Escobar...um, EscoLAR!

[marmalady]

Just found this wonderful fish from Hawaii, and cooked some last night - but couldn't find much at all about it when googling. Anyone know anything about it?

Tasted like a sort of buttery halibut, texture like Chilean sea bass - and white like the sea bass.

[urmaniac13]

So I take it is a fish with white flesh?? I found that so many of the recipes for white meat fish (haddock, bass, cod, flounder, halibut etc etc.) are perfectly interchangeable. I would just apply one of my favourite recipes for it, but give it a little more time and see if someone like ironchef will come up with something stupendous...

[marmalady]

Tx - I didn't have any trouble figuring out a way to prepare it - just wanted to learn more about the fish! Yes, it's a white fish, but a very 'dense' fleshed one - on the order of halibut or Chilean Sea Bass. I'm wondering if it has another name in Hawaii - nothing came up when I googled 'Hawaiain fish'.

[BreezyCooking]

I've never heard of "Escobar", but do know that there's a popular Hawaiin fish known as "Escolar". While it's purported to be delicious, there have also been a number of cases of poisoning associated with it. Apparently it can carry a high level of some type of toxin in its flesh. Here's a link to an interesting news story on "Escolar".

http://www.nbc4.tv/newslinks/1773988/detail.html

I'd be careful. Since there doesn't seem to be any information on any fish called "Escobar", it wouldn't surprise me if your "Escobar" turned out to actually be "Escolar".

[ironchef]

Breezy's correct, the fish that you've gotten is escolar. Escolar is interchangeable in any recipe that uses sea bass, cod, or halibut. The toxin that's being refered to is something that affects a small percentage of people who eat the fish. Basically the toxin will act like a laxative. From what I've read it's not deadly and not painful; you just have to keep using the bathroom. Because it only affects such a small percentage of people, the only way to really find out if it affects you is to eat the fish. It's a great fish to eat so I would definitely recommend it to anyone, albeit with a warning attached.

[marmalady]

Well, no wonder I couldn't find anything on 'escobar', lol - duh! I swear that's how they had it labelled in the fish market!

And as for the toxin - I think DH is one of those folksl who's sensitive to it; he thought he had food poisoning last night - oh Dear! But at least now we know what the cause was! Thanks so much for the info, guys!

[ironchef]

Originally Posted by marmalady

Well, no wonder I couldn't find anything on 'escobar', lol - duh! I swear that's how they had it labelled in the fish market!

And as for the toxin - I think DH is one of those folksl who's sensitive to it; he thought he had food poisoning last night - oh Dear! But at least now we know what the cause was! Thanks so much for the info, guys!

Well Marm, now you know that if he's ever constipated, just give him a piece of escolar.

[kyles]

Oh I take it all back........our restaurant at work serves escolar, and I thought they made up the name............you know, found some mystery cheap fish in the market and dubbed it escolar! lol

I'd never heard of it either, weird to find a Hawaiian fishie in a cafeteria in England.

[BreezyCooking]

Yes - it's actually been nicknamed the "Caster Oil Fish", or something along those lines.

While there are far too many other safer species of fish to enjoy for me to take a chance on this one, I know that some folks adore trying new things &/or living dangerously - lol!!!

That said, the only caveat I would definitely recommend is not to serve this to the very young, very old, or anyone with a compromised immune system, since the effect this fish can have could be rather debilitating to them.

[urmaniac13]

Originally Posted by ironchef

The toxin that's being refered to is something that affects a small percentage of people who eat the fish. Basically the toxin will act like a laxative. From what I've read it's not deadly and not painful; you just have to keep using the bathroom. Because it only affects such a small percentage of people, the only way to really find out if it affects you is to eat the fish. It's a great fish to eat so I would definitely recommend it to anyone, albeit with a warning attached.

Actually, I had a grouper Saturday for a dinner, which was my first try. Sunday I was rudely awakened by a symptom quite similar to the above description, which went away within a few hours. Do you know if groupers have the same kind of toxin????