Anyone fancy dinner?

[Richard B]

I like to go out for a nice meal with my girlfriend as do lot's of people & to keep up with what's hot & what's not in the Midlands I make a point of reading the restaurant review in the Metro paper on a Wednesday.

Yesterday there was a review of a new Malaysian/Singaporean restaurant in Kings Heath, Birmingham (which is one one of my old stomping grounds & i still have friends in the area).

I have tried Nasi Goreng & Beef Rendang but was intrigued by the Gado Gado but what really caught my eye was the Mango fish Sambal - it is apparently a subtle white fish in tempura batter with an overly sweet chilli & shallot sauce.

Now what kind of fish do they use? Cod? Haddock? Bass?.....no it's Pangasius!!!!!! A fish apparently seldom seen on western menus! Birmingham has a fantastic fish market but i've never seen any cats there - i wonder where they are getting their supplies?

What next? Crunchy Cory Burgers? Shovelnose surprise?

I know many cats are eaten in their native countries but i've never seen anything on menus over here.

[MatsP]

As you probably know, there are a number of Pangasiidae being sold in the hobby. These are all fingerlings from fish-farms in South-East Asia, and they are produced in ponds in HUGE numbers for food. So I'm not surprised. You do see all sorts of different exotic fish if you go to the asian shops in bigger cities/towns, including Pangasiidae.

Our local lunch-restaurant have asian catfish on the menu from time to time.

--
Mats

[Dave Rinaldo]

They sell it here as bassa.

My local grocery store (HEB) said* they stopped carrying it
because it was frozen(?).

I'll ask more.

*(Employee)

[Birger]

They sell it here as bassa.

I could be wrong but I thought bassa was tilapia at least here, I will check as well...

[ashik]

I worked at a fish market for a few years, and bassa is indeed Pangasius Hypophthalmus. Tilapia is usually one of a number of species from that genus Tilapia. Both are delicious

[Suckermouth]

I've seen Pangasius, loaches, and gourami at Asian food stores.

[TP]

I work in a factory in the north west of the UK and a couple of weeks ago in the works canteen I was very surpised to see that Pangasius was the fish in the weekly fish and chip dinner. It must be being sold pretty cheap somewhere if it found its way into our canteen!!!

[Chrysichthys]

It must be being sold pretty cheap somewhere

It's being advertised on Google Ads.

[Richard B]

Crikey - it's a lot more common then i thought then

[Richard B]

I nipped down the road today to the Warwick Thai festival, (quite a good little event actually).

I bought some Mangosteen from one of the stalls, but some jars on the adjacent stall caught my eye - pickled gouramy - oh no i thought, never mind at least it wasn't a catfish!!!..............next jar was pickled catfish the simplistic line drawing on the jar ,of unappetising beige paste, looked vaguely like some sort of glass cat type of species..........i'll stick to the mangosteen!

[sidguppy]

you can buy Pangasius fillet here at any supermarket that has fish.
same for Nile Perch ("Victoria Bass"), Tilapia and Clarias gariepinus ("African Catfish")
these are common as dirt.

personally I'm not overly fond of Pangasius. it has a distinctive smell and you probably need to be a fairly good cook with Asian recipes.
guess I messed it up the few times I tried to do something with it and it tasted terrible.....

Clarias on the other hand is easy as pie; just fry it in olive oil, add herbs of choice, veggies of choice and rice or couscous or pasta and voila: catfishy meal.

had Kwikwi a couple of times too, but we (me and a friend) messed up that recipe (Surinam recipe) and got ourselves on fire with those orange thingies that look like peppers but taste like Chernobyl on napalm.

in SA I ate pleco, that's another good fish to eat.
I know a good way to rid the LFS of all those bringback plecs that have outgrown tanks, but I ain't paying 25E or more for a fish that yields a 100 grams of meat.
but pleco's do great on the BBQ.

[NewFishKeeper]

ugh! so glad we went to rosedale aquatics instead of the thai festival

[Richard B]

Hey there NewFishKeeper, it wasn't all bad!

i haven't been to Rosedale for a week or so - was there anything of note?

[NewFishKeeper]

nice little one they had labelled as a King tiger pl*c that i managed to bag, although i cant id him from the shots in the catelog, and hes a swine and stays hidden so i cant get a piccie

Would love to know what he is tho hes lovely

hadnt been over there in quite some time actually planning another trip fairly soon, i must add more corys|!

[Yann]

Hi!!

Well there is nothing like home cooking...;)
And there is even more nothing like catfish home cooking!!!

Here is the latest catfish meal I have found around here!!
Special thought for all the big predadory pim's lovers!!!

It really taste delicious!!!
Cheers
Yann

[sidguppy]

droolin' mate

I bet it tastes great......unlike mammals (it's reverse in mammals) it's the piscine predators that taste really good and it's the mud eaters and the herbivores that often ain't that good to eat.

the one fish that's predatory that I didn't like (or more likely: screwed up with my limited cooking skills ) is Conger Eel, because of the intense smell or rather quite pungent stench.

[Richard B]

My mom swears that pike is unpleasant (IHHO) & let me tell you, she'll eat almost anything!!!

The TSN fillets do look quite yummy though

[Birger]

My mom swears that pike is unpleasant

This has a lot to do with water temperature, take a pike out of a warm prairie lake in summer...muddy tasting and soft, not very good at all, not to mention the extra protein from parasites
Take one out of a cold northern lake...solid and clean...yummy

[steph44]

you can buy Pangasius fillet here at any supermarket that has fish.
same for Nile Perch ("Victoria Bass"), Tilapia and Clarias gariepinus ("African Catfish")
these are common as dirt.

that's right, tilapia & pangasius are widely available.
pangasius comes from fish farms in Vietnam (Mekong delta) mainly, I think it has started at the end of the 90s.
raised in cages at 28°C, fed with fish leftovers, small shrimps, beans & soy flour; it actually gets no animal flour so on the whole, it's better fed than most farm fish.
panga is cut & immediately frozen, then stocked till shipped, sent to wholesalers & caetera...