I recently bought frozen octopus that was caught and imported from Portugal because the local stores were sold out of the octopus from Spain. There was also a package of octopus imported from Vietnam but the seafood department employee said that wasn't as good. Does anyone know if there is a difference in taste or quality of the octopus meat depending on where it was caught? If so, how extreme is the difference and would the difference be apparent to the person eating it?
Seafood Quality – Does Octopus Origin Affect Flavor and Quality?
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Fresh seafood shouldn't be overly "fishy". It's generally older seafood that will get a stronger "fishy" smell and flavour.
That said, there are 3 approaches to a "less fishy" result:
- Absorb/reduce fishiness: you can always try something like soaking it in milk (which you can then save to use for a fishy bechamel when your sister isn't dining with you). You could then rinse it off and cook it however you want. This should help "absorb" some of the fishiness and make it milder.
- Disguise fishiness: The other angle is to "cover up" the flavour with lots of spicy glaze or garlic/lemon flavours instead.
- Pick mild seafood: The other thing to try is to pick a more mildly flavoured fish (e.g. a white fish instead of something like tuna or salmon). Avoid oily fish as they tend to have a stronger flavour. Choosing something really fresh also falls into this category.
In the case of quickly perishable items like meat, when it's not an advertised sale, shops will sharply discount prices if they anticipate that they will be otherwise left with product beyond the sell-by date. So the answer to your question is both yes and no.
There is nothing wrong with buying something just before the sell-by date, but you do need to use or freeze it sooner rather than later. For everything but seafood, I jump all over those sales. I can barely tell the difference between super-fresh and right-at-the-sell-by-date for most items. Seafood is an exception for me, but that is just me. I will pay extra to get super-fresh seafood, even though I'll buy milk and meat right at the sell-by date if it saves me a few pennies.
So in this case, like many others, the key to making an informed choice lies in reading the label. No reputable grocery will alter the sell-by date. At least in the US, getting caught doing that will close a shop down and land people in jail. So read the label (or the tag on the meat-case window), and be informed about what you are buying.
Best Answer
actually seafood's country origin does make a very relevant difference. Why? ocean floor type, water tempearture, tradewinds, upwelling and feed availability. Best octopus comes from Spain and Portugal (actually portuguese octopus is the best) Viet, China, Indonesia or Mexican octopus live in hot water. Portuguese coast has a very mild water temp, from 10 C to 20 C and a lot of sun exposure that triggers phytoplankton blooms. I could expand on this as I am a professional fisherman. Now, any country can import any seafood from anywhere and then label it as "theirs" so one must know which species are native to a certain location. Sustainability is also very imnportant and both Portugal and Spain are EU members where sustainability is a very serious matter.