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Eat Swai

rhinefire

rhinefire

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Just ate swai for the first time and it was delicious. You should try it soon. Tastes a little like catfish.
 
I don't even know where to begin looking for swai.
 
rhinefire said:
Just ate swai for the first time and it was delicious. You should try it soon. Tastes a little like catfish.
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I will have to try it. It is pretty much the cheapest fish you can buy here. Do you use fresh or frozen?
 
rhinefire said:
Just ate swai for the first time and it was delicious. You should try it soon. Tastes a little like catfish.
Click to expand...

I see swai in my market all the time. Is it mild tasting?
 
rhinefire said:
Just ate swai for the first time and it was delicious. You should try it soon. Tastes a little like catfish.
Click to expand...

It should taste a lot like catfish because it is - smply one (of many) varieties of catfish native to Southeast Asia, most comes to the US from Vietnam. The US law now limits what is marketed as simply "catfish" to ONLY channel catfish. Personally I prefer blue catfish (since they normally live in faster and cleaner waters) but there is little variation in taste, fat content or texture among most species of catfish.

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Swai

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Channel Catfish
Is Vietnamese Swai and Basa Safe? - Chef's Resources
 
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Yeah it is good stuff. I'd compare it more to flounder myself, as it lacks the sharpness of catfish.

But it is quite tasty.
 
Actually I just ventured into the kitchen and saw that we're having Swai for dinner apparently. :D
 
rhinefire said:
Just ate swai for the first time and it was delicious. You should try it soon. Tastes a little like catfish.
Click to expand...

It is damned good fish, tasty.

I shop at a Vietnamese grocery store, lots of live catfish, bass, eel, frog, crawdads, geoduck clams, oysters, prawn and shrimp, lobster, stone crab, dungeness crab, king crab, all swimming in the tanks.

And frozen, they have everything from beltfish, pomfret, mackrel, parrotfish, barrimundi, etc.
 
I read and article a while back about farm raised and wild fish. From what I remember the farm raised fish were no way near as good for you as the wild caught. I was eating a lot of swai and other fish for the good oils. According to the article the farm raised fish are fed primarily corn and did not have the good oils. I never got around to verifying the story. Fish caught in our local streams and ponds are much better for you was the gist of the article. I was wondering if any one else looked into this.
If true I guess I will go to the local pond and load up on a bunch of bluegill and bass. There are plenty of them and they are fun to catch.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
It should taste a lot like catfish because it is - smply one (of many) varieties of catfish native to Southeast Asia, most comes to the US from Vietnam. The US law now limits what is marketed as simply "catfish" to ONLY channel catfish. Personally I prefer blue catfish (since they normally live in faster and cleaner waters) but there is little variation in taste, fat content or texture among most species of catfish.

View attachment 67183643
Swai

View attachment 67183644
Channel Catfish
Is Vietnamese Swai and Basa Safe? - Chef's Resources
Click to expand...

I'm with you on the blue catfish. I like their habitat much more than most of the others, too. I had a 2 acre pond fed by a couple of springs years back that I stocked with them. They flourished, and made a great meal now and then.
 
PIPEWRENCH said:
I read and article a while back about farm raised and wild fish. From what I remember the farm raised fish were no way near as good for you as the wild caught. I was eating a lot of swai and other fish for the good oils. According to the article the farm raised fish are fed primarily corn and did not have the good oils. I never got around to verifying the story. Fish caught in our local streams and ponds are much better for you was the gist of the article. I was wondering if any one else looked into this.
If true I guess I will go to the local pond and load up on a bunch of bluegill and bass. There are plenty of them and they are fun to catch.
Click to expand...

I've looked into the farm-raised thing, and the contentions seem to be true. Fish living wild appear to be a healthier choice.
 
Farm raised fish are crammed in to containers where they ingest each other's waste. The governments rules on how you describe seafood is full of holes with salmon descriptions among the most deceiving. The Swai I ate was at a Vietnamese restaurant where their relatives fish the gulf and then bring the food directly to this Houston restaurant. Their food is so good I probably won't even buy it at a store. You get 30 large shrimp for $9.00 at this place and again it is caught the same day or day before.
 
humbolt said:
I've looked into the farm-raised thing, and the contentions seem to be true. Fish living wild appear to be a healthier choice.
Click to expand...
Most of us wouldn't eat a lot of different foods if we saw the conditions these animals are kept in.
 
rhinefire said:
Farm raised fish are crammed in to containers where they ingest each other's waste. The governments rules on how you describe seafood is full of holes with salmon descriptions among the most deceiving. The Swai I ate was at a Vietnamese restaurant where their relatives fish the gulf and then bring the food directly to this Houston restaurant. Their food is so good I probably won't even buy it at a store. You get 30 large shrimp for $9.00 at this place and again it is caught the same day or day before.
Click to expand...

I never was a seafood fan until I moved to Houston. Fresh seafood is so much better. I was spoiled when I lived in Galveston.
I would eat shrimp and fish PO-boys (hoagie or sub) all the time. They were reasonable and delicious. It is hard to find good seafood at a reasonable price in NEPA. I miss the Bar-b-Que and New Orleans gumbo as well.
 
PIPEWRENCH said:
Most of us wouldn't eat a lot of different foods if we saw the conditions these animals are kept in.
Click to expand...

Yeah - less than optimal - particularly if you intend to eat them. I was in the habit of buying some steelhead trout which was farm raised in Chile now and then. Chile is a pretty good place, all in all. However, when reading of the conditions on most fish farms, with the high bacteria counts and all the rest, I quit that in a hurry. Personally, I pretty much stick to US produced, wild caught stuff or catch it myself, which is the same thing.
 
We got some frozen swai filets at Sam's Club a while back. It was very mild tasting but what we had was not very firm.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
It should taste a lot like catfish because it is - smply one (of many) varieties of catfish native to Southeast Asia, most comes to the US from Vietnam. The US law now limits what is marketed as simply "catfish" to ONLY channel catfish. Personally I prefer blue catfish (since they normally live in faster and cleaner waters) but there is little variation in taste, fat content or texture among most species of catfish.

View attachment 67183643
Swai

View attachment 67183644
Channel Catfish
Is Vietnamese Swai and Basa Safe? - Chef's Resources
Click to expand...

Flathead is by far the best eating catfish. All farm raised domestic catfish is either Blue or Channels or a hybrid we always called "improved blue". The reason for that is that Blues and Channels are really opportunistic feeders and will readily eat commercial feed. Flathead eats live fish and crawfish almost exclusively. You will hardly ever catch a flathead on anything other than live bait. Because of this you can't farm raise them. However, they also have the firmest and mildest meat of the domestic catfish. About the only native fish better eating than flathead are walleyes, crappie, and most perch.
 
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