> Do you ever buy frozen vacuum-sealed fish? The kind where each piece is sealed in its own plastic pouch? It is convenient and delicious. To me it can taste fresher than some "fresh" fish.
Eeew. No.
Call me old-fashioned but I believe in this thing called seasonality.
I only buy fish that is in season, not farmed, and that is genuinely fresh from reputable suppliers, not supermarket "fresh".
Nice clear bright eyes, clean gills and all that jazz.
There is no substitute for fresh fresh fish. Well, maybe one ... high-quality smoked fish.
Photographers have a saying: The best camera is the one you have with you.
I have a really nice camera with some excellent lenses, but my recent photos that I'm most proud of and enjoy the most were taken with my Galaxy Note 8, a several-year-old smartphone.
Of course the kind of fresh fish you're talking about is far superior to the Costco bag of sockeye salmon I have in the freezer. But sometimes, it's getting near dinner time, and I don't have time to go shopping and just want some fish. Under those circumstances, the frozen fish hits the spot, and it is much better than the "supermarket fresh".
But what do I know? If I'm near a McDonald's and craving a fish sandwich and there isn't a better option nearby, I just might stop in and get a Filet-O-Fish. It's nothing spectacular, but it is line-caught wild Alaskan pollock.
Just be sure to order it without cheese. Because number one, American cheese on fish is gross. And number two, it means they have to make you a fresh sandwich and not give you a premade one.
(Disclosure: I work for McDonald's, at least until the end of this month.)
A friend told me that he never, ever eats frozen fish, but he does enjoy all varieties of sushi and sashimi, and he explained to me that those are never frozen.
I tried to convince him otherwise, but never got anywhere.
At least in the US, a significant amount of the fish you eat in high end restaurants, sushi restaurants and fish markets is never frozen.
It is packed in ice and kept very cold, but not frozen.
Supermarkets are more likely to stock frozen/previously frozen. Lots of commodity seafood is frozen when caught.
Source: Spent a season offshore fishing for swordfish/tuna. Worked in the warehouses that unloaded and shipped the same. Drove the truck that delivered the fish.
If you are in a Western country, then yes, "sashimi grade fish" equals "frozen".
If you are in Japan, then no.
Its all to do with the understanding of fish and its handling.
In the West its all commoditised, quantity over quality.
In Japan, they have a deeply rooted fish culture, a focus on quality and are obsessive over food hygiene.
So in Japan your sushi won't be pre-frozen, but it will have been meticulously inspected and prepared.
Fun fact, salmon sushi/sashimi is a Western thing. The Japanese don't eat it because the parasite risk in Salmon is so much higher than any other fish.
Personally, having visited Japan a number of times, I will not eat sushi or sashimi outside of Japan any more.
1. All Tuna is frozen immediately after being caught on the boat - go to tsukiji (well now toyosu) at the tuna market. They are frozen and they taste better because of it.
2. There is no sushi / sashimi grade in Japan. High quality fish that you can eat safely is just the default
3. It's true that traditional sushi did not include salmon because of the parasites. If you go to a traditional sushi restaurant (3 star Michelin etc) you won't find salmon nigiri. Other than that salmon sushi is everywhere at sushi restaurants in Japan and tons of Japanese eat salmon nigiri and sushi.
1. Noted, although I would say I didn't say all fish was not frozen.
2. That was kind of the point I was making. ;-)
3. I guess we must frequent different places, because the only places I've seen Salmon is Narita airport and at combinis. I don't go to 3 star Michelin, but I do admit I go to more traditional sushi restaurants when I want sushi in Japan. That said, even when I have had sushi at isakaya and small local restaurants, sashimi omakase rarely contains Salmon.
> Its immediately obvious that everything is flash frozen
"Everything" is a bit of an exaggeration.
I'm sure like at all fish markets, there is frozen fish available, either because it was imported or because that's the way it was pre-processed on the local boat.
But to say "everything is flash frozen". That's pushing it. You fall flat at shellfish at a start. ;-)
> Most of us cannot travel to Japan every time we want to eat sushi, so that's simply not practical.
FFS !
Did I ever say I travelled, or that anyone should travel to Japan every time ?
No.
Incase you had not seen, Japanese cuisine goes beyond sushi and sashimi.
The quality of sushi and sahimi in the West is simply so poor compared to Japan I won't waste my money. That is what I am saying.
I simply said I do not eat sushi and sashimi. I can fill my Japanese desires with other culinary aspects and save myself for as and when I might visit Japan.
> Fun fact, salmon sushi/sashimi is a Western thing. The Japanese don't eat it because the parasite risk in Salmon is so much higher than any other fish.
All the conveyor belt sushi chains I’ve eaten at definitely had salmon nigiri on the menu. In fact, they had a wider variety of salmon than what is commonly found in the US. It is most definitely a thing Japanese people eat because otherwise there wouldn’t be five menu items dedicated to just salmon at every major conveyorbelt sushi chain.
You've been eating the wrong American chocolate. Hershey's isn't the end all and be all. There are plenty of good chocolate makers and even more good chocolatiers in the US, you just need to explore a bit. L.A. Burdick in New Hampshire, for example, makes really great chocolates, and has a nice wide range of single source bars made with beans from plantations all over the world.
true of cheese as well. Tillamook in Oregon produces fantastic cheese (which is widely vended). The way I think about it is that the average american food is poorer than average european quality, but that our best producers make some of the best in the world.
> I only buy fish that is in season, not farmed, and that is genuinely fresh from reputable suppliers, not supermarket "fresh".
I think everyone wants this, but it's not always practical. Not everyone lives in a coastal area with access to fresh fish of the kind they would like to eat. If you do, more power to you! But if you don't...
Freezing fish also has the benefit that it kills parasites.
Many of those frozen like that were flash frozen on the boat and are fresher than even what you buy at the fish market direct from the boats that landed that night.
It really does depend on your location. Here in Iceland I can get fresh fish that was caught the same day in my local fish store (mind you not all their fish is caught that day, but most if not all inside 2).
Though with the globalized world we live in, I was even able to get fish from Iceland no older than 2 days in Edmonton Canada when I lived there some years ago.
edit; I'll add that there is a massive texture difference in white fish depending on if it has ever been frozen. Flaky fresh never frozen cod becomes like chewing gum after having been frozen.
>There is no substitute for fresh fresh fish. Well, maybe one ... high-quality smoked fish.
While I take a bit less of a strong stance on this, I definitely agree there's nothing like properly fresh fish. I used to think I didn't really like mackerel but the truth is that supermarket mackerel can be a bit nasty even off the fish counter, mackerel straight out of the sea and cooked right away is absolutely fantastic.
> I used to think I didn't really like mackerel but the truth is that supermarket mackerel can be a bit nasty even off the fish counter
Yes. Oily fish (e.g. mackerel) really doesn't keep well, as you say it has to be eaten as close to "straight out of the sea" as possible. Oily fish certainly is not well suited to supermarket supply chains.
The fish you buy even from reputable suppliers was very likely flash frozen on the boat before it ever reached land. Many fishing boats are out for several days or weeks at a time. So just because it's only been on land a short time, that doesn't mean it's recently caught.
This is a good thing because many fish harbor parasites that are killed when flash frozen. Your home freezer doesn't reliably get cold enough to take them out. You can reliably kill them by cooking very thoroughly, but since fish is such a delicate meat, the line between "may still have wriggling worms" and "overcooked, dry, and unpalatable" can be quite fine.
Unless you’re buying your fish every morning in the fish market at the harbor, it’s probably been frozen. Even wild caught is typically frozen as soon as it’s hauled aboard.
Supposedly, flash freezing (which is distinct from your average home freezer unit) preserves quality such that even trained sushi chefs can't tell the difference between fresh and previously flash-frozen fish.
Eeew. No.
Call me old-fashioned but I believe in this thing called seasonality.
I only buy fish that is in season, not farmed, and that is genuinely fresh from reputable suppliers, not supermarket "fresh".
Nice clear bright eyes, clean gills and all that jazz.
There is no substitute for fresh fresh fish. Well, maybe one ... high-quality smoked fish.