Dammit, I am in all seriousness jonesing for a huge Ciabatta Panini with pork, avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, bacon and chipotle sauce. I used to make them, but my Panini grill broke.
[QUOTE=teela brown]
You don’t say. I was remembering the post of a Hawaiian Doper here who said tilapia inhabited the Ali Wai canal in Honolulu, a body of water notorious for being full of garbage and trash.
All I know is, both times I’ve tried tilapia, it tasted like dirt. Probably it was the algae that they ate. And I don’t particularly care all that much what a food fish eats - I just care how they taste. I know what lobster, crabs and shrimp eat and I love them. But tilapia - ick. Because of its cheapness, however, I’m seeing it everywhere on menus.
[/QUOTE]
A common cause of “dirt” flavor in non piscivourous fish is that because of the nature of the food they eat their digestive systems have to strain out the non-nutritional occurances of particulate (dirt to you and me) and they develop what’s known in carp and catfish (catfish, while not herbivores do get a fair bit of mud and stuff in their mouthes) as a “mud vein” which is any reddish or brownish coloration on the edges of the meat. This is perhaps some of the foulest tasting meat on the planet and so careful cleaning and preparation is key to being able to enjoy filets from them.
As for them being able to live in a body of water full of trash and garbage, since tilapia originate from the tropics they have outstanding tolerances for low dissovled oxygen environments and so are able to live well in areas that other fish could not.
[QUOTE=devilsknew]
Here in Florida, I can step out my backdoor and snag Tilapia out of the stocked Lake. Because they are vegans they don’t respond to bait, so you have to cast out a four pronged hook with a sinker and reel and yank, hoping to snag through a school of them. I caught a catfish this way, but have yet to gets me some Tilapia. Guys around here go home with full stringers and have freezers full of them.
[/QUOTE]
Tilapia aren’t full vegans and like many other “veggie” fish will actually bite on a worm, no problem. Make sure to check your local regulations regarding the snagging of fish, as in many places across the country this is a highly frowned upon practice.
That’s good to hear. It sounds barbarically cruel :’(
[QUOTE=Cluricaun]
Tilapia aren’t full vegans and like many other “veggie” fish will actually bite on a worm, no problem. Make sure to check your local regulations regarding the snagging of fish, as in many places across the country this is a highly frowned upon practice.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, snagging isn’t a normal practice, but this is a private, manmade, stocked lake. No fishing license is required and there are rules made my the local management for limits on each variety of fish. However there is no limit or method set on the Tilapia because there is such a large population. Some years they have commercial guys come in with nets to thin the “herd”. And actually I don’t see snagging the tilapia as particularly cruel, because it’s a murky lake and the chances of snagging them aren’t extremely high. I think they have a greater chance than if I were to go out netting them. There’s more sport to blind snagging for the fish and the man.
I am not going to get into it, but I think that even normal fishing is cruel. But then, I know I’m in the minority on my food choices and all that.
I entirely understand, Opal. I have moral compunctions about fishing myself… really about any killing, and the meat I eat… I’m not a great sportsman, and I’m definitely not a Hunter, but I occasionally fish and I’m definitely an omnivore and eat meat. I figure I have to face up to my place on the food chain and get my hands dirty, and about the only way I do my pennance is by facing up to the reality of catching, killing, and cleaning fish. It’s a weird duality.
Actually I respect that stance much more than either hunting/fishing because it’s “so much fun” or people who won’t face up to the reality of what they are eating.
Anyway, back to those restaurant fads…
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen]
Now my son is almost 13 and can eat me under the table.
[/QUOTE]
Come on, guys - tell me I’m not the only one with his mind in the gutter!
[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
Come on, guys - tell me I’m not the only one with his mind in the gutter!
[/QUOTE]
Nope, I was just giving **ITD ** a free pass on that one.
[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
Come on, guys - tell me I’m not the only one with his mind in the gutter!
[/QUOTE]
That’s not just a gutter, but an entire septic leaching field for large McMansion with 4.5 bathrooms filled with people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
So there. 
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
Actually I respect that stance much more than […] people who won’t face up to the reality of what they are eating.
[/QUOTE]
What? I’ve never met a single omnivore in denial about the fact that they’re eating animals.
[QUOTE=teela brown]
You don’t say. I was remembering the post of a Hawaiian Doper here who said tilapia inhabited the Ali Wai canal in Honolulu, a body of water notorious for being full of garbage and trash.
[/QUOTE]
Possibly me. I’ve posted about the tilapia fishermen at the Ala Wai canal before.
If any body of water is going to give rise to hordes of evil three-eyed spear-wielding humanoid fish, it’s that one. No matter where they are raised or how safe they are, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat tilapia. Mmm, raw sewage.
A real panino is dee-lish. I learned this when I was in Italy. Light focaccia and mortadella, for example. Yum. Oh, and not toasted or grilled. Just a sandwich. Because that’s what panino means. Sandwich. Panini is plural. You order “a panini,” you’re essentially going into a fast food joint and asking for “a hamburgers.” So knock it off. Anyway, a good panino is scrumptious, and doesn’t deserve your scorn. In this, as with just about everything else in the thread, y’all are complaining about “stuff that is good when done well by the original inventors or at least people who give a shit, but that has been overdone or compromised or screwed up by cackhanded imitators and know-nothing dolts.”
Except for tilapia. That shit fish was always ass.
Well, I make sure to get all my panini made with artisanal bread, with an artisanal cheese plate for dessert. (plated with squiggly sauces, of course)
[QUOTE=HelloKitty]
Well, I make sure to get all my panini made with artisanal bread, with an artisanal cheese plate for dessert. (plated with squiggly sauces, of course)
[/QUOTE]
I think you meant paninos. 
[QUOTE=Aesiron]
What? I’ve never met a single omnivore in denial about the fact that they’re eating animals.
[/QUOTE]
No, but a lot of them have a mental disconnect between when it’s a grazing animal and when it’s food. It like happy cow eating grass, something, nice steak! If you asked as lot of people to kill/catch/clean their own food, or to visit a slaughterhouse, they’d say “Hells no.” Sure, some of them might not want to simply because it’s gory, but a lot of them don’t want to know how something goes from animal to food. And besides, the goriness is part of it, too. Back “in the day,” if you wanted meat, you took part in slaughtering it and that was that.
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug]
Yes, it is embarrassing when they begin hauling out their entrails in public, and asking to see yours.
[/QUOTE]
It always comes down to the length of our entrails, doesn’t it? {sigh}
I would prefer to be a blissfully unaware omnivore*. I don’t like any food that is still in its walking around form (or with eyes). Whole fish - no thank you. Chunk of fish bearing no resemblance to a fish - sure.
- Blissfully unaware, not ignorant - I know very well where my food started its life. I just don’t want to be reminded at the dinner table.
[QUOTE=Aesiron]
What? I’ve never met a single omnivore in denial about the fact that they’re eating animals.
[/QUOTE]
I never said nor implied they denied that is where it came from. They just don’t FACE it. My mom, for example, will leave the room or demand a change of subject if you attempt to discuss anything about battery cages, slaughterhouses, factory farm conditions, or where veal comes from, etc. She doesn’t want to think about it, and prefers to view her food as a separate entity from “chunks of that animal over there”. LOTS of people are like that.
Yes, a lot of people don’t like to be lectured about their food choices while they’re eating. They are wacky!