It Pays to Stick with what you Know when Buying Fish at the Market
My Experience of Buying “Butterfish”
If you have the opportunity to buy fish from a standalone, seafood market or from a supermarket that has an amazing large seafood counter, you are likely to find seafood that is not readily available. I’m talking about the places that have the staples piled high alongside the extra goodies you cannot readily get. For a seafood lover, these extra goodi
es invoke a sense of adventure, and we know our taste buds are sure to thank us for giving the new delight a try. So, we buy the new delight and trust it is okay for consumption. Think again. Here is my recent experience with buying “butter fish.” I was out shopping with my husband and son. We decided to stop at a fish market that we heard wonderful things about. My family loves fish markets. So, this was a nice treat. A market that specializes in seafood means that we are looking first for seafood that is harder to come by. We do this because we find it fun. Like I said, it’s an adventure. On this trip, we discovered butterfish.
I had heard of butterfish, but I had never tried it, as I tend to stick with cold-water fish. However, the displayed filets looked beautiful. They were long, white and nice and plump. I inquired. The person behind the counter told me that the filets were Hawaiian butterfish. Even though I had just found out that they were from tropical waters, I decided we would give it a try. It just looked so good. She also told me that butterfish is common to serve sushi style. This was extra good news for me. So, I asked her if her butterfish was sushi grade. She said yes –with hesitation.
After we bought the fish and she was handing us our package, she stopped us before leaving. She explained the fish was extra oily and, therefore, very “rich.” She recommended that we should not consume a large portion at one time and to serve the butterfish with a large guide for dish of carbohydrate, like rice, potatoes or bread. Her demeanor now was as if she was reluctant to sell us the fish in the first place. She was completely uncomfortable, and I felt was odd. I did bake and serve the butterfish for dinner that evening. I chose not to have it sushi or sashimi style and to, therefore, cook it thoroughly. It was at this point that I thought her reluctant demeanor was due to telling me it was sashimi grade, as we all know that eating raw fish can present a risk. However, her recommendation of eating a small portion of the fish alongside a large portion of a carbohydrate was moving more and more to the forefront of my mind. I followed her recommendation and served lots of rice with only about 2 ounces fish per person. We loved it. It was delicious, and we were fine. But! The next day I became extra curious and decided to do a little research on butterfish.
Within minutes, I understood the woman’s hesitation and awkward, nervous body language after selling us the fish. I was also reminded of why it is important to know the scientific names of species versus the common names and also why it is important to be able to identify fish without looking at a label. Here is what I discovered. There is disambiguation with the term “butterfish.” There is Hawaiian butterfish, and there is Japanese butterfish. There is a big difference between the two, and the differences may shock you! Here are the differences beginning with the butterfish from Japan.
Japanese Butterfish – The Japanese butterfish that we eat is the Psenopsis anomala species (not to be confused with Pentapodus nagasakiensis, the species we don’t commonly eat, which is also, called “Japanese butterfish” I know! –more confusion!). This is the butterfish served sushi or sashimi style, and it thrives in the waters off of Japan. From my findings, it’s a common, well-liked, eating fish that presents no problems if consumed.
Hawaiian Butterfish – Hawaiian butterfish is not only a different species, but it is from a whole other family of fish. It is from the family Gempylidae and of the species Lepidocybium flavobrunneum. Generally, it is more commonly termed as “Escolar,” and yes, it is found off the coast of Hawaii. While it is still sold as fish to eat in some places of the world (United States included), it is banned for consumption in other countries. Escolar is labeled as toxic and not for human
consumption. The reason is because of its elevated wax ester content.
The fish is unable to metabolize a fat (gempylotoxin) found in its natural diet. Therefore, the fat builds up within the fish. Guess what? We cannot metabolize it either. Consumption of too much escolar can cause a condition called keriorrhea, which is gempylotoxism or gempylid fish poisoning. Symptoms include severe stomach cramping, vomiting and/or diarrhea that can occur from a half-hour to 36 hours after consumption. It is therefore recommended that if one does choose to eat this fish that he or she consumes a small portion and chooses parts closest to its tail where the wax ester is less concentrated.
I don’t know about you, but with this information in, I would rather go without. At this point, I am speculating. I don’t know how much of this information the woman knew at the time we bought the filets. If she has all of the information at hand, which I doubt, I don’t understand why the market orders the fish in the first place to sell. Whatever the case, I am returning there shortly. I plan to politely pull someone in charge aside and explain my findings. Hopefully, they will look it up for themselves and not simply pass me off as a crazy lady.
Also, be aware that escolar is also mislabeled and sold under the names “white tuna” or “super white tuna.” It can be confused with many other similar looking fish when fileted as well, sea bass or cod for example.
Lastly, here is a photo of the two fish. The top is Japanese butterfish. The bottom is escolar or “Hawaiian butterfish.” As you can see, they clearly come from two different families of fish.
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