Escobar (or escolar) fish

[Wayne E. Amacher]

I bought some fish labeled escobar yesterday. After looking for recipes
on the internet, I decided not to eat it.

Websites called it the ex-lax fish, claiming that you could get severe
diarrhea from eating it. Descriptions of the diarrhea are very
unpleasant (although I guess that's to be expected of any diarrhea :-)).

Does anyone in this newsgroup know anything about this fish?

Wayne

[James Silverton]

Wayne wrote on Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:57:03 +0000 (UTC):

> Websites called it the ex-lax fish, claiming that you could
> get severe diarrhea from eating it. Descriptions of the
> diarrhea are very unpleasant (although I guess that's to be
> expected of any diarrhea :-)).

> Does anyone in this newsgroup know anything about this fish?

Escolar is a member of the mackerel family and sometimes confusingly
called "white tuna" but it contains so much grease that it will produce
the runs in many people. It is even banned for sushi in Japan (tho' not
in the US!). I only ate it once (in sashimi). I did not know its
reputation and it was delicious but I had 24 hours of Montezuma's
revenge!

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

[Todd Michel McComb]

In article <g8q8a7$u7p$1...@registered.motzarella.org>,

James Silverton <not.jim....@verizon.net> wrote:
>Escolar is a member of the mackerel family and sometimes confusingly
>called "white tuna" but it contains so much grease that it will
>produce the runs in many people.

Hmm. I have eaten it at high-end restaurants as part of tasting
menus, and always enjoyed it. The above is news to me, but perhaps
the small portions combined with various other foods ameliorate any
effect. Anyway, I wouldn't abandon hope for it. It does taste
good!

[rone]

In article <g8q8nm$o5n$1...@agricola.medieval.org>,

Yeah, in small amounts, it's safe, but eating a whole escolar steak is
asking for trouble. Some places call it "butterfish" even though it
isn't a "true" butterfish, and Aya in San Carlos calls it "ice cream
tuna" even though it's not a tuna, either.

I have to say that the original poster's "escobar" malapropism made me
think of sushi made from the flesh of Colombian drug lords.

rone
--
"If any man is not free, then I, too, am a small pie made of chicken."
-- Bouffant, /Thoughts/ (Terry Pratchett)

[spamtr...@gmail.com]

On Aug 23, 3:57 pm, "Wayne E. Amacher"

<wamac...@invalid.green.rahul.net> wrote:
> I bought some fish labeled escobar yesterday. After looking for recipes
> on the internet, I decided not to eat it.
>
> Websites called it the ex-lax fish, claiming that you could get severe
> diarrhea from eating it. Descriptions of the diarrhea are very
> unpleasant (although I guess that's to be expected of any diarrhea :-)).

I read what feminoblogger Twisty Faster wrote about it when she
reviewed restaurants for the free (St. Louis?) weekly. That was enough
for me; I'm always on the look out.

Don't eat too many candlenuts either. My friend who grew up in Hawaii
told me that was a favorite Scout prank.