Lunker

On May 22, 2:15*pm, wrote:
On Fri, 21 May 2010 23:37:15 -0700 (PDT), DaveS wrote:
On May 21, 9:12*am, wrote:
On Fri, 21 May 2010 00:07:03 -0700 (PDT), DaveS wrote:
On May 20, 8:55*am, rw wrote:
On 5/20/10 8:55 AM, Wayne Harrison wrote:

*wrote

What is your and other's in the group, favorite white meat salt water
fish?

JT

wahoo is my favorite sal****er meatfish for eating...and the catching is
fun too. *not much on freshwater fish, unless someone has a special
seasoning. freshwater fish require seasoning to make them worth the
culinary effort. *dolphin, wahoo, tuna, striped bass...even shark...a bit
of ketchup (heinz only) and i'm good to go!

jeff (a friend has discovered blowfish as tasty too)

sal****er, for me: *wahoo; dolphin; puppy drum; tuna; flounder (fully
skinned). *oh, and pompano, if they are really big.

freshwater: *rainbows, if cooked stream side within an hour of their
catching. *skillet, salt'pep, butter. *otherwise, no thanks.

yfitp
wayno

One time years ago in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota we caught, in one
day, walleye, pike, smallmouth bass, and huge pumpkinseed sunfish and we
had a cook off. The order of preference was pike, walleye, sunfish, bass.

My favorite sushi is yellowtail amberjack (hamachi), followed closely by
toro, the fatty belly meat of bluefin tuna. My favorite cooked sal****er
fish is baked striped bass, but I haven't had it in a long, long time.
Barracuda is surprisingly good.

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Canned smoked Pacific Albacore Toro is wonderful stuff. There is a
couple who work out of Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island, who sell a
hook and line caught Toro under the brand name "Ocean Tuna." They work
a sail assisted deep blue sea tuna troller ("Ocean"). *They specialize
in sashimi grade Albacore and smoked Toro.

Dave

I've never tried it, so I can't and won't knock it, but it sounds, well, "odd."
And not only because I've never even heard of Albacore "Toro" used in "sushi".
And for the picky, I'm using "sushi,""toro" and "maguro" as they are most
commonly used in the US without getting into the minutiae of "ahi" versus
"maguro," the variants of "toro," nigiri, sashimi, etc. save for one point - are
you considering "toro" as more of a cut (from the belly) or as _toro_ (again
without the individual "grades" therein)? *I assume the former - AFAIK/IME,
technically, "toro" is bluefin. *I don't know if it is limited to Pacific
bluefin or can be all bluefin.

*Have you had fresh "toro" (not merely "tuna" in an average sushi bar, often
called "maguro" and/or "ahi")? *To me, a big part of the appeal of actual toro
is the almost "creamy" texture of it raw (esp. if the place/chef in question
further separates into the "grades" of toro). *Again, I can't speak from
experience, but I'd think that smoking it would result in greatly changing the
texture/mouth feel and while it might still be discernable from smoked loin, the
difference would be much reduced - ???

Have you had/compared the four permutations of this - "regular" tuna (maguro),
both raw and smoked and the "toro" both raw and smoked? *How about from the same
fish (either literally the same fish or just the same type)? *I've had smoked
tuna, both done by others as well as what we've caught and prepared, and I like
it, but it has been loin, what you are likely to get as "maguro" or "ahi" in
most sushi places in the US that I've been (and I've been to a fair number
across the US).

TC,
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Well your comments and knowledge on this are way out of my experience
or knowledge range. On the sushi front its been years since I
regularly indulged in restaurant sushi in either the "we got the
contract so lets raise Saki/sushi hell tonite" sense or even the reg
lunch rotation sense. In this area (Pugetopolis) most of the burbs
have places that do sushi, and Seattle has dozens.

The reliables are mostly in the "ID," the International District,
(read Chinatown) next to the downtown financial district.
NOWADAYS . . . I personally rely on Uwajimaya, a huge pan-Asian super
market+ because my knowledgeable shortlist has gone the way of all
things, and frankly I don't go into the City as much anymore. But if I
am in town, its the ID and/or Pike Street Market.

HOWEVER . . . Uwajimaya's is always good, the sushi guys are real, and
the material is first rate. Some of the best IMHO is sushi made from
Northwest specials, like Geoduck clams, but in competent hands, fresh
King salmon, Copper River salmon etc . . . Its all good commissary.

As per Toro . . . Ive had some raw, not often, as sushi, but never
developed any particular knowledge of same. (Smoked Eel was my
favorite) And I cannot offer any comparisons of the canned smoked
albacore I mentioned with others of this type. I just buy it from the
folks who go out and catch it, then can it. I make it into a lite pate
typically, serve it on good crackers (or celery even), with decent
beer, or a nice modest Orvieto or some stock Alice White chardonnay.
Its probably a whole nuther thing fresh.

Dave

Ah. *And for the record, I don't consider myself any sort of sushi expert. *I
enjoy it, particularly because I like as little heat as possible on both fish
and beef - I'd just as soon have both at least VERY rare, if not raw* - and I
got lucky many years ago in that I met and became friends with a Japanese sushi
chef. *I've also spent much more time around sal****er, both fishing it as well
as consuming its bounty, if you will, than anything else, continuing a
long-standing family precedence. *A few other things contributed (I owned a
seafood supply company at one time) to my knowledge. *But all that said, I've
only pursued any knowledge to the point it satisfied my curiosity or business
requirement(s), so I'm well aware that there is much I do not know.

Anyhoo, thanks for the info toro, but I _suspect_, but do not know of
course, that what they are calling "smoked toro" is really just smoked belly
meat from an albacore and if it were raw, it would not be recognizable as _toro_
in the sushi sense. *Hell, if you have regular contact with these folks, I'd be
curious to see what they say about it.

* As an aside, if you are a fan of raw red meat, find an Ethiopian place and try
"kitfo," basically, a spicy "steak tartare" or a "Middle Eastern"/Lebanese
place, try _raw_ kibbe ("kibbe nayyeh" - gen. lamb, but it's good with beef,
too, if not "traditional," for whatever that means nowadays...).

As to recipes with smoked tuna, we typically make a spread/pate of it, too - a
mix of _light_ "Philly" cream cheese (Neufchatel cheese), Creole cream cheese
(you'll either have to make it or sub creme fraiche as you're not likely to find
the former), a little real mayo (homemade if available/time), some Tony's
(Chachere's) Creole seasoning (or Old Bay) and whatever herbs and spices you
like as well as whatever citrus juice. *It's a pretty standard treatment for
smoked fish down here and even crabmeat and small cooked shrimp. *With the two
latter, canned will work if need be.

TC,
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No, it may be a regional thing. Albacore Toro (Shiro maguro Toro and
Hama (?) Toro) is more common on the West Coast and Japan than you
think. Its from Albacore troll caught off Oregon commonly. Google it
up and I think you might be surprised. I have no idea if this is a
recent thing or what but Albacore Toro is definitly on West Coast
sushi house menues. Maybe Bluefin is getting to rare?

Dave