> > > > ... is herring not an option?
> > > > This is just not satisfactory!
> > >
> > > We need them to cut down our mightiest trees. :)
> > >
> > > Nyperold

> > > My favorite, btw, is scrod. Fixed Boston-style, drenched in butter and baked. Deeee-licious. But for the poll, I chose catfish. I like it the way Cracker Barrel makes it.
> > >
> > > Gri"fish connoiseur"shny


El Fishski: set your qualms to rest and know that "herring" may not have been on the list, but "kippers" and "sardines" certainly were. The latter two aren't actually specific fish. They're just ways of preparing herring, or a herring-like fish. Kippers are smoked filleted herring, steamed in butter. Sardines are beheaded baby fish of a number of species, traditionally packed in oil in a tin. Scrod are immature cod or haddock. Pollock *is* an actual fish species, but those vacuum-packed, red-and-white chunks of lobster/scallop-flavoured crab-meat "pollock" that you get in the store are made from any white-fleshed fish similar to pollock or whiting.


> > I noticed that my favourites: whiting, blackfish, leatherjacket, garfish and barramundi are all missing too. But how long would the list be if Sam included them all ?
> >
> >
> > Ladada(bring us... a.... shrubbery !)dada
>
> Yeah, reader polls in an international medium are tough, ladadadada. The only fish on the list I've tasted are tuna and cod. Some of the others I've never even heard of. Leatherjacket wouldn't be on my list, but at least it's a fish we have here. My version of this poll would be: hoki, john dory, snapper, terakihi, ling, kingfish, kahawai, bonito, orange roughie, red cod, blue cod? I would have voted for snapper.
>
> Brunnen-"one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish"G


It's even more messy than that, B-G. Not only are various "common" fish species found in only certain parts of the world -- the other problem is that well-known fish names in N.American markets translate to completely different species Down Under. Even across the Pond, what Americans call the "sardine" is best known as "pilchard" in the U.K. And the fish you may see in restaurants listed as "dogfish" is actually shark.

Heh. Anyway, the question of "Which fish is called what?" has been driving me bonkers for years. I really like fresh fish, but in Quebec all the names are given in French (duh). My favorite is a silver-skinned, scaleless fish with velvety white flesh that is sweet and tender. They call it "Doré" up here. I suspect it is really the Dory fish... which may be called the Walleye pike Perch in English. But instead of selecting "Perch" on Sam's list, I got confused and chose "Trout" because I thought the Walleye was a trout. Grrrr. That's too bad, because the trout category includes the so-called "Rainbow Trout" which isn't even a trout; it's a steelhead salmon and tastes like one. In general salmon doesn't appear very good unless it's air smoke-cured, since salmon meat is rather incredibly trashy-textured.

Wolf "Never had Swordfish. Does it taste like Chicken? :-)" spirit