Did You Guess The Fish?
November 18, 2006 – 7:36 amOf the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of responses to my ichthyological quiz, not one contained the correct answer. This is hardly shocking. In America the species is more commonly encountered as a filet, either on a plate or sealed and frozen in plastic. I’m not a big fan of food that comes to the kitchen in plastic, and ordinarily I’ll tell you that meat, fish and poultry have a better flavor when cooked on the bone.
I’d probably say the same thing about tilapia if it wasn’t such an unremarkable fish, or as common as the muck it chooses to dwell in. Like catfish and carp, the tilapia is a bottom feeder, preferring to dine on aquatic plants and the random detritus that settles on the floor of its watery abode. This is why the natural flavor of wild tilapia is like… well, like bottom. That said, unless you find tilapia that has been farm-raised on a diet of nutty, high-quality grain like quinoa or amaranth in the most pristine freshwater environment available (good luck with that), I will tell you that tilapia only tastes as good as that with which you season it. The sour, salty and spicy marinades and sauces of southeast Asia come to mind as ideal cover-ups for its mildly brackish flavor. Anything’s better than nothing, and the tilapia specials you find in American restaurants are often blanketed with just about anything - basil pesto, nut encrustments, bread crumbs, the ubiquitous Cajun blackening, etc.
“What’s the fish special tonight?” inquires the head waiter.
The chef de poisson whips back, “I’m in the middle of something right now. Can you ask me in five minutes?”
“No dice. We’re open in five minutes, and I need to write it on the board.”
“Aw geez, I don’t know. Broiled tilapia with pesto and roasted peppers,” he decides, then says to the prep cook, “Hey, Manuel, pull thirty tilapia filets from the freezer and get ‘em under water, please. Leave ‘em in the plastic, I’ll open them to order.”
Tilapia is definitely comparable in flavor and texture to catfish, yet milder and more delicate in most cases. So, if you know and love catfish, you’re automatically a Tilapiaficionado. It’s not a bad fish, per se; it’s merely a whatever fish. For this reason, the whole specimen I bought for our little quiz was also ideal for the whatever dinner I prepared: Whole tilapia grilled with LOTS of extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, lemon juice and pepper, chaperoned by curly kale braised in the same with sweet onions and fresh garlic. The verdict: Whatever. I found the kale far more interesting.
