Why is fish so expensive at Restaurants?

My Filet O'Fish is reasonable

Ewwww

I get a Filet o Fish on Fridays.

Tilapia is one of the biggest con jobs hoisted on the public. It's a trash fish that literally tastes like dirt, but because it's white and flaky people think they're getting something good. We can thank unsustainable overfishing practices for this, and probably thank Japan in particular.

If you're still eating seafood these days, you may as well just take up smoking.

It's fucking toxic as hell.

Agree w r5. Everyone should quit eating fish, period, and let the sea repopulate itself.

The SJWs have infected another good thread

Fishing is more labor intensive and there's less control over production compared to other animal products.

It also has a shorter shelf life.

True

I love tilapia -- blackened, it's delicious! In fact, I'm about to fry some now.

If you're going to eat "trash fish," you may as well give it a lofty name, such as Chilean Sea Bass.

My former bf and his family used to eat tilapia all the time so I consider it a third world meal. I've been shocked several times when I've seen st restaurants try to gourmet it up and charge ridiculous prices. My ex bf was great by the way but I'll be bitter about our break up for the rest of my life.

He dumped you for liking crabmeat, r12?

Last season on Top Chef they had a trash fish challenge. One of the fish looked disgusting, the flesh was dark red and Padma said it tasted like blood.

The production of beef, pork and chicken is subsidized by the US Government to keep prices artificially low. Fish is not, so the prices are allowed to seek their own, much higher levels.

That said, I agree with everyone else here - tilapia is a load of crap, literally

Tilapia is even bad for you.

I don't eat farmed fish, and that includes tilapia. The only exception are the well-managed beds that are growing oysters and other shellfish.

Farmed fish is bad

OK -- so what fish should I be eating -- that I can afford?

There is nothing better than fried catfish. Nothing.

I love blackened catfish! Perhaps, now that I'm back in FL, I should learn how to fish (yuck!).

[qute]Farmed fish is bad

Are there links to anyone being harmed by farmed fish, or is this more food hysteria, so popular nowadays?

How about sway?

Tilapia has no flavor at all. I love Salmon. I grill it over Charcoal when it's warm and in the oven with a sprinkling of granulated garlic, S & P. Delicious. And it's not all that expensive when you make it yourself.

I don't like salmon because I only like mild white flaky fish. Salmon is too fishy strong tasting

Yeah, why is farmed fish bad?

I'd rather have farmed fish than fish caught in the radioactive Pacific.

Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

^^ Is it because they are farmed? Or is that a tilapia thing?

Tilapia just doesn't taste good. It has a bitter, dirty aftertaste. Really not appetizing at all, if I ever order fish tacos and it has tilapia I really have to bury them in salsa to kill the nasty tilapia taste. Some frauey recipe sites suggest soaking it in buttermilk but I doubt that really works and anyway it sounds disgusting.

My understanding is that farmed fish tend to be bad fatty and live in gross waters

At least they are not swimming around in liquid plutonium.

I should think that with fish farms there's more control over what toxins get into it. Not so with seawater.

On the other hand there's more of seawater so I imagine there's more dilution of whatever poisons we are putting on it.

On the other other hand, fish farms of a certain size should maintain its own ecosystem that cleanses.

Farmed fish swim in their own feces and urine, resulting in high ammonia levels.

Try cobia; delicious and mild

"Why is she so proud of tilapia? It's like the cheapest fish!"

Simple economics--supply and demand.

I'd never heard of this "fish" before moving to the US. To me, cheap white fish was always cod or haddock, fresh from the ocean.

Cod is not cheap fish!

Cod is okay

R7 I resent you calling this a good thread

Cod used to be cheap, usually battered and fried, served as fast food in a newspaper. Not in the US of course where anything half decent is seen as a delicacy.

I can't eat tilapia ever since I went to the Salton Sea and the beach there was paved with putrid reeking tilapia.

r43 Tilapia is disgusting now that I've seen the documentary "Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea."

Talapia was delicious when it was fished from the sea. But it was so good and became so popular so fast the it was over fished and they had to put a ban on fishing it which is why it is now farm raised. I won't eat anything farm raised either. If it isn't wild caught I don't eat it.

Farm raised fish is horrible. I'll eat farm raised bio shrimp and small shellfish, however.

Farm raised fish is loaded with feces. Hence the need for tons of antibiotics.

Shrimp cocktails served in Las Vegas are from shrimp farmed in the desert in converted sea containers. Bon Appetit.

Jesus, what a sad thread. Farmed fish = no nutrients, full of shit; wild caught fish= tons of pollutants that will kill you.

Wow, I thought it was all healthier than beef and pork. Fuck me.

nothing is healthy, we have polluted everything.

Even the ocean is messed up now

Hawaiian here. In Hawaii, look in the nastiest, muddiest, most sewage-infested puddle and you will find a Tilapia. They are everywhere. Like rats. They hang out in front of the sewer holes in the sides of boats in the marina and when you flush the toilet, voila, dinner!

I have never tasted Tilapia and I never will.

If you want to do a major cultural faux pas and get laughed at by everybody, go to a fish market in Hawaii and ask if they have any fresh Tilapia.

Is Erna having to pinch her pennies again? Is that why she's worried about the cost of fish?

Tilapia is also very "fibery" I've found.

Costco has the most delicious Panka breaded Cod fillets in the world. A box of them is about $12

Like most metals, the price of mercury has skyrocketed.

A long while ago, IIRC, I read that some of the chemicals then in use for fish farming were not tested enough. If the tilapia is imported from China, do we even know what chemicals are in use? There was a segment on one of the news shows that showed Chinese women injecting shrimp with chemicals that no one knew the safety of or even what the chemical was. The chemical was supposed to keep the fish plump and fresh looking.

Correction: The chemical was supposed to keep the SHRIMP plump and fresh looking.

Food is tainted

Bait and Switch: That Fish Dinner May Not Be What You Ordered

Well, anything that allows me to keep enjoying a a nice pink steak at the expense of self-righteous "pescatarians,"... I am all for it

I wanna be a pescatarian

You'll have to grow dreads, R62 and worship Highly Salacious.

Bonefish Grill is reasonable

I have no idea what tilapia is. I've never heard of it here and I can't think of a fish I've eaten that tastes how you guys are describing.

Our common fish at a fish and chip shop is flake (generally gummy shark), whiting and blue grenadier.

Restaurants tend to serve salmon. Australians love prawns, oysters, crayfish (saltwater Lobster to my American friends) and bugs as much as fish. Seafood here is around the same cost per kg as prime cuts of other meat.

I was never a big fish eater to start with. But farmed fish is notoriously bad for you for all the reasons cited in the previous posts. And wild fish, pulled from highly radioactive water is frightening to me.

It's amazing that a lot of people aren't connecting the dots between all Fukushima and the impact on our seafood. I think the government and fish industry are staying mute on this score so as not to incite mass hysteria and panic.

Here's a link on the topic: Fukushima Update - The Pacific Ocean is Dying.

Tilapia sashimi!

You realize all your fears about farmed fish is also true about beef , pork and poultry.

Talapia is everywhere except the finest restaurants

Tiliapia is the worst shit. You'd be better off eating a burger.

[quote]You realize all your fears about farmed fish is also true about beef , pork and poultry.

I will not eat farmed beef, port or poultry either. Only wild caught.

Because it's a RESTAURANT!

A big bag of Gorton's Crispy Battered FIshsticks cost me only $5.39 at Lucky's!

R71.

Is canned tuna still a problem to eat?

Fish is one of the easiest things to make yourself. I buy bags of frozen raw fish fillets, whatever's cheapest. It's usually about $2.50 a serving. Just thaw, season, and broil until it's just the way you like it.

It orders à la carte and never from the prix fixe menu.

Great question

R74 - I thought the tuna that was the biggest concern was tuna from the Mediterranean because of the mercury.

Because she won’t give you any if she thinks you’re poor.

Some like seafood, while others prefer chicken.

Everything in the US is bad for you. Even coke has high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar. If you’ve never been outside the US you won’t know what real bread tastes like. Or chicken.

Tilapia is nasty. On a similar thread about one's favourite fish, surprised how many posters claim it as their fave! At restaurants a few times, assuming I would be getting Cod, I have ended up with Tilapia for fish & chip specials. Most disappointing. I agree fully with those here that the fish is no longer a healthy option, but still choose to eat in anyway because I enjoy it. It's not just Fukuishima and radiation though, it's microplastics and illegal antibiotics. All the oil spills cannot be completely harmless either. I try to limit myself now.

I Lurves Moi some King 👑 🦀

[quote]OK -- so what fish should I be eating -- that I can afford?

clams, mussels

they help the environment

Tilapia is unhealthy. Avoid it.

IIRC, tilapia is considered environmentally sound because it doesn't feed on other species. Survives on plankton or something. So it's at the bottom of the food chain. Problems arise from that: incomplete nutritional value, poor taste.

Fresh fish like salmon do not have an odour to it. If it smells fishy, it’s old. Same as with any seafood.

Fish farms use antibiotic shit in their pens, which also have a tendency to bust open from time to time, interacting with real fish. Worse, on the west coast, there are east coast fish being raised on fish farms. They do not belong in the same ocean together. Worms, parasites and diseases are introduced to natural stocks.

Fish stocks have been overfished with not enough fisheries people monitoring and charging people. Can’t say how many times, well every time I’ve gone on a fishing trip people come in with undersized fish. They think they’re smart by cutting the head and tail off first.

Haddock is not at all,healthy to eat, btw. It’s usually served in el cheapo fish n chip places. Haddock draws nutrition out of the human body and depletes certain things if eaten. It’s a poor man’s halibut. Cod has been nearly obliterated in western Canada now. Overfishing by greedy commercial fisherman that thump their chests and declare they have a family to feed. I despise them because they also sit on and qualify for Unemployment Insurance income for the other 8 months of the year.

I no longer like salmon. It’s too fishy or strong tasting for me. I like very mild, flaky white fish.

Fish or meat raised in the U.S. is just nasty: it's ok to feed American-raised animals manure, including chicken shit. I think I would have to be a vegetarian if I lived there.

Tilapia was fresh caught until red Lobster sold so much they had to stop. Then they started raising them on farms. Tilapia was different and it was delicious. I won't touch it now but I don't touch any seafood raised on a farm

How about sway?

Flounder is too dry

I hardly ever eat fish except at places that specialize in seafood and fish, often lakeside or seaside places known for good fresh fish.

Just like they say don't order a steak at the restaurant known for pasta, or don't order pasta or fish at a famous steakhouse, I do t get it when people go to a seafood restaurant and order a cheeseburger.

tilapia is fish for people who don't like fish. it's flavorless and only gets its flavor from whatever you put on it or cook it in. someunscruplous restaurants will cut tilapia to look like bay scallops. it's not bad for you necessarily it just has zero nutritional value.

The only fish you should be eating is Atlantic right now (yes because of fukishima). Also when you buy frozen fish read the label carefully, it may say packaged in the US or Europe or Canada but often it's a product of Asia and farmed. Avoid Asian farmed fish.

Can I have eels yet?

Farmed mussels are nothing like the kind gathered at the beach in New England. The farm raised ones lack color and flavor. They don't even look the same.

I am sick of tilapia

Exactly what R50 said. I cut down on meat and processed foods and have tried to consume more of a plant based diet, but then I read this article, and now I'm thinking....geez! What the hell CAN people eat that won't poison them??

What about shellfish - clams, shrimp, scallops?

Farmed fish are frequently found to be swimming in waters that are dense with fish feces. How appropriate that OP referred to them as 'crappy tilapia' .

This site shows which fish is more "ocean friendly" to get.

Eels boiled in broo

I grew up on the CT coast and ate lots of seafood as a kid - and we were kind of poor. But now I’ll only splurge on the freshly-caught seafood of Montauk and Maine.

I live in NYC and can be reasonably confident in the freshness of the seafood, but usually wait until I can visit a trusted source.

Here in Barcelona, we don’t have fish problems.