Hoki-pocus!

As a follow up to our previous post, we'd like to present further evidence of how we're going to be eating things that are beyond ugly in the very near future.

Meet the hoki, a common cod-like family member:

Never heard of it?  Not surprising, afterall how many times do you ask McDonald's what's in its Filet-O-Fish?  

(ewww)

The hoki is commonly found off the coast of New Zealand but have been located in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  It's an uninspiring-looking fish.  Its large eyes, which makes it look constantly surprised, dull silvery-scaled body which ends into a whip-tail, and protruding jaw doesn't exactly make it a prime choice for aquariums.

So what makes the hoki the main attraction of the fast-food culinary world?  Well, sadly because its cousins have been trawled to near-collapse.  Its veneer hides the desirable flesh beneath.  Its flesh is dense and milky white, it tends to be flaky and mildly sweet.  It was also discovered as a substitute source to many other local species.

There are plethora of problems related to the trawling of this fish.  Where shall we start.  Let's start a list, we like lists.

1. It's not sustainable, not at the rate we're going.  Yes, we really like it when fisheries take responsibility and aim to keep fish stocks at healthy levels.  But, discovering a specie that seems so large, especially during spawning seasons, that we think we we can dip our big trawlers in every year without making a dent is ludicrous.  When the hoki was discovered as an acceptable substitute, New Zealand set trawling quotas surprisingly high.  Only recently has it slashed those numbers.
2. Have you ever been on a speed dating session?  You know how you mark down the people you really, really like, then the people you like, then the people if you absolutely had to go out with last?  Well the hoki would be the absolute last choice.  But because the more desirable fish species like the red snapper and orange roughy have been traumatically damaged we're looking at the butter-face of fishes.  When will we stop the madness.
3. Two words for the future: blob fish.
   

What is a good substitute to eating this fish or other kinds?  Well we're big fans of salads.