rebecca: Oh, hell. I’ve been pretty diligent about buying foods grown close to home whenever possible, but I think I turned a bit of a blind eye as to how far my Evian fix had come. Well, Poland Spring, here I come.
January 29th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
I. am. Shocked!
Despite being raised in a land-locked state, I love seafood. Pan-seared scallops with garlic crostini is what I would eat before my execution.
January 30th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I cook fish at least once a week and I have some really great recipes for fish on the good fish list that I can share.
My experienced voice has this important tip for you: Immediately remove from your house anything that the fish was wrapped in when you brought it home once you cook it. Putting it in the trash is not good enough. It must go outside and far away or your house will stink like hell. The same goes for anything you cook the fish in - wash it as fast as you possibly can.
January 30th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I’m printing out that little pdf thingie RIGHT NOW! Excellent linkage;)
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:37 pm
[…] I did it! I cooked fish — my final food frontier! Here’s a somewhat crappy photo to prove it! […]