What are you eating?

[Animeniax]

I bought fresh white fish (tilapia) to make dinner with and surprisingly the meal didn't taste as good as the fish I usually buy in the frozen multi-pack. The fresh fish cost about 3 times as much as the frozen ones, and the main reason I bought fresh was because they are sourced from somewhere other than China, which supplies the frozen fish.

It's weird but the problem was that the meal tasted too fishy with the fresh fish, which over-powered the flavors of the tomatoes, olives, capers, white wine, and butter sauce. I'll probably go back to the frozen fish sourced from China. If I'm going to die, might as well enjoy it before I go.

[shinta|hikari]

It's probably because the fresh fish you bought was not really fresh. The fishy smell and taste gets stronger the longer the fish is dead before cooking.

Try using a recipe with ginger. It should remove that fishy aspect. I just had a baked whole tilapia (in aluminum foil) stuffed with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and lots of ginger, it was awesome.

[Animeniax]

Ahh that makes sense. It was probably frozen and thawed before it was put on display at the fish counter. It sucks being in a central land-locked location where everything has to be frozen. I miss living near a coast.

I made this dish specifically to use up some olives and capers I bought for another dish. I'll find one that uses ginger, thanks for the suggestion.

[Buffalobiian]

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to use the term "fresh" to describe any food that's been frozen.

[Animeniax]

I think I've seen food advertised as "fresh, previously frozen" but yeah it sounds like a contradiction. Maybe I'm mistaken and it's not labeled as fresh at the counter, it's just thawed and not packaged, so I assumed it was sold "fresh".

About the frozen tilapia, I thought maybe it tasted better because the fish has so little fish flavor so the taste of the sauce and veggies stands out more. With the fish I used, the fish flavor dominated for the worse.

[shinta|hikari]

Tilapia does not have a strong flavor. If it managed to overpower your seasonings, there is something strange going on there. It might have been spoiled, or almost there.

[Animeniax]

Damn, that sucks. It's the first time I've bought "fresh" tilapia filets instead of frozen. I got it from an HEB (superstore grocer only in Texas) in a small town because it's near where I work. I'll stick to buying fish from the larger stores in the city.

[Buffalobiian]

If you're landlocked, you might simply have better luck with frozen foods since they're frozen while they're fresh. Frozen veges are pretty good as long as you microwave them (without adding water) instead of boiling them. Even then they're not bad.

If it's the place of origin you're worried about though, then that's a different matter then. There was a segment on TV the other week about how imported vegetables don't have the same stringent chemical-banning standards as Australian grown vegetables, thus making Aussie produce cost more and reducing our competitiveness. It's pretty BS to have such double standards.

[Animeniax]

I don't mind frozen seafood but all the frozen tilapia I've checked originated in China, versus the "fresh" fish which supposedly came from Mexico.

I've never cared that much about where my food comes from, but I'm trying to be more aware. I'm not a big anti-Chinese products person, but I draw the line at food and prefer to buy food sourced from other countries. Of course, you can't trust food from a lot of places (like Vietnam) and it's hard to tell what countries have stringent standards and how strictly they are followed. Even in the US, only a small fraction of food products are checked by the FDA, and large scale checks are performed only after a lot of people get sick.

[Animeniax]

Update on the fish... I reheated leftovers in the microwave and the dish is amazing again. I wonder that maybe I didn't cook it long enough, as the recipe says to bake it in the oven for 8 minutes, but this gas oven I use is notoriously bad at maintaining temperature. So buying "fresh" was worth it after all, as it does taste better (flakier, better texture) than frozen.