If there’s a ‘Vegetables’ section at the supermarket, would it include mushrooms?
Well, yeah, probably. But that’s not what the word means, which is why we maybe don’t settle the great questions of our age by looking to supermarkets.
Well, in talking to vegetarians it pretty much always is “meat”.
I believe that YOU interpret “meat” to mean “not fish” every where you’ve traveled. I am dubious that everyone around you uses it the same way.
They aren’t. The section with raw seafood, which sits between the “deli” section and the “butcher” section, isn’t labeled. There’s a lot of meat in the deli section.
I think the canned capers are between the canned sardines and the canned clams. The canned tuna and canned salmon are next to each other, but not right next to the sardines. There are also canned beans in that section, I suppose because there is canned chili that has beef and beans, so it sort of makes sense to put the beef and the beans nearby.
Anyhow, I certainly agree that mammal meat tastes different from fish meat. And that sometimes “meat” means “mammal meat”. I just don’t think you can assume that, ESPECIALLY if you are feeding vegetarians, who often describe their diet as “I don’t eat meat”.
I just discovered a few months ago that I’m cisgendered. For 50 years I had no idea.
Well, of course the canned tuna is next to other canned tuna, and the canned corned beef hash is next to other canned corned beef hash, and the canned spam is next to other canned spam, and the canned snozzberries are next to other canned snozzberries. But in every supermarket I’ve seen, the canned tuna is a lot closer to the canned corned beef than it is to the fresh salmon. And that section is always either the “canned” section, or the “canned meat” section. I’ve never seen a grocery store sign that proclaimed “canned fish”.
The canned tuna and salmon are segregated from say the spam and Vienna sausages at my local market, but my recall of it isn’t perfect. Whole Foods just doesn’t sell Spam or Vienna sausages at all, but you see a similar setup. I’ll pay closer attention on my next visits and report back here with my findings.
What? Mushrooms are culinary vegetables, too.
Hey, congratulations. Have you come out?
I found this thread really interesting in just how differently people interpret such a common word. And how adamantly in some cases! 
It has never entered my mind that the term meat didn’t include fish flesh, just like “meat” includes chicken flesh, beef flesh, emu flesh, crocodile flesh, etc. It just seems as obvious as pork being considered meat, to me.
Add me to the list of people who think it would be interesting to tease out the differences between those in the “of course fish is meat” and those in the “that doesn’t make sense, fish obviously isn’t meat” camps. I think it’s a lot more complicated than just being regional!
As cisgendered? Naw. I’ve always just considered myself male. But it’s good to know my internal self-concept is aligned with the gender I was assigned at birth. Who knew?
Yes, i buy both sardines and corned beef hash in the “canned meat” section. There are no labels indicating that section also has fish and beans.
Supermarkets keep fish seperate due to specific needs in storage and handling. If pork had similar special needs you’d see seperate “meat” and “pork” sections.
I’m reminded of this joke:
An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are shown a pasture with a herd of sheep, and told to put them inside the smallest possible amount of fence. The engineer is first. He herds the sheep into a circle and then puts the fence around them, declaring, “A circle will use the least fence for a given area, so this is the best solution.” The physicist is next. She creates a circular fence of infinite radius around the sheep, and then draws the fence tight around the herd, declaring, “This will give the smallest circular fence around the herd.” The mathematician is last. After giving the problem a little thought, he puts a small fence around himself and then declares, “I define myself to be on the outside!”
I had heard that one with the engineer making various rectangles and measuring them, before concluding that a square was optimal.
Colibri, I don’t know how you can keep opining that the “common English meaning” of meat excludes fish, when the results of this very poll would seem to refute your assertion. Maybe that’s what you’ve always meant when you say ‘meat’, but obviously it’s very common for others - maybe more common - to think of fish in this category.
And the reason they are separated in the grocery store is not for taxonomical purity - it’s because, as said upthread, the storage and display requirements are different. Meat can be displayed in a cooler, but unfrozen fish is typically kept on ice. At most stores around here, the fish is displayed right next to the beef, pork, and poultry; but on ice behind a glass case which the others don’t require (because they are wrapped and placed in a cooler).
Well, see the OP didnt ask *in what context *is fish meat.
Scientifically, both are animals.
Culinary, one is seafood (even if it’s freshwater fish) and the other is meat.
In many faiths, the two are different.
If the question had been “In the Catholic Faith, is Fish Meat?” what would your answer have been?
context is everything.
I am supporting your point here, I don’t get the snark, or joke or whatever.
If chickens had lips, would the lips be meat?
Back in West Texas, a radio morning talk-show host once kissed a chicken on the lips to prove it could be done. It was radio, but a news crew filmed it.
Did they put lipstick on the chicken first?
Can’t say, but I’m fairly certain no tongue was involved.