So ITT we talk fish and seafood. it can be anything (recipes, what to avoid, when to buy, etc.). My family eats a lot of fish. I've been blessed with kids that love it. And so I try to find new and interesting ones to prepare.

I'll start with salmon, because everyone knows it and it's the easiest to find. Most of the salmon we find in stores is farmed with a higher fat content because they never move around. And most come from northern europe. i would prefer to cook wild salmon, but because it's leaner, it also has less taste. And it can also dry out pretty quickly (you have to cook it only to about 120 degrees, as opposed to 125-130 for farmed salmon). so i stick with farmed. My favorite recipe is also the easiest:

1. dissolve 1/2 cup of table salt in 2 quarts of water, and brine the salmon for 30 minutes.
2. pat salmon dry and season with salt (kosher) and pepper.
3. sprinkle generous salt at the bottom of a cold skillet, and place the salmon on it.
4. cook over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes per side, depending on the thickness.
5. let salmon rest for 5 minutes before serving.

i also just cooked a couple of these bad boys this weekend and stabbed my thumb so badly from one of the spiny dorsal fins that it was still bleeding yesterday:

Great thread.

For seafood purchasing, I try to go by the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch guide (we have it stuck on our fridge)

On the issue of salmon -- I'm not suggesting you're not getting great farm-raised stuff, it definitely exists. There are different systems (circular tanks vs. "racetrack" runs), and more importantly, different feed formulas. Many farming companies will inject the fish with a pink dye to simulate their natural color when eating krill and other shellfish. I don't like that idea, but then I also never got comfortable with greyish-brown flesh on farm-raised salmon that aren't injected with dye.

But I do want to push back on the fat content. One can get a very fatty wild-caught fish, typically King/Chinook, which is expensive but certainly available (and fucking delicious). We'll splurge on that a few times a year, but more often get the somewhat leaner Sockeye, which still has awesome flavor. I'll get the middle-of-the-road Coho if I'm making salmon burgers. Won't touch anything lower than that.

can we all agree, right here on page 1, that there will be no talk about tilapia?

Yes.

One thing I don't hate about living where I live is the abundance of a wide variety of fresh seafood.

i get most of my stuff here..its less than a mile away

http://qualityseafood.com/our-fish/

We might have terrible accents up here, but we have great seafood. Take that, dickheads.

i've been on a jumbo shrimp cocktail kick for what seems like a month now

f' all of you guys for living on the coasts. although when i go visit my parents in michigan there's an abundance of fresh walleye and perch (and boy i can't wait for the lenten fish fries coming up (extra tar tar please)).

do you take advantage of the Copper-River salmon that's usually available towards the end of May through mid June? it's expensive, but it's the best salmon you'll ever have.

Yes! Every summer I'll get it once or twice and cook a meal. I was once horrified when my MiL asked me to cook hers well done.

I miss living in the Columbia River area, though. Nothing like catching your own salmon and smoking it the same day.

Interestingly enough, I could say that about "down here" as well.

my current favorite fish that people don't seem to know about is Hake

it's a white fish, like a cross between a flounder and a cod

buttery and warm but with some body

and it's usually not expensive

just simple broil with a little lemon

True. I got some great cod last week from stop and shop of all places.

i think my kids and i had about 5 lbs of arctic char when we were in iceland. it's a fantastic fish (pretty much a cross between salmon and rainbow trout).

I had a spicy bowl of sopa de marisco yesterday.

Gulf coast seafood lends itself to lots of seasoning and spices, whereas the seafood meals I've had on New England or California trips seem to focus much more on the fish. No doubt this has to do with the quality of the water off those coasts versus the nasty Gulf.

I don't really prefer one style over the other, but if my last meal had a pescatarian mandate, it would probably be something with a little spice to it.

I read that as pescatarian manatee and thought maybe I’d been missing out

That sounds fleshy.

i think i'll grill rainbow trout on sunday.

if you grill fish directly on the grill, spread them with a mixture of 2 tbs of mayo (gross) and 1/2 tbs of honey. the mayo will let them release from the grill without sticking (provided you let them stay there without fucking with them before you flip them) and the honey will help them char.