flounder or halibut is so thick that the fish monger can cut it into steaks.

Sole has many aliases that vary from coast to coast. No matter what the name, you can

cook them all the same. The flavor, however, ranges from excellent to mediocre. The famous

petrale sole is at the top of this family for flavor, with rex sole a close second. When you see a

fish labeled merely "sole," it is likely to be a more common and somewhat inferior type, usually

English sole. True Dover sole is an Atlantic and Mediterranean fish, prized in France and

England, and is imported into American and Canadian markets both frozen and fresh. To confuse

you even more, fish processors also use the name Dover sole for a common Pacific sole of only

fair quality. When buying Dover sole, ask where it grew up. That means you have to buy Dover

sole in a fish market where you know the person behind the counter is knowledgeable.

Mahi-mahi, a dolphin fish from Hawaii (no relation to the mammal dolphin), does not

lend itself to common high-volume commercial fishing methods because it is such a fast

swimmer. It is hard to catch in big commercial nets. Fishermen catch it with the old hook-and-

line method. The high price is attributable to a larger demand than supply, not necessarily to its

superb quality (though mahi-mahi happens to be delicious).

You can cut skate meat (they also call it skate wing) with a cookie-cutter-like kitchen tool

to make scallop-shaped chunks that fish retailers substitute for the real thing at a much lower

price. Only a fanatic would notice that the grain of the meat in scallops is vertical when the disk

sits on your plate, while the skate grain is horizontal. Their flavor is very similar.

TASTINGS What's in the tuna can

The canning industry in the U.S. uses all the tuna we don't consume fresh.

Albacore is firm, white, and mild, and you find it in the market as the higher-

priced canned white tuna. Tuna that is not as light in color and stronger in flavor

fills up the rest of the cans on the shelf. They reserve tuna for pet food, that has

too strong flavor or too dark color for most human palates.

The darker the color of fresh tuna, the stronger the flavor. If you prefer your fish mild-

flavored, this is likely to be too strong for you. To tone the flavor down, soak it in chilled brine

(½ cup salt in a quart or liter of water) for an hour, or until the color turns light, to leach out

blood responsible for the aggressive flavor.

TASTINGS Why is carp ignored?

Carp is an excellent fish to eat, well-regarded virtually throughout the world, but

it is neglected by North Americans. This may be due to lingering bad press. A

program to eradicate it was launched shortly after carp was introduced into the

U.S., because it was wrongfully thought to be a threat to indigenous species. You

can find carp in some ethnic and regional seafood markets in the U.S. The starting

material for the Jewish gefilte fish is carp, sometimes mixed with pike and

whitefish. The Chinese have aquacultured carp for at least 2500 years, and it is

also aquacultured in Europe.

How we classify shellfish

Shellfish are easier to subdivide than fin fish. Marine biologists divide them into two

main categories:

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