Sunday Rerun: Fishing for Compliments

When you order Chilean Sea Bass

at Chez Can You Sea, would you let me know if you would have ordered it if it were on the menu under its original name: Patagonian Toothfish?

Hah?






Monkfish (r)

is another one.  Nice name, makes you think of a frugal, monastic sort of person who would order this especially on Fridays.  Fishmongers started selling this fish heavily a few years ago and promoted it as "poor man's lobster."  Well, this poor man didn't confuse it with lobster, but maybe that's because I remember these guys when they used to be called Goosefish.  And the taste won't make you forget lobster at all.  You know what it really tastes like?  Monkfish!

It's all in the nomenclature.  I love how real estate developers, building new houses in a crime-ridden, sketchy part of town, name the streets "Hobson's Choice Lane" and "Admiral's Helm Way."  Well, I checked with Hobson, and his choice is not to live in a neighborhood where gunfire rings out like downtown Beirut every night.  The Admiral steered himself a good many nautical miles away as well.  And watch for this trick:  say they build some houses in Stankville, but the crime rate in Stankville rivals that of Crackton in The

Simpsons.  Down the road in the valley, a good 10 miles away is the quiet hamlet of Happytown.  The developer will name the new community Happytown Heights, sure as shooting.  If you will.

One more fish story - and these are all true examples of modern piscatorial marketing at its best - everyone loves Orange

Roughy, right? (There it is, on the right >>)
I mean, it sounds perfect. Orange, so you feel like you're getting some fruit, and Roughy, so you're adding a good bit of roughage.  And the taste is so...so...so-so.  Still, you order it because it sounds good now.  Back in the day, they called these beauties Slimeheads.  Not what you want to order on a first date, unless your date comes from Crackton!