Sustainability is one consideration. Position in the food chain is another; for one’s own health, it’s wise to limit eating top-tier predators to an occasional treat.
And as you point out, fish is often passed off as a different species from what it really is. Buying whole fish, or at least skin-on fillets, helps with this, assuming you know what the correct species looks like. I forget the statistics but I saw a report some year ago where the incidence of intentionally mislabelled fish was shockingly high.
There was a study that found a huge problem with labeling, probably less with whole fish. Not an expert, but thought white bass was kind of an intermediate spot in the food chain.
Thornyheads are great! I miss California fish. But I do get really good scallops and lobster where I live now. Finfish is mostly from local commercial boats or if I’m lucky from friends who have more free time than I to go fishing. Sometimes I give in and buy salmon or sablefish from the West coast, but that’s a very occasional treat.
Seafood soup made in clay pot/Donabe. Thornyheads, japanese sweet potato & eggplant, cherry tomatoes, shaved fennel, bok choy, chanterelles, clams, scallops, carrot. The broth was like a dashi with some sake and bonito flake added and garnished with ramen style marinated quail eggs. Good stuff
solo pasta night
one egg and a yolk and ap flour
sauce was 1/4 lb hot Italian sausage and an onion
alien with a 28oz can of peeled whole plums (kirkland)
Twice as much sauce so plenty to save for another meal
Well they’re predators, so I’d consider them nearer the top of the food chain than, say, fish that eat plankton or plants. And with freshwater fish there’s often the question of pollutants like heavy metals or PCBs; as with any food, it helps to know your source.
Yes, they eat things other than plants, although they tend to eat smaller organisms including some plankton, and are eaten by larger predators. That’s what I meant by intermediate spot. FWIW, salmon, which are often sustainable (depends a bit) also eat other other fish. Pretty restrictive to avoid fish that eat other fish/creatures unless you stick to farmed fish which has it’s own issues.
(Unappealing plate there at the end…apologies!) Dad was over for an early 77th b-day cerebration for him, so did some duck with an improvised blueberry/shallot/red wine sauce, his favorite rice pilaf, and (not shown) a salad with spinach, shaved fennel, apple, pumpkin seeds, and ricotta salata. This all paired beautifully with a 2012 Big Table Farm WV Pinot Noir.
Eating-size white bass are mainly eating other fish, I think. And yes, salmon and swordfish and tuna etc. are all upper-level predators eating other fish. That’s why they are an occasional treat for me. I try to avoid farmed finfish, but farmed shellfish is usually a good choice. I’ll eat sardines and mackerel, fresh if I can find them, tinned if not. I recently discovered tinned garfish, which are delicious, and were a smash hit at a recent seacuterie/wine tasting event. In any case while I’m an omnivore and do eat meat and dairy, I am trying to eat more plant-based foods (hello, Rancho Gordo!). It’s better for my own health and for the planet, and if more people did that it really would have an impact on the environment.
Salmon is quite a bit lower in things like mercury associated with being farther up the food chain than most tuna or swordfish. I limit consumption of the latter, but not salmon.
