A fishmonger's stall:
In THE BATTLE OF THE COLD BEVERAGE, surprisingly (at least for me) iced tea won, with water, cola, Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew and fruit juice coming next in the poll.
Now it's the turn of fish to do battle. This poll is about different types of fish. It's not about different kinds of fish dishes (eg fish pie, fish salad, fish soup, fish stew) nor about different ways of cooking fish (eg baked fish, fried fish, grilled fish, poached fish)
There are a few dishes, such as McDonald's Filet-O-Fish, fish cakes, fish fingers/goujons, fish fritters, sushi and whitebait, in which any type or a mix of fish can be used in their making. These are also excluded from this poll.
Though this poll was slightly easier to compile than I first envisaged, it was still difficult because there's a lot of fish in the sea (and the lake and river). Also the same fish often have different names.
Moreover, people tend to eat fish that's locally caught. It isn't easy deciding what are likely to be the most popular fish in the poll but, because of the audience here, I've largely selected fish that are hopefully popular to eat in North America and, to a lesser extent, in Western Europe.
Furthermore, many types of fish are very much inter-related. It isn't easy deciding whether a fish is a bass, bream, carp, cod, hake, herring, perch, pike, salmon or sole!
I like most fish provided they're served up filleted and headless on my plate - I don't want a fish's beady eye looking at me while I'm eating its body!
But my favourite fish to eat are anchovy (especially as a pizza topping or in a salad), brisling (who doesn't like skippers on toast?), captain fish, cod, Dover sole, halibut, mackerel, plaice, salmon, tuna and turbot, with haddock being the fish I most want to eat. At fish and chip shops here, my go-to order is haddock, chips and mushy peas. I particularly like smoked haddock, in fact I like any fish smoked. Arbroath smokies, smoked haddock, are divine. There's a Scottish soup, called cullen skink, usually made from smoked haddock, potatoes and onions (often with cream added). It's a delicious breakfast treat and can be found on the menus of most reputable hotels here.
Arbroath smokies:
My least favourite fish are herring (especially rollmops, rolled-up pickled herring fillets), sardines/pilchards, skate and sturgeon's caviar, with Bombay duck being the fish I most don't want to eat. Bombay duck isn't a type of duck; it's a type of lizardfish. It was once a popular dish on the menus of many Indian restaurants here. A slang term for Bombay duck is bummalo and I attest, despite looking harmless on a plate, that it probably tastes very much like what is excreted from the word comprising the first three letters of that slang term! At best, Bombay duck is definitely an acquired taste.
Though there are few fish I've eaten that I don't like, there's no way I'd eat blowfish or eels. Blowfish, also called pufferfish, is potentially a fatally poisonous fish if eaten. But it's a delicacy in Japan, though its chefs have to be trained and licensed to serve up fugu, the Japanese term for blowfish. A handful of Japanese people die each year from eating fugu!
Also I'm not at all tempted to eat eels. I used to live in the East End of London where jellied eels were and still are a delicacy. There's no way I'm going to eat cold boiled eels set in a jellied spicy stock. I'll leave that for the Cockneys to eat!
What are your most and least favourite fish to eat?
How regularly do you eat fish?
How accomplished are you at preparing and cooking a fish?
Have you ever eaten a fish that you've caught?
Generally I eat fish once a week or at least once a fortnight. I love eating fish; it's healthy and tasty food. I can cook fish but I'm not particularly accomplished at preparing fish to be cooked if it needs filleting. However, I regard myself as an expert in cooking fish fingers!
I've never eaten fish I've caught. The fish I caught were always thrown back into the water. But after catching one fish and having difficulties removing a hook's barb from the fish's mouth I decide to quit fishing. I liked fishing until I caught a fish!
Below is a poll where you can anonymously select your most favourite fish. Unfortunately only one pick is allowed in the poll.
A poll on this site can only have a maximum of 20 answer options. There was unfortunately no room as poll options for: arapaima (aka pirarucu), Arctic char, barracouta (aka snoek), barracuda, barramundi (aka Asian sea bass or giant sea perch), basa, blowfish (aka balloonfish, fugu or pufferfish), blue marlin, blue warehou (aka common warehou), bowfin, bream, brill, brisling (aka skippers), butterfish, captain fish, carp (aka koi), chub (aka common/European chub ), cobia, coley (aka saithe), crappie, crevalle jack (aka black cavalli, black-tailed trevally or common jack), doctor fish (aka garra rufa), dogfish (aka dog shark), drum (aka croaker), eel, escolar (aka oilfish or snake mackerel), flathead, galjoen (aka black bream or blackfish), grayling, grouper, hake, halibut, hoki (aka blue grenadier or New Zealand whiptail), John Dory (aka Peter's fish or St Pierre), lamprey, lemon sole, ling (aka common ling or white ling), lingcod, lizardfish (eg Bombay duck), milkfish, moi (aka six-fingered threadfin or yellowthread threadfin), monkfish, muskellunge (aka lunge, muskie or ski), opah (aka cowfish, kingfish, moonfish or sunfish), orange roughy (aka deep sea perch, red roughy or slimehead), parrotfish, pike, plaice, pompano, rock cod, round scad (aka cigar minnow), sablefish (aka butterfish or black/blue/coal cod), scup, sea bream, shad, shark, sheepshead (aka convict fish), silver redhorse, skate, smelt, snapper, sole (eg Dover sole), sturgeon (eg caviar), swordfish (aka broadbill), tilefish, wahoo (aka hoo or ono), whitefish, whiting, wolffish (aka sea wolf or wolf eel) and yellowtail (aka Japanese amberjack).
I think salmon will just edge out tuna to win the poll. But bass, catfish and cod may fare well in the poll.
Please see the first comment below to see what has won each battle of the food and drinks so far.
Bombay duck:
12
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