I was watching an episode of one of the Anthony Bourdain shows and he was doing the sushi thing where he pointed out that sushi fish is always frozen first because it gives the texture people expect from “fresh” sashimi and that actual fresh fish is kinda tough and nobody likes it that way. So those sushi places where they’re slicing off bits of some immensely expensive bit of prime tuna are working from prime tuna they stuck in the freezer for a bit.
Wild caught fish intended for sushi also has to be frozen to kill parasites, if any. People have big misconceptions about what “sushi quality” means.
Fish flash frozen on the boat is the best. Similarly, I grew up eating North Sea shrimp that were cooked on the boat on the way back to port. You buy them at the docks. I don’t like pretty much any shrimp I can get in the US.
Here, asian markets and seafood markets, then high end grocery stores for getting different varieties of fish. Also, if you include smoked fish, then farmers markets as well.
Several shark species are endangered or close to it - I like shark, but can’t justify eating a species into extinction in my own mind. Orange roughy/slimehead is in the “avoid” category on a popular seafood watch list which is probably affecting sales. The Patagonian toothfish/Chilean sea bass doesn’t, apparently, fall into either category at moment so I got nothin’ on that.
The point being, there are reasons you’re not seeing some items that were common years ago. Overfishing/endangerment/extinction is one. Can’t sell what you can’t find to catch. Another is contamination - we now know that some species accumulate toxins and aren’t safe to eat either because they’re swimming in polluted waters or on top of a food chain eating fish from polluted waters, so knowledgeable consumers no longer want to eat them and in many places it’s not legal to sell it. Some people are also concerned with things like sustainability and whether or not the manner of catching something damages the environment or other species, so that’s another factor.
I appears that if you equate flying to Italy with driving around a few miles from your office and declining to try any new stores, you’re out of luck. If your goal is magnificent seafood variety, you have a clear path. Expecting amazing seafood at CVS and Walgreens in every small town will be disappointing.
There’s no way around it; You’re going to need to visit more vendors.
Huh, I could have sworn that Patagonian Toothfish was on the endangered list. I remember a lot of hubbub about it some years ago. It seems that Monterey Bay has reassessed its status in the last decade. But I think my point stands that one reason that fish variety may have declined at point of sale is that fish variety in the ocean has declined due to overfishing.
Now that I’m thinking about it - wasn’t there also a study recently that showed that a huge percentage of fish in supermarkets is mislabeled? (A third of fish according to this https://oceana.org/sites/default/files/National_Seafood_Fraud_Testing_Results_Highlights_FINAL.pdf) I wonder if maybe a variety of species that might in the past have been sold as different varieties are actually being lumped together into a single “brand”. Like in the past maybe there was a pile of flounder and a pile of sole and a pile of plaice but now they’re just all lumped together as “lemon sole” because that’s the name people know (and will pay a premium for).