If you see catfish at the supermarket or on the menu - you might want to pass

[bik0]

especially if it's from Viet Nam...

http://www.vimeo.com/11817894

[elleng]

1. Lots of its farmed domestically, isn't it?

[virgogal]

2. I wouldn't eat catfish anyway.

[elleng]

3. Too bad; its really good! and easy to handle, etc.

[Kookaburra]

6. Salt and pepper fried catfish is a southern delicacy

We love us some mudcats.

[pipi_k]

13. Me neither. Yech

I tried it. Twice...just in case the first time I was being fussy.

disgusting taste.

Bluefish and salmon too.


I do haddock and cod, though.

[virgogal]

17. Haddock,cod,and swordfish. Yum !

[pitohui]

20. wait you eat haddock but don't like catfish?

haddock has a nasty taste, catfish a flavorful one and it takes sauces well

i don't want to get racial but in my own heart i will admit to wondering, do you {not this poster but the generic YOU, the population at large] like haddock because it is somehow british and it's OK for british food to taste yucky?

catfish is really tasty whereas haddock is just catfood/public school cafeteria at best really

maybe it's because i'm from the south but i just don't see how anyone who once ate haddock and enjoyed it wouldn't fall down and think they died and went to heaven after sampling catfish because honestly catfish is only about scadzillion times tastier...

catfish was once considered a "black" food and there's a class thing against it, and i don't know how this affects advertising/people's heads but it's my humble opinion that if you didn't know one fish from the other and did a blind taste test...catfish beats the fuck out of cod and haddock and it ain't even closer

in my childhood, when cod and haddock etc were still common fish, it was common for many kids to hate fish, today, with those fisheries largely gone and kids being fed catfish, you never hear of kids disliking fish...taste is subjective but honestly i think more people would like catfish if there weren't racial etc. preconceptions

[pipi_k]

22. I don't eat yucky food, no matter where it comes from

I like the taste of haddock. I've had it from childhood. It's pretty common up here in New England, along with cod. Deep fried in a beer batter, it's delicious.

I'm not much for spicy foods either. Food that others say isn't all that spicy actually cause pain in my mouth and on my tongue. Extremely unpleasant.

To be fair, I did try catfish twice. I didn't like it, and I don't like the taste of veal, either. Or lobster. Although I do like crab. Many people can't understand how I can like crab but not lobster. I don't know why. Lobster just doesn't make my mouth water...it doesn't taste good at all.

:shrug:

[hfojvt]

29. people always expect others to share their tastes

even though many tastes are aquired. I think it is funny when somebody says in horror "you don't like THAT?" as if you even have a choice in the matter. As if you put something in your mouth and said to yourself "wow, I like the taste and texture of this, but I'm gonna say I don't like it just to make other people mad".

[doc03]

4. Eww and I eat the catfish at Cracker Barrel. n/t

[Gormy Cuss]

5. If you eat fish, here's a good guide on which kinds to buy

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx

[Warpy]

15. Thanks!

Most of what I eat is frozen from Costco and on the "best" list. I do eat pollock from time to time as it's a smaller fish and still sustainable.

[safeinOhio]

7. I only eat small, less than 21 inches, that I catch

in reservoirs and small inland lakes. Taste much better that farmed raised. Take some frozen shrimp out the day before to let it spoil a little for bait and catch a bunch.

[barb162]

8. I always ask where the fish is from and will buy nothing from Asia.

I've seen those polluted ponds too many times on the news.

[PinkTiger]

9. If you catch your own,

You will be OK. We get ours from a local lake; have two or three family members who love to fish, but not necessarily to clean fish, LOL. We also get white bass and redhorse.

[Demoiselle]

10. I've tried catfish a couple of times. It tastes bad to me.

Like the bottom of a very grubby river.
I'm sorry. I was born in North Dakota, so what do I know?

[elleng]

14. Surprising; may be in your head! Always light, clear, fresh to me.

(Born in NYC!!!)

[Demoiselle]

25. You're probably right, I have always known they're bottom feeders.

I'll keep working on it.

[elleng]

28. Please do (and find out where those you might try are 'from.')

Clean, farmed U.S. catfish are VERY good, and the 'bottom feeder' thing is irrelevant.

[Love Bug]

16. That's because they eat at the bottom of a very grubby river.

I don't eat any bottom-feeding fish. Yuk.

[Mimosa]

11. American farm raised catfish and rainbow trout- are clean 1st class products

Thanks for the great info, biko.


I'm not crazy about catfish. But I am familiar with the methods used to raise catfish in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. American catfish -when not wild caught- are raised in huge, clean aerated ponds in semirural areas or rural areas

The Vietnamese 'basia' fish is unfit to eat. I don't know why it has been allowed into the USA. Nor the Vietnamese shrimp. Our government allowing the toxic cheap fish into our country had put a lot of American catfish farms out of business! *grrr*

At restaurants I seriously inquire where the catfish, tilapia or other seafoods- come from. They legally have to tell us. If the answer is Vietnam or Thailand, I order somthing else. I've always been able to taste the difference.

BTW, if you want some superb fish, especially American farm-raised catfish, visit Pappadeaux's. It's a small chain out of Texas which cooks Louisiana style.

[Warpy]

12. YUCK. Tiger prawns are also a concern, they're farmed, too

I've always avoided catfish. Unless it's incredibly fresh, the restaurant located right next to the pond or river where it's caught, fresh water fish always tastes muddy to me.

[cynatnite]

18. We try to stick with locally farmed fish whenever possible. n/t

[pitohui]

19. don't ASSUME, ASK, a lot of good catfish from mississippi

yes fair disclosure hubby has helped bring the catfish farm into the 20th century (oops, one day they'll let him bring it into the 21st) but be that as it may...mississippi farmed catfish is a lean healthy food and tasty too

enjoy and don't be shy

domestic farm raised catfish is a good thing

[shireen]

23. what's the omega-3 content for farmed catfish?

I've heard that diet plays a big role in omega-3 content. what kind of food are the catfish fed?

[grasswire]

21. Alton Brown: USA farmed still-frozen catfish is good eats

I was on the fence about it until I saw his show where he said that if it is still frozen when you get it, USA-farmed catfish is fine.

I will eat that now. I'd rather have haddock, though. The best fried fish I ever ate was haddock, at a little lobster shack in Manchester New Hampshire on the Daniel Webster Highway. Never forgot it.

[Mimosa]

24. Try American farm raised catfish with THIS recipe and you will love it!

Catfish can be excellent if it comes from the American South. (And I'm not a major catfish lover.)

This easy recipe might change minds of anti- Catfish folks. It is Southern but the peppers give it an almost Asian flair. :)

Crispy Fish + Peppers


Ingredients

* 1 lb. fresh or frozen (thawed) small fish fillets (such as grouper, catfish, or tilapia)
* 3/4 cup buttermilk
* 1 egg
* 1 tsp. Cajun seasoning
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 3 to 4 Tbsp. vegetable oil
* 1 cup sliced and/or chopped miniature sweet peppers
* 1 lemon, cut up

Directions

1. Rinse fish and pat dry with paper towels.

2. In a shallow dish, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and Cajun seasoning. Place flour in another shallow dish. Dip fish in buttermilk and flour. Repeat to coat fish twice.

3. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Carefully add fish to hot oil (working in batches, if necessary). Cook for 3 to 5 minutes on each side or until golden. Add more oil, if needed. Drain on paper towels.

4. Drain oil from skillet; wipe clean with paper towel. Add peppers to skillet and cook 2 minutes or until crisp tender.

5. Serve fish with peppers and lemon. Makes 4 servings.


Nutrition Facts

* Calories 251,
* Total Fat (g) 13,
* Saturated Fat (g) 2,
* Monounsaturated Fat (g) 7,
* Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 3,
* Cholesterol (mg) 97,
* Sodium (mg) 188,
* Carbohydrate (g) 8,
* Total Sugar (g) 4,
* Fiber (g) 2,
* Protein (g) 26,
* Vitamin C (DV%) 85,
* Calcium (DV%) 11,
* Iron (DV%) 9,
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

[Kurska]

26. Fried catfish is damned good.

It is just about the only meat I eat anymore, I give up the chicken, the beef, the pork, the crabs, the lobster and almost everything else, but no one is telling me I can't eat catfish.

[ThomWV]

27. Fried catfish, with hushpuppies, is a gift from the Gods

[lumberjack_jeff]

30. I grew up eating catfish.

Part of my grownup distaste for it is colored by remembering how difficult it is to clean the goddamn things.

[old mark]

31. I LOVE catfish, fried with a little crust and some homemade cole slaw...

a great, tasty, easy to make fish, many farmed here in the USA.

mark

[deaniac21]

32. Get them from Arkansas

http://www.cfarkansas.com/