Indonesian Fish

[attie]

Not wishing to upset any of our Indonesion guests or members but I must say that I had an unpleasent experience with fish from there yesterday.

One of my fish suppliers rang and asked if he could bring in some samples he had imported to cook and taste test. He arrived with numerous samples of Barramundi, Sweetlip and Red Emperor, all skinless fillets. They looked fine but I did notice that there was no traditional blood line on the Barra and he informed me that they "thick skin" for the American trade.

We battered, crumbed and grilled some of each and this was where the problems started. The Barra was extreemly strong and the other two were so tough that they were inedible. I've had Mackerel from there before which was mushy to handle but it cooked fine, but I'm afraid to say that the above samples were simply not acceptable.

I do not know why this is so because we fish roughly the same waters and our fish by those names are fine, I think that there is more effort needed in the processing side to improve the situation as product of this quality will only harm their export trade

[Candocook]

Maybe it was a one time thing. Who knows.
Just my opinion, but I think I would need to have a pattern established that this is the norm from Indonesia before I would say that an entire country's fishing industry needs to tighten their controls to approximate Australia's. Maybe I am not understanding the problem.

[attie]

Originally Posted by Candocook

Maybe it was a one time thing. Who knows.
Just my opinion, but I think I would need to have a pattern established that this is the norm from Indonesia before I would say that an entire country's fishing industry needs to tighten their controls to approximate Australia's. Maybe I am not understanding the problem.

I hope you are right, but what concerned me was that the problem was across three species of fish. This is not the first time there has been a problem, some of their fish has been recalled in the past. This is most probably due to a few who do not take enough care.

[TATTRAT]

Barramundi was actually a theme ingredient on Iron Chef way back, HERE is a link to it. I like it when done properlly, I ate it often in Holland.

As for the others, I haven't much experience to vouch for it, but I would bet it was a matter of possible over cooking.

[attie]

Originally Posted by TATTRAT

Barramundi was actually a theme ingredient on Iron Chef way back, HERE is a link to it. I like it when done properlly, I ate it often in Holland.

As for the others, I haven't much experience to vouch for it, but I would bet it was a matter of possible over cooking.

No, it wasn't from over cooking, we've spoken to them and they admit having problems in the handling. Interesting that you had it in Holland, I didn't know we exported it to there.

[TATTRAT]

IT is being that the Duch settled a lot of that region, and when the indonesians came to Holland, the native cuisine came with.

I loved the amount of Indo placees in Amsterdam, it was amazing!

[attie]

Offcourse, I should have known, once known as Dutch Indonesia. That's very interesting that some of their culture made it to Holland. It's a country of waste not want not and becoming a very powerfull exporter of seafood.