Something Smells Fishy: When It Comes To Ethnic Cuisines, Fish Are Rarely Discriminated Against.

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At the small Lebanese grocery store near my home,
where I shop for olives and yogurt, I often buy a fish shawarma
as well – a sort of sandwich consisting of sole wrapped in
pita bread and seasoned with tahini sauce
(a sesame seed paste), parsley and onions.
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However, there’s more than one kind of fish. Just as meat from the pig comes in numerous forms – pork chops, bacon, salami and so forth – so does fish. A person who dislikes halibut and chips might love smoked salmon. One way to sample the enormous variety of fish dishes out there is to look at different ethnic cuisines. That’s exactly what I did when I gave up red meat and turned to fish for my protein and iron requirements. In the process, I discovered a multitude of delicious fish recipes at ethnic restaurants throughout Toronto.

Most cultures include fish in their diets. Nonetheless, to paraphrase George Orwell, while all cultures are fish-friendly, some are more fish-friendly than others. Yet good fish recipes can be found in the most unlikely places. One prominent German restaurant in Toronto serves a wonderful herring soup along with the schnitzel, hamburgers and bratwurst that even in my carnivorous days seemed unbearably heavy. At the small Lebanese grocery store near my home, where I shop for olives and yogurt, I often buy a fish shawarma as well – a sort of sandwich consisting of sole wrapped in pita bread and seasoned with tahini sauce (a sesame seed paste), parsley and onions.

Italy, especially the southern part, boasts one of the world’s fish-friendliest cuisines. In North Toronto there is an Italian restaurant dedicated almost exclusively to fish and seafood (I should have mentioned that restaurant to columnist Rita Simonetta, who stated in the city’s Italian-Canadian weekly that you couldn’t be a vegetarian and enjoy Italian food). Italians integrate fish in their diet in a number of ways. First they have the so-called "independent" dishes, such as smoked swordfish (a Sicilian specialty) and baked tuna. But fish can be snuck into other recipes – as seen in fares like pizza with anchovies and pasta with sardines - which might appeal to people who don’t like fish as a main course but still want to reap its health benefits.

Other Mediterranean nations also make use of the fish that swim in their waters. Portugal, for example, has great grilled sardines that even people who dislike canned sardines can enjoy. The Greek cuisine is also full of piscine delights. In fact, some medical researchers have credited Greece’s pesco-heavy diet for that country’s relatively low rates of cancer and heart disease. Spanish restaurants usually include a number of fish recipes on their menus, the best-known being paella marinera, a saffron-seasoned rice dish with fish or seafood.

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The Caribbean countries, being islands,
have an abundant supply of fish at their disposal
and a plethora of piscine dishes. One of the
most famous is Jamaica’s red snapper.
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Perhaps the closest to paradise fish-lovers can get on this earth is Japan. Barring a visit to that country, though, they might settle for a Japanese restaurant. When most people think of fish and Japanese food, what usually comes to mind is the sushi roll – a small cylindrical roll with sticky rice on the outside and a slab of fish in the middle. I find tuna sushi rolls particularly tasty. But most Japanese restaurants – including sushi bars, which, by the way, have mushroomed in Toronto; in one six-block stretch downtown there are at least five of them, and they’re constantly packed with customers – serve other fish dishes too, such as salmon teriyaki.

Fish plays an important role in the diet of other Asians as well. While the Chinese cuisine, unlike the Japanese, is not known specifically for its piscine recipes, it has plenty of them, like the exquisite shark fin soup. The same is true of Vietnamese and Thai food. And whenever I dine at an Indian restaurant, I almost always order fish masala, kingfish covered in an appetizing garlic, onion and ginger sauce. In addition, lesser known Asian cuisines have good fish dishes. For example, the Philippines enjoys ample access to the sea, and until recently, Filipinos depended on fish rather than meat for protein.

I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I don’t know much about the cuisines in my own back yard, that is, the Western Hemisphere. The Caribbean countries, being islands, have an abundant supply of fish at their disposal and a plethora of piscine dishes. One of the most famous is Jamaica’s red snapper. Latin America boasts the ceviche, fish or seafood marinated in lemon or lime juice. Closer to home – "home" in my case being Canada – perhaps the widest variety of fish can be found in Louisiana’s Cajun cooking, which includes several recipes with catfish.

Though at this point I eat fish almost every day, I can’t say I like all kinds. Fish cakes and filets, for instance, don’t appeal to me. If these had been the only types of fish available to me growing up, I would probably have decided early on that I hated fish. But Toronto’s ethnic dining scene has given me the opportunity to discover countless great fish recipes. As the Biblical saying goes, "seek and you shall find." So I’ll end this article by urging those people who say they don’t like fish to check out the nearest ethnic restaurant and try to find fish they enjoy.

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