I love all sea food! At least all sea food I've tasted till now. I ate a 7 course Italian sea food dinner on Christmas eve and thought I would pass out. But I didn't!! My LOVE for sea food actually grew stronger.
Seafood - Do You Enjoy It?
- Thread starter Rosie
- Start date
There's only one type of food that I don't like. Yes, you've guessed it...seafood!
While fresh fish is always on the menu and is a massive part of the Mediterranean cuisine, there's always plenty of other food available also, so I've never had a problem at all.
I always found that there was more than enough choice when dining out in Italy so if your not a fan of seafood I wouldn't let this put you off.
While fresh fish is always on the menu and is a massive part of the Mediterranean cuisine, there's always plenty of other food available also, so I've never had a problem at all.
I always found that there was more than enough choice when dining out in Italy so if your not a fan of seafood I wouldn't let this put you off.
I forgot to mention, I don't "hate" all seafood. I love, love, love to eat fish! It's the other sea creatures I have a problem with! 
LOL
In fact, I'm almost sure that Italians have a tradition: each Friday they will eat fish!
I don't know if every family keeps up with this tradition, I assume it's not the case, because some fresh fish can be quite expensive, especially if you have a family of 4 or more people to feed. .
I tried to make this an eating habit in our own home as well, but since I didn't grow up eating fish at least once a week, I often forget to buy it
I have to say though, I have never had fish in a restaurant or cooked by a genuine Italian family. I always cook it "my way", meaning I stuff it with veggies and spices and I stick it in the oven Now I'm curious about how Italians cook fish! Does anyone know how Italians cook fish?
LOLIn fact, I'm almost sure that Italians have a tradition: each Friday they will eat fish!
I don't know if every family keeps up with this tradition, I assume it's not the case, because some fresh fish can be quite expensive, especially if you have a family of 4 or more people to feed. .
I tried to make this an eating habit in our own home as well, but since I didn't grow up eating fish at least once a week, I often forget to buy it
I have to say though, I have never had fish in a restaurant or cooked by a genuine Italian family. I always cook it "my way", meaning I stuff it with veggies and spices and I stick it in the oven
Now I'm curious about how Italians cook fish! Does anyone know how Italians cook fish?
When I think of Italian food, I always think of meat, like lasagna. However, when it comes to seafood, unless it is sushi, I think seafood Italian style is the only kind a really eat. I love lobster ravioli. Then I think about calamari, which I order at just about every restaurant, even if it is not an Italian restaurant because most fine dining restaurants in the states has adopted it. I also love crab cakes and any kind of shrimp. So, yes, I'm a big fan of Italian seafood.
Generally speaking I enjoy seafood, and I'm pretty much willing to try just about any of it. The grossest for me to date would be Eel, since those things look so incredibly ugly in general, especially their faces, that I get creeped out by eating them.
Calimari on the other hand, used to gross me out as a kid, but when I finally tried it and saw how it was prepared, I was very pleasantly surprised. They are one of the more "cleaner" creatures out there you can eat. There really aren't any gross organs or other gunk to clean out of them or cut around. You just pull off the thin shell, the thin featherlike inner spine, then cut off the beak and the ink sac and that's about it. Everything else left is edible, and it's essentially just clean white flesh. No veiny crap, guts, organ meats, and such. They are tricky to cook properly without overcooking. They're unfortunately not pleasant to eat under or over cooked, but that window of "properly cooked" is very brief. It's sort of similar to scallops. You don't want a slimy under cooked one, but you also don't want a chewy rubbery overcooked one either.
Chilean Sea Bass (aka Patagonian Toothfish) is another super ugly fish, that has incredibly delicious bright white flesh inside it which is really meaty and filling. But you will seldom see the actual picture of the fish itself at places selling it's filets. To me, it looks like the body of a catfish, combined with the head of a Gremlin from the movie Gremlins.
Still, there are some things that totally gross me out about seafood - such as how they have to pick out worms from salmon filets, or the unpleasant digestive tracks in large pieces of shrimp, as well as that "green gunk" you often find in lobster tails.
Calimari on the other hand, used to gross me out as a kid, but when I finally tried it and saw how it was prepared, I was very pleasantly surprised. They are one of the more "cleaner" creatures out there you can eat. There really aren't any gross organs or other gunk to clean out of them or cut around. You just pull off the thin shell, the thin featherlike inner spine, then cut off the beak and the ink sac and that's about it. Everything else left is edible, and it's essentially just clean white flesh. No veiny crap, guts, organ meats, and such. They are tricky to cook properly without overcooking. They're unfortunately not pleasant to eat under or over cooked, but that window of "properly cooked" is very brief. It's sort of similar to scallops. You don't want a slimy under cooked one, but you also don't want a chewy rubbery overcooked one either.
Chilean Sea Bass (aka Patagonian Toothfish) is another super ugly fish, that has incredibly delicious bright white flesh inside it which is really meaty and filling. But you will seldom see the actual picture of the fish itself at places selling it's filets. To me, it looks like the body of a catfish, combined with the head of a Gremlin from the movie Gremlins.
Still, there are some things that totally gross me out about seafood - such as how they have to pick out worms from salmon filets, or the unpleasant digestive tracks in large pieces of shrimp, as well as that "green gunk" you often find in lobster tails.
I'm happy only with fish, and then only certain kinds of fish such as haddock, hake or tuna. I tried calamari and couldn't even swallow it, tried other things such as mussels, oysters, ect, same story. I just don't like the taste. But I love fish with a white sauce that's tangy. I'll stick my fork into that every day. 
I love seafood. However, I only really eat it when I go to restaurants. I find I can never make it as good as when someone else makes it for me. When I travelled to the southern part of Italy I remember how fresh the fish was. So many places offered it on their menus and almost everything was locally caught
I would say I'm okay with most fish, as long as it's not super "fishy" tasting. But I've never really ventured into other types of seafood very much. I guess since I wasn't brought up eating much seafood that it seems foreign to me...I stick to different types of protein for the most part!
If fresh seafood was readily available in my area and at a more reasonable price, I would definitely consume more of it. Especially if I lived near a coastal area where I could get it locally. However here in NE Ohio, fresh seafood is often pretty expensive and not always of the best quality. In fact much of it simply comes in frozen and is thawed and sold as "fresh". Even worse is the stuff that is sold in the freezer section, since it's commonly soaked in a solution which causes it to swell up and look much bigger than it really is. This process unfortunately also breaks down the flesh and makes it really mushy when you thaw it and cook it. In addition, the portions shrink down to almost nothing once cooked.
When it comes to seafood, I only like shellfish like shrimp, crab and lobster. The only other thing I love due to the Italians is Calamari. If it wasn't for the Italian version with marinara sauce, I would probably never eat squid. Just had octopus over the holidays in the same fried way and it was ok. I wouldn't order it by choice.
Before I came to Italy, the only seafood I used to eat was... fish
When I arrived here I saw that there's a big variety of seafood that looks interesting to try out.
Unfortunately, the 2 times I tried out eating some vongole or shrimp or calamari, etc., I felt sick. The reason I felt sick after I ate the shrimp is obvious in my case: I saw those big eyes before I ate them. That for me is gross. But I can't figure out what went wrong with the calamari and the rest.
What about you? Do you enjoy seafood or do you also stay away from it?
I miss very much eating italian seafood.I wonder what it came wrong on the food you ate, but I think that the trick is to eat the very fresh seafood, and where you eat it. For esample: if I am in florence I'll try to eat something different, instead in Naples or in other cities on the coast definitely I'll try seafood!
Please forgive my poor english, ciao e arrivederci!
italianpot
I love seafood, and it is really unfortunate because I happen to live about as far away from an ocean as humanly possible. Oh well, though, I guess that there is nothing that I can really do at this point. We can still get it here, but it is not as fresh as anywhere else and it is really expensive, which is never a good thing. Few things can beat a good plate of grilled shrimp for me.
I grew up in a seaside town in Italy so I grew up eating seafood as well. I love seafood, wheter is plain fish, shellfish, shrimps, calamari or octopus.
I eat seafood on a regular basis, I think at least twice at week. One of my favourite dish is "Risotto alla pescatora", a very tasty risotto with all kind of seafood in it: vongole, mussels, shrimps, calamari, octopus. it's so delicious I could eat it everyday!
Over here there are many restaurants specialized in seafood and they offer a huge choice of great seafood dishes like fried or roasted calamari, octopus salad, pasta alle vongole, seafood risotto, shrimps and many, many more. I love all of them!
Now that i think about it, I had linguini alle vongole tonight for dinner and it was fantastic!
I eat seafood on a regular basis, I think at least twice at week. One of my favourite dish is "Risotto alla pescatora", a very tasty risotto with all kind of seafood in it: vongole, mussels, shrimps, calamari, octopus. it's so delicious I could eat it everyday!
Over here there are many restaurants specialized in seafood and they offer a huge choice of great seafood dishes like fried or roasted calamari, octopus salad, pasta alle vongole, seafood risotto, shrimps and many, many more. I love all of them!
Now that i think about it, I had linguini alle vongole tonight for dinner and it was fantastic!
I have to say yes because when I lived in Malta worked in on of the hotels' restaurants there I ate seafood quite often because we had a lot of salads with seafood. I didn't like all of it because they steamed almost everything. It was a buffet type restaurant so steamed, without salt and spices.
Whеn is it оkаy tо usе сhееsе оn sеаfооd?
I hаvе nеvеr mixеd sеаfооd аnd сhееsе, аnd саnnоt lосаtе а dеliсiоus rесipе thаt dоеs. Dо yоu hаvе аnd еxоtiс rесipеs whеrе thе twо mаrry niсеly?
I hаvе nеvеr mixеd sеаfооd аnd сhееsе, аnd саnnоt lосаtе а dеliсiоus rесipе thаt dоеs. Dо yоu hаvе аnd еxоtiс rесipеs whеrе thе twо mаrry niсеly?
аlwаys. Dоn't givе in tо dоgmа.
Thеrе's а fаmоus оft-plаyеd pаrt оf аn еpisоdе оf сhоppеd whеrе Sсоtt соnаnt (whо knоws аbоut аs muсh аbоut Itаliаn сооking аs I knоw аbоut сhild-birth, аll sесоnd hаnd еxpеriеnсе) rеаms а соntеstаnt sаying "nо Itаliаn dish еVеR mixеs dаiry аnd fish" fоllоwеd аnd intеrsесtеd by phоtоs оf аbоut 50 dishеs phоtоgrаphеd in Rоmа, Milаnо, аnd Vеnеtiа.
Yоu shоuld nеvеr bе infоrmеd by whаt оthеrs sаy. Try it. Gо Risоttо, fоr еxаmplе, usеs а riсh, brоthy, risоttо with pаrmigiаnо аnd sеаfооd. I sеrvе а wаrm сhееsе sаuсе оvеr grillеd sсаllоps, а nо-nо if yоu аsk thе fееblе аt mind with а dоgmаtiс bасkgrоund, аnd it's univеrsаlly lоvеd by my dinеrs.
Sо, whеn is it оK? Whеn it tаstеs gооd, thаt's whеn