Don't Bogart That Grouper

8/16/06

The next time you go into a swanky, upscale joint high on cocaine and escorting a hooker on each arm, you might think twice about ordering the grouper. Or the red snapper. Or any other high-test fish ticket item on the menu because, half the time, you're getting screwed, partner.

According to a survey done by Florida's St. Petersburg Times, 6 of 11 restaurants are serving fish that isn't what it claims to be. One eatery was serving a "Champagne-braised black grouper" for $23. Only problem was it wasn't glorious grouper. After DNA testing a sample of the fish, it turned out to be common tilapia, a completely unrelated and much cheaper fish. According to Bob Jones, executive director for the Southeastern Fisheries Association, that's not all that uncommon.

Jones says that across the country anytime there's a test of restaurant fish, about half of them turn out to be a much cheaper species than what's claimed on the menu. Grouper is the biggest offender. Whose testicles do we squeeze over this gouging fiasco? It's tough to tell. It could be the suppliers, it could be the dealers and it could be the restaurants or any combination thereof. Jones though, says it's most often foreign suppliers providing Vietnamese or Chinese pond catfish labeled as grouper. The same advice for those of you cluttering up your houses with Flowbees and Nordic Tracks goes for restaurants purchasing fish; if it seems like too good a deal it probably is.

Domestic grouper goes for about $8-$9 per pound, imports about a dollar less. "Any cheaper should be a dead giveaway," says Tampa seafood distributor Will Ward. With such a hefty price for The Real McCoy it's little wonder catfish or tilapia finds its way into distribution, at anywhere from $1-$3 per pound.

The much blander, less sexy Tilapia fish.

Does anyone ever pay the price, so to speak, for this deception? As difficult as it is to assign blame, it does occur. According to Bob Jones offenders are "caught and fined in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of them may even be prison sentences involved. It makes the news and it gets some headlines and then it disappears and then nothing happens."

You still have just as good a chance to get the good stuff when ordering seafood, and Jones says "Florida is probably the most aggressive," about testing, but unless restaurants are going to set up a CSI lab with libraries of fish DNA on hand there doesn't seem to be much hope in sight. I suppose one way to fix the problem would be to go to someplace that lets you, I dunno, strangle the fish yourself or something. Of course even then there's no guarantee that Smitty in the kitchen there isn't swapping your succulent grouper out for bottom-barrel tilapia or scum-sucking catfish.


I suggest the beef.





St. Petersburg Times link to the original story with
a chart for the surveyed restaurants
NPR: Something Fishy interview with Bob Jones