Tilapia | Imamother

Amarante

Wed, Aug 11 2021, 9:02 pm

I agree with Andrea as tilapia is garbage in terms of the disgusting conditions it is raised in. There is a reason it is cheap.

Real flounder is a delicate fish and you just have to make sure you don’t overcook it as it is a thin fish. Also yuu don’t need heavily flavored sauces.

Last edited by Amarante on Wed, Aug 11 2021, 11:04 pm; edited 1 time in total

etky

Wed, Aug 11 2021, 10:38 pm

Can someone please expand on "garbage fish"? What exactly do you mean?
Tilapia is one of the most common fish in Israel. Like what flounder (which we don't have here) is in the US...

ETA - OP I just noticed your screen name. I think it's the saddest I've seen here on imamother. I see that you joined in 2013, I hope life has been good to you since then...

BadTichelDay

Wed, Aug 11 2021, 11:02 pm

etky wrote:

Tilapias are fish that can eat and thrive on almost any organic matter and don't need good water quality. That means they can - and often are - raised in tiny crowded ponds and fed with waste, like chicken manure or other animal dung from nearby farms.
I think the Israel-raised Tilapia are kept and fed better but the cheap frozen ones are often imported from China ... probably safe to assume the worst.
Having said that, we do eat them occasionally as part of our life on a budget.

Amarante

Wed, Aug 11 2021, 11:07 pm

etky wrote:

As has been posted, it is raised in unsanitary conditions and I would not want to eat it. Frankly it is treif with scales.

Flounder is actually not prevalent in the US unless you go to a quality fishmonger and even then it is an expensive fish. Most wild caught fish are expensive.

etky

Wed, Aug 11 2021, 11:16 pm

BadTichelDay wrote:

I see.
Years ago, all the Tilapia here came from the Kinneret....
So yes, the cheap Tilapia here all comes from China (I've checked all the cheap brands) as do some other types of frozen fish.
In general I try to avoid food imported from China and check the labels of what I buy in order to avoid it - for the reason that I don't trust the health/hygiene standards of their food industry (and this was way before Corona..).
I also used to make an occasional exception for Tilapia because the Israeli ones are so much more expensive and the fish is clean and packaged aesthetically and tastes good.
I did not know about the specific raising conditions of Tilapia.
My father - who lives next door to us and eats with us on Shabbat, has refused to touch the Chinese sourced Tilapia since Corona started and hence I have not been buying it.
Now I have double reason not to Sad

etky

Wed, Aug 11 2021, 11:17 pm

Amarante wrote:

Really?
When I was growing up it was the most ubiquitous fish.
Is this a recent thing?

Amarante

Wed, Aug 11 2021, 11:39 pm

etky wrote:

Really?
When I was growing up it was the most ubiquitous fish.
Is this a recent thing?

It is available but not like tilapia as flounder is a premium fish. So I wouldn’t compare it to tilapia which is like catfish in terms of its price. Not that I am buying or eating catfish either Very Happy

Good fish is actually more expensive than beef. It used to be much less expensive so maybe that is what you are remembering.

But yes at one time flounder was your basic go to everyday fish. But then years ago sea bass was also relatively affordable as well,p.

For clarity, you can find flounder of course but tilapia is very cheap in the US and flounder is more expensive. Also tilapia is generally found in the frozen food section and flounder is sold at fish counters or fish stores.

GLUE

Thu, Aug 12 2021, 12:28 am

etky wrote:

Can someone please expand on "garbage fish"? What exactly do you mean?

Tilapia has been a live saver for many 3rd world countries, you put the fish in sewer water and the water gets clean, you can eat the fish for protein.

In the US the fish are often raised in in door farms not in sewers, don't know about other countries.

etky

Thu, Aug 12 2021, 12:36 am

Amarante wrote:

Interesting. Thanks.
When I was growing up my Mom used to get flounder frozen in these long carton packages.
Tilapia was unknown in the States back then (the seventies...).
We would eat it occasionally when on vacation in Israel, but only in restaurants, where it was either pan-fried or grilled, whole.
It was known as St. Peter's fish (for tourists) or in Hebrew Amnun or Musht (Arabic) and it came from the Kinneret or perhaps they did have some locally farmed fish too back then. I'm not sure.
This was way before China became a major food exporter...

etky

Thu, Aug 12 2021, 12:38 am

GLUE wrote:

Charming.