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Wed, 21 Jun 2006

A tale of two fishes

As practically everyone knows by now, there's a problem with the so-called Chilean sea bass, surely the most delicious fish to swim the seas. First of all, it's not really a sea bass; it's actually the Patagonian toothfish, but that's not the problem. The problem is that it has, alas, been badly overfished, and populations have declined to (or near, depending on whom you ask) crisis levels. So we're either supposed to limit (or stop, again depending on whom you ask) our consumption of Chilean sea bass.

The soft, buttery goodness of the Chilean sea bass make it ideal and incredibly versatile. You can grill it, pan-fry it, or bake it, with a simple coating of spices; the surface crisps up to form a tasty crust. It's also delicious in a spicy sauce, like Malaysian santan, or Thai pad prik chili sauce.

From the 1980s through the late '90s it was the darling of chefs in Europe and the United States, until the disturbing issues of overfishing became clear. A number of chefs immediately took it off their menus; others agreed to purchase it only through channels that claimed they were in compliance with a world-wide catch limit. Some ignored the fishery issues and went on serving it. Similarly, some fish markets and grocery stores pulled it, some purchased through the "good" channels, and some continued as before. It's certainly not hard to find, although the price has risen precipitously (in excess of $20/lb. in some places).

I confess I've still been ordering Chilean sea bass in restaurants, and buying and cooking it at home. I went through the same rationalizations that I'm sure all the other sea bass junkies have:

• surely this piece came from a supplier that respects the catch limit;
• well, someone's already caught this fish -- if I don't eat it, someone else will;
• hmmm, this source says the overfishing won't really harm the species until 2008;
• well, it's all going to be gone in 5 years no matter what, so I might as well get it while I can.

I'm lucky enough to have a nearby weekly farmer's market, just a few blocks from my house, that has a good fishmonger. Nearly every week I pick up a piece of fresh fish, rotating among wild salmon, halibut, swordfish, occasional ahi tuna, and... Chilean sea bass. In the cold months I pan-fry it in olive oil with a light coating of seasonings (Cavender's All-Purpose Greek Seasoning is a favorite), or oven-bake it in a combination sauce and marinade said to be Moroccan, involving soy sauce, ketchup, garlic, and curry powder; the list of ingredients looks horrible but the result is sublime. In the summer I coat it with a simple spice rub and throw it on the gas grill. My favorite is one of Tom Douglas's Rubs With Love from Seattle Kitchen; I use the pork rub with fish and it's great. There's also a salmon rub, but it seems to work best only with salmon (and, paradoxically, with pork). The pork rub is a mixture of brown sugar, salt, coriander, cumin, black pepper, smoked paprika, ancho chile powder, and cayenne powder.

Anyway, what this is all leading up to is the fact that last Saturday morning I went down to the fishmonger's, having decided that the two previous fish grills (salmon and halibut) had been somewhat lacking, and it was time for a piece of Chilean sea bass. But it was not to be! They were sold out of sea bass, and the other fish on offer did not appeal. But my fishmonger did not give up on me, and said, "try this!" and pointed to the ice tray next to the sadly bereft one that had held the sea bass. It was labeled "escolar". The name was faintly familiar, perhaps seen on a restaurant specials menu, but I didn't know anything about it.

"If you like sea bass, you'll like it," she said. "Very buttery, very tender, not fishy." So I bought a piece, intending it for Sunday's dinner. Well, that night I went to Winterland, in San Francisco, an account of which will appear here in Berch on Food in the fullness of time, but let's skip ahead to Sunday evening.

I heated up the grill and went to address the escolar. Unwrapped and rinsed, it was firmer than Chilean sea bass, and I noticed it was cut across the grain into a half-steak, with a back and belly portion. It was not at all fishy. I pulled out the Rub With Love, pork edition, and liberally applied it to the escolar, and set it aside.

I'd also bought a bunch of good-looking organic asparagus at the farmer's market, and decided to grill it along with the fish. I rinsed it, broke off the bottom stems at their natural breaking point (a technique I learned from Maggie's mother), and put them on a place where I coated them with olive oil and a mixture of Sardinian herbs from A. G. Ferrari, which if I remember correctly consisted of thyme, rosemary, oregano, and something called "mirto" in Italian (myrtle?).

I cooked the fish for about 8 minutes on high heat, turning twice, and the asparagus for about 5, keeping the stalks rotating on their axes so as not to char or catch fire. The result was very pleasing to the eye. I drizzled the asparagus with some balsamic vinegar, and served it up.

The asparagus was delicious, and the fish was perfect. The spice rub gave it a nice orange-brown tone, with grill marks, and when I bit into it, it was delightfully moist. It did not remind me so much of Chilean sea bass (which is buttery-melty), but more like a very rich halibut, or a cross between swordfish and mackerel, but without the latter's fishiness. It was initially firm to the tooth, but after biting in, it was juicy and not at all chewy.

So, I figured, that was that. I'd found a great replacement for Chilean sea bass, something I could cook at home or order in a restaurant with no guilt, and recommend to others. I figured I'd write a short piece for Berch on Food, and move on. But I wanted to find out what sort of fish escolar really was, what it was related to, where it comes from, and maybe look for a few recipes.

And that's where things turned very weird.

It started with the Wikipedia article, which yielded its species (Lepidocybium flavobrunneum), and described it as a "snake mackerel", found in deep around the world. OK, interesting. And then: "Like its relative the oilfish, Ruvettus pretiosus, the escolar is consumed in several European and Asian countries, as well as in the USA. Neither fish metabolises the wax esters naturally found in their diet, which causes an oil content in the muscle meat of the fish amounting to 18-21%. These wax esters may rapidly cause gastrointestinal symptoms following consumption; however these effects are usually short lived."

Eeee. That was not at all what I was expecting. Well, it could just be what we Wikpedians call "unsourced and unverifiable speculation", but the part about 18-21% indigestible oil was just scientific enough to be disturbing, and I figured I'd better do some research. (And, as you have probably guessed, it was about 3 hours since I'd eaten, and I suddenly, and no doubt psychosomatically, began to feel a little queasy.)

A Google search for "escolar" turned up as its first result a UK Food Standards Agency page noting the mislabeling of escolar as sea bass, and warning that, "if not prepared properly, or if eaten in large quantities, [has] a laxative effect causing cramps and diarrhea.... The symptoms, which may appear with 3-12 hours of eating the fish, include headache, nausea and vomiting. Recovery usually takes 24-48 hours."

Uh oh.

The page went on to refer to a letter issued in 2003 (PDF file, 404KB) citing similar hazards. Some further research turned up a somewhat sensational, but nonetheless informative news story from NBC4 TV in Los Angeles, titled Mystery On The Menu: Could A Popular Dish Make You Sick?, which noted that escolar had been banned by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in 1990, but that the ban had been rescinded on the grounds that it was not actually toxic. It went on to quote a Dr. William Mellon of the L.A. County/USC Medical Center, who said, ""Your body can't metabolize [the wax esters]. They can't be broken down so they remain there in that state. And so your body is going to eliminate them rapidly just like any other kind of roughage. So they will cause some diarrhea."

This was not good at all, even leaving aside the further claim by a 74-year-old tourist to Palm Springs, who claimed that escolar had killed his wife, and was suing the restaurant and fish supplier. (The defense denies a connection, and her death certificate indicates she died of an infection of unknown origin.)

Now, all the sources seem to indicate that the best way to avoid problems with escolar is to grill it, since that causes the greatest amount of the wax esters to render out. I grilled mine pretty well, over a very hot fire, and I had no effects I could definitively pin on the escolar. And realistically, I'm a regular consumer of sushi and sashimi, and that undoubtedly poses a vastly greater health risk. But having read the whole set of references, I think I am probably going to pass up escolar in the future, and I'll go looking for another substitute for Chilean sea bass.

Posted at 15:49 | permanent link

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