# Seafood
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 5, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342 "2015-05-05T23:16:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/41 "2015-05-06T06:04:12Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Oysters have such a strong flavor that they’re one of the few bits of seafood I dislike…
To me, oysters taste like mineral rather than animal. I would liken the experience to licking a seaweedy rock at mid tide.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/42 "2015-05-06T06:35:22Z")
> [@Potestas](#):
>
> Now as ive thought more about it the more curious ive gotten about seafood
Well, what are you waiting for? Get thee to a good restaurant that serves good seafood and try some!
If you want to try this real slow, consider this: Go to an all-you-can-eat buffet style restaurant (like Hometown Buffet or whatever you have in your area). They will have dozens of different things you can pile on your plate, so you won’t have to go home hungry. They will almost always have some kind of cooked white fish. So you can just take a small piece to nibble, while you pile plenty of other stuff on your plate.
Now this type of fish has a somewhat “fishy” but very mild flavor. So you will get a sense of what this “fishy” taste is that everybody talks about but even if you aren’t used to it, it won’t gag you. It is usually sauteed in butter or margarine and may have some pepper or lemon on it.
Of course, there’s no guarantee what you’ll find in your restaurant, but that is a common type.
Then, for a real fishy treat, go to a really good seafood restaurant and order the salmon, trout, or mahi-mahi. These are the _really_ good stuffs. Properly prepared, they are soft and juicy and kind of sweetish tasting.
Be warned: Fish come with a zillion teeny tiny sharp bones. If you carefully remove the spine, most of the tiny bones will come out with it. That is all done in the kitchen before it is served to you (usually). But it is very common for a few teeny tiny sharp bones to remain, and you have to watch out for them.
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### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/43 "2015-05-06T15:55:33Z")
Don’t accuse people of trolling in this forum, no matter how subtly you choose to do it.
No warning issued.
> [@zombywoof](#):
>
> Methinks the OP is [fishing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolling_%28fishing%29).
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### Author:  [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/44 "2015-05-06T16:20:17Z")
I never liked seafood myself until my late 20s. For some reason, I decided to try a salmon filet in dill butter while at a nice restaurant. I got hooked (no pun intended). Now I love almost all seafood, salmon in particular, and hardly ever eat red meat anymore. Still don’t care for calamari or oysters, though.
> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> Oysters (at least the fresh New England varieties) taste mostly like seawater to me even if eaten straight. With lemon, and Tabasco, they taste well…like seawater, lemon and Tabasco. I loved them even as a child but they were mainly just a vehicle to put tasty condiments down my gullet.
This made me think of an anecdote I read in an interview with the late cartoonist C.C. Beck. He said that he was in a restaurant with a friend and ordered a bowl of oyster soup. His friend remarked that he didn’t know Beck was so fond of oysters. “I’m not,” Beck replied, “but I like hot milk with butter and salt. In our society, the only way you can get that without people thinking you’re crazy is to order it with oysters in it. So I tolerate the oysters.”
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/45 "2015-05-06T17:19:18Z")
Most fish will not take on the flavor of what it’s cooked in, other than superficially. Whatever is on or around fish is usually there to complement, not change, the taste of the fish. One of the few exceptions are scallops; simmer in sherry and you get sherry-flavored scallops.
Overcooked seafood is criminal, by the way.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/46 "2015-05-06T17:40:54Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> Start out with small steps. Go to McDonalds and have a Filet-o-Fish sandwich. If it makes you barf, you’ve only wasted $5.00
Yeah, I like seafood, but that makes me nauseous.😛
Try fish sticks, fish & chips, fried & breaded shrimp.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/47 "2015-05-06T18:19:20Z")
If you want to cook your own fish but don’t like “fishy” fish, look for pollock or swai. Both of these are farmed, which makes them cheap and both are just about as flavorless as you can hope for. Pollock, in particular, is used as a base protein for making other products such as surimi, aka “krazy krab.” Tilapia is also pretty mild-mannered and inoffensive.
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### Author:  [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/48 "2015-05-06T18:45:29Z")
Aaaaaah, seafood. How do I love thee? Many, many ways.
Seriously, though, I love seafood, fresh water, salt water, crustacean or finned. If I were to be needing a condemned man’s last meal, it would have to be a seafood platter.
The key thing to remember if you are new to seafood is that the texture will be very different from land proteins. And also, each type of seafood will have a texture different from the others.
I disgree with the McDonald’s recommendation. Go to the best restaurant you can afford and ask the waiter for the mildest fish dish they prepare. The fresher and more expertly the seafood is prepared, the better it tastes. Get the good stuff!
The only seafood that puts me off are oysters and caviar. Oysters are fine if properly cleaned out, but if they still have sand inside them, they are gritty and unappetising. And caviar…love the saltiness, but HATE the mucus-like texture.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/49 "2015-05-06T18:57:10Z")
I’m not sure that recommending mild seafood is the best way to go. If someone had never tried dessert before, would you recommend they start with tapioca? Would you recommend the vegetarian-curious to start with a block of tofu?
After being vegetarian for all my adolescence, I finally decided to start eating fish again at twenty, and my first foray into that big wide world was wild Pacific salmon barbecued Makah-style by standing the whole fillets on sticks facing an open bonfire made from aromatic woods.
It was not mild. It was transcendent, among the best meals of my life.
I make no claims about the sincerity of the OP, but even setting that aside, it’s an interesting question what you’d recommend to a seafood novice. I’d go for something specacular over something bland: wild Pacific salmon, fresh shrimp, scallops fried in butter and lemon, tuna tataki, or the like.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/50 "2015-05-06T19:11:16Z")
> [@stillownedbysetters](#):
>
> I disgree with the McDonald’s recommendation. Go to the best restaurant you can afford and ask the waiter for the mildest fish dish they prepare. The fresher and more expertly the seafood is prepared, the better it tastes. Get the good stuff!
I had written out a whole screed about filet-o-fishlikesubstance and the like, but didn’t want to start a war. Short version: I agree.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/51 "2015-05-06T19:17:16Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> I had written out a whole screed about filet-o-fishlikesubstance and the like, but didn’t want to start a war. Short version: I agree.
Yep.
Hey, we use “seafood” to refer to fish, shellfish, etc, but what are trout then?
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/52 "2015-05-06T19:23:33Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> Start out with small steps. Go to McDonalds and have a Filet-o-Fish sandwich. If it makes you barf, you’ve only wasted $5.00
For about that same price, go to any Catholic parish dinner during Lent and you will get much better seafood, prepared better.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/53 "2015-05-06T19:51:25Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Yep.
>
> Hey, we use “seafood” to refer to fish, shellfish, etc, but what are trout then?
Freshwater fish.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/54 "2015-05-06T20:01:17Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> Freshwater fish.
Trout is also ‘seafood’ in popular terminology. If someone says that they will not eat any seafood, would you say, 'Don’t worry, we are having trout."?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/55 "2015-05-06T20:22:43Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> Trout is also ‘seafood’ in popular terminology. If someone says that they will not eat any seafood, would you say, 'Don’t worry, we are having trout."?
Right. If you look at a menu, freshwater fish are usually lumped as “seafood”. Or, shrimp are lumped as 'fish".
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/56 "2015-05-06T20:31:53Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> Trout is also ‘seafood’ in popular terminology. If someone says that they will not eat any seafood, would you say, 'Don’t worry, we are having trout."?
No I wouldn’t because trout isn’t seafood.
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Right. If you look at a menu, freshwater fish are usually lumped as “seafood”. Or, shrimp are lumped as 'fish".
The only reason this is done is so restaurants can save money on menus and not to have a billion categories of food listed.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/57 "2015-05-06T20:38:53Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#):
>
> No I wouldn’t because trout isn’t seafood.
>
> The only reason this is done is so restaurants can save money on menus and not to have a billion categories of food listed.
Noun 1. seafood - edible fish (broadly including freshwater fish) or shellfish or roe
> **[seafood](https://www.thefreedictionary.com/seafood)**
>
> Definition, Synonyms, Translations of seafood by The Free Dictionary
Seafood
abalone, anchovy, Balmain bug (Austral.), barramundi, bass, blackfish, bloater, blue cod, bonito, bream, brill, butterfish, callop, carp, catfish, clam, clappy-doo or clabby-doo (Scot.), cockle, coalfish or saithe, cockle, cod, codling, crab, crayfish or crawfish, dab, dogfish, dorado, Dover sole, Dublin Bay prawn, eel, flounder, gemfish, grayling, Greenland halibut, haddock, hake, halibut, herring, huss, jewfish, John Dory, kahawai or Australian salmon, kingfish, king prawn, kipper, langoustine, lemon sole, ling, lobster, lumpfish, mackerel, marron, megrim, monkfish, Moreton Bay bug (Austral.), morwong, mullet, mulloway, mussel, nannygai, Norway lobster, octopus, oyster, parrotfish, perch, pike, pilchard, pipi, plaice, pollack, pomfret, pout, prawn, queenie or queen scallop, rainbow trout, redfish, red snapper, roach, rockfish, salmon, sardine, scallop or scollop, sea cucumber, shad, shark, shrimp, sild, skate, skipjack tuna, snapper, snoek, snook, sockeye or red salmon, sole, sprat, squid, swordfish, tarakihi or terakihi, teraglin, tiger prawn, tilefish, trevally (Austral. & N.Z.), **trout** , tuna or tunny, turbot, wahoo, whelk, whitebait, whiting, winkle, witch, wolffish, yabby or yabbie (Austral.), yellow belly (Austral.), zander
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/58 "2015-05-06T20:40:02Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#):
>
> No I wouldn’t because trout isn’t seafood.
>
> The only reason this is done is so restaurants can save money on menus and not to have a billion categories of food listed.
Historically, before modern ideas of taxonomy were invented, any animal life forms living in the sea was called “fish”, including starfish, shellfish, crabs, lobsters, dolphins and whales. Freshwater fish were called “fish” because they were obviously so similar to sea fish.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/59 "2015-05-06T20:43:35Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Historically, before modern ideas of taxonomy were invented, any animal life forms living in the sea was called “fish”, including starfish, shellfish, crabs, lobsters, dolphins and whales. Freshwater fish were called “fish” because they were obviously so similar to sea fish.
Yes, and in fact in quite a few fish- the freshwater and salt water are the same species. Trout and Steelhead for example. Salmon.
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### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seafood/719342/60 "2015-05-06T21:10:03Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#):
>
> **Shag** , I like you so I’m not gonna tell the story about the time I had caviar _and_ Rocky Mountain oysters. In fact, even now I’m not sure I can talk about it.
That took some balls.
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