Can you eat any fish raw? I have a craving for tuna specifically, but it tastes baaaad cooked, and is also full of mercury and is being fished to extinction.
I would like to try the more plentiful, British, indigenous species, in order to protect our seas, and to get some 'o that protein stuff but I don’t want to get parasites in my brain which I saw in an episode of House. Anyone knowledgeable about this? The guy at Waitrose fish counter was not helpful.
The kind of tuna you’ll get in Waitrose will not be the endangered or scarce kind. It’ll probably be skipjack or yellowfin or something like that. Its the bluefin you should avoid.
As for Brit fish, I dunno, but I don’t see why not, as long as its very very very fresh. I’d be hesitant about doing it in Britland, though. Not because of the type of fish or even the freshness, but just because there’s not the tradition of eating raw fish over there so the fishmonger might not really know what’s what.
I would absolutely – but ABSOLUTELY! – not eat raw fish bought from a supermarket. Find a proper, good fishmonger – ask one of your goat cheese-eating friends, they’re bound to know one – and talk to him about what you want.
You could try flatfish – plaice, turbot, sole, that kind of thing. I had some sole sashimi just the other night and it was utterly delicious, some of the nicest I’ve ever tried, and I’m a sashimi addict. The guy arranged it on the dish, then ran a blowtorch over it very briefly just before serving, like they do with scallop sashimi. Tasted like butter. Scallop sashimi. You could try that. Just the white meat, not the coral. Slice them in half lengthways so you get two pieces from each shell. God!
tried trout? rainbow or brown. ocean trout too is used for sashimi, but that’s not your point.
prolly much less mercury, being a river fish. but rivers do have heavy metals of many kinds, unless you know it’s a high mountains small brook.
Hmmm, scallops … mmmm. Flat fish would be nice. You barely cook those things anyway.
It’s difficult - I live nowhere near the sea, dese days. You have to go to the market at London - I was asking my HK pal where her family get the goods from locally and she just snorted and laughed.
While I wouldn’t be trying some slimy salmon tail from Tescos, I just wondered if it was a really stupid thing to experiment with.
If you can get the fish, I would certainly think its worth trying. I just remembered that as well as sole and scallops, I had mackerel sashimi as well. A bit dubious about that one, but it was very fresh (the guy always shows you the actual whole fish he’s serving you) and as it comes with the skin on, it just looked too beautiful to resist. I wasn’t disappointed. As you would expect, really, seeing as its really a type of tuna-thing.
So, sole, scallops, mackerel, maybe a bit of sea bass? That’s a platter right there that would be worthy of making your own wasabi from scratch for.
Mackerel’s a bit hit and miss. it has to be still twitching. Cooked mackerel that’s not absolutely fresh is rank.
No live fish for sale, round these parts.
Will let you know how (if …) it goes.
Went fishing with me Dad a year ago, and I caught a beautiful 30kg yellowfin tuna. Took me 40 minutes to land the bugger, nearly broke my arms, but it was worth it. The skipper of the boat killed it right away and proceeded to make the choicest sashimi cuts from the choicest parts. Right on the boat, right out of the sea. Unbelievable. Ate tuna barbecue for the next three days, but that hunter-morsel was priceless.
You’re right about the mackerel of course. I always lived on the coast and we only ever ate them in the summer when we would catch them off the rocks – we’d never have dreamed of buying them. But if you ever DO find yourself close to a still-twitching mackerel you should definitely give it a try raw.
Tuna, by the way, doesn’t taste bad at all cooked, so long as you cook it right. Right being that you should treat it like steak. You never tried the blackened tuna at Carnegies? It’s really pretty nice.
They do that here, too, on the sportfishing boats. Nummy nummy num-nums!
[quote=“sandman”]You’re right about the mackerel of course. I always lived on the coast and we only ever ate them in the summer when we would catch them off the rocks – we’d never have dreamed of buying them. But if you ever DO find yourself close to a still-twitching mackerel you should definitely give it a try raw.
Tuna, by the way, doesn’t taste bad at all cooked, so long as you cook it right. Right being that you should treat it like steak. You never tried the blackened tuna at Carnegies? It’s really pretty nice.[/quote]
Yeah, I hate it. 
Sorry, I’m just really picky. Didn’t eat meat or fish for fifteen years and only eat it now a couple of times a month. No reason - just pure fussiness. And I don’t like eating cooked food. Yeah, I know I’m a whacko…
[quote=“Buttercup”]Can you eat any fish raw? I have a craving for tuna specifically, but it tastes baaaad cooked, and is also full of mercury and is being fished to extinction.
I would like to try the more plentiful, British, indigenous species, in order to protect our seas, and to get some 'o that protein stuff but I don’t want to get parasites in my brain which I saw in an episode of House. Anyone knowledgeable about this? The guy at Waitrose fish counter was not helpful.[/quote]
My hometown has crap sushi, so I went to a fish market, and asked the guy who fillets the fish for people if they have any sashimi quality cuts. Surprisingly I wasn’t the only one, a lot of people do it on the regular. Got some great salmon. The fish just needs to be same day.