I just bought me some smoke Copper River salmon, it’s for Christmas eve. Can’t wait to eat it.
I worked on salmon fishing boats out of Westport, Washington for a couple of summers. I would have fresh salmon for dinner a couple nights a week, I never grew tired of it. The biggest salmon I ever caught during this time were 76 and 72 pound Kings. Caught them on the same day.
The only mistake I ever made with salmon was ordering it at Bubba Gump’s restaurant on Pier 39 in San Francisco. I was served this almost white crap. I complained to the waitress and she had the cook come out. He said it was fresh Atlantic salmon that was just flown in. Why would I eat Atlantic salmon while sitting in a restaurant that had a view of the Pacific Ocean? He replaced it with some halibut that wasn’t too bad.
Really, the Male Salmon’s final journey is much like the Sperm’s final journey. It is very much a macro version of fertilization. Almost holographic, as so much of nature presents. Live and see, or deny yourself in the name of dogma… up to you.
Wild Pacific salmon is a gift from the gods. There are other salmon, but they aren’t nearly as good. The farm raised stuff mostly comes from Scotland, and is actually bad for you.
I don’t particularly dislike salmon, but I sort of agree with the title, in that it’s probably the world’s most overrated fish right now. There’s easily half a dozen other fish that I’d take first. The salmon I had at a pretty good restaurant the last time I was in California can’t hold a candle to the better tuna steaks I’ve had, for instance.
No doubt it was flown in from the Northwest. The dirty secret is that the majority of crap Atlantic salmon is farmed in the Pacific, which due to sea lice infestations spread to wild Pacific salmon as well as a fair number escaping the farms, breeding and competing for resources with wild salmon, they are destroying the Pacific salmon industry. It’s a crying shame, really. Avoid farmed salmon not just because it’s generally crap to eat, but it’s also environmentally unsound and a detriment to decent salmon.
I never used to like salmon. Yes, I thought it was too fishy although I liked many white fish, shark, tuna, trout, etc. I’m beginning to appreciate a good salmon grilled on a cedar plank, however. Not fishy really at all.
I would like to add my vote to the Tilapia-is-nasty contingent, though.
