When we went grocery shopping last night, I picked up a fish fillet to be made into some Indonesian fish cake called Pempek. The fillet came from some white meat fish called the orange roughy. I’d never heard of the fish before but I thought as long the meat was white, I should be able to handle it (I don’t like to eat red meat fish).
The Pempek I had today for lunch turns out to be the best Pempek I’ve ever made. I’ve tried to make it about half a dozen times before, but usually met with failure. To celebrate my success, I decided to do a little research on the orange roughy.
Orange roughy — also goes by the exotic name of slimehead — turns out to be an ugly, deep-sea creature. It can live up to 149 years but only grows to about 61cm (2 feet) in length. That means the fish I was eating could be older than me! How cool is that? Well, maybe not so cool to you, but it’s pretty cool to me since I don’t get to eat meat coming from an animal that’s older than me every day that even the prospect of it kind of excites me.
If the facts about the orange roughy don’t really impress you, this Japanese video that shows you how to peel cooked potato skin in one shot should (link stolen from SMooSH). I still have yet to try the trick out.
I picked up a filet of Turbot at Trader Joes one day – it was great so I decided to look it up – big mistake. I guess those bottom feeders are all pretty ugly.
May I be the first to wish you a happy International Women’s Day
It took me 6 months (!) to finally get the courage to buy some fish and actually cook it. Their Japanese names somehow are not convincing enough 🙁
Orange roughy is one of my favorite fish to eat. My Dad used to make aluminum foil pouches with the fish, tomatoes, onions, spices and olive oil inside and throw it on the grill for a while. Delicious!
I hope you won’t mind this off-topic comment, but I’d like to invite you to join the Waterloo-Wellington Bloggers Association. This is a blogroll alliance designed to promote the regional identity of Waterloo Region, Waterloo County and the City of Guelph in the blogosphere and to share traffic. As you are in Waterloo Region and you have a blog, you certainly qualify.
Pay a visit to the blog aggregator at http://www.waterloowellingtonblogs.org/ to see who else is involved. I you would like to join in, simply copy and paste the blogroll code onto your template and drop me an e-mail. I’ll do the rest.
I hope you will join up, and help make the WWBA into an association worthy of rivalling the GTA Bloggers. Heck, if Windsor-Essex can get an association of blogs, Waterloo Region could do better. I look forward to seeing you on the list.
Mmmmm! Orange Roughy! That used to be my favorite fish as a kid. As an adult, though, I rarely buy it as it tends to be pricy. I guess it was over-fished a few years back, knocking up the price, which is a shame.
Care to share your recipe for pempek?
I have an odd question, has anyone noticed any peculiar gastric occurances after eating Orange Roughy. And does it involve the word “Orange” ?
To Cheryl:
Yes I have noticed that an orange oily substance appears when relieving yourself.I always wondered what caused it. My dad and my brother both had that happen to them to. We assumed it was the Orange Roughy. I guess it is because Roughy has lots of oil in it.
To reduce bad Cholesterol, try eating a pound of Orange Roughy with one whole red apple after meal. Must eat three consecutive days to see result. No carb during these three days. Repeat every three months.
Note: Do not take any antidiarrheal medication.
Tip came from friends that succeded with lowering cholesterol.
ORANGE ROUGHY is highly endangered! Because it takes so long to mature and because it’s a deep sea fish the fisheries (there have only been 30 – to feed the globe) have all been depleted and will not recover. Because of consumer demand new fisheries will be found and depleted. You don’t have to contribute. PLEASE don’t eat the Roughy. For a list of fish to eat and not to eat (this list doesn’t take into consideration fish containing heavy metals that may be bad for you like Mercury) look here: http://www.enature.com/articles/detail.asp?storyID=509