I have never seen catfish on any menu of any chain restaurant or independent eatery.
I have seen it served in a local large cafeteria which I assume means they source it from a catfish 'farm' rather than wild caught. It tasted quite muddy and unpleasant. Couldn't hide the taste even with heavy tartar sauce. Maybe this is why they pair hot sauce with catfish in the south?
most restaurant chains here go for white flaky flesh without a fish flavor. Flounder, cod, tilapia, occasionally a special of 'grouper' whatever that is (I was told once that the special of the day was 'grouper' I asked what is the special tomorrow, 'grouper...every day the special is grouper' This made me wonder if whatever was caught and brought in by the local fisherman was sold in the restaurant under the name 'grouper'.
In higher end restaurants you can get local sourced walleye and salmon. Chain fish restaurants will sometimes offer salt water fish or swordfish steaks. Around the great lakes it is pretty easy to source Yellow Perch year around and we used to have specials on whole deep fried smelt. Now there are warnings to not eat fish again due to PFAS contamination of most waterways around us.
Seems like one of the best mild-flaky white fish flesh they should serve is NP as there is no shortage of those fish around.
The plan is (and it already happened) (was) to rename invasive asian carp and start marketing them for a preferred fish food for people. Probably someone will rebrand the GM catfish to make us feel like we are truly getting something new, rare and superior which always makes it fly off the shelves..
The new name for asian carp is very odd. 'Copi' It makes me think it is the plural of something. Just like you can have one cactus or one octopus and if you have more than one it is cacti and octopi. So it seems the Asian Carp should be called a Copus and if you have a whole boat full of them then they are Copi.
Last edited by canyoncreek; 02/06/23 03:07 PM.
