# Pangasius anyone?



## thinblueduke (Oct 21, 2014)

I recently discovered pagasius filets at my local supermarket here in Japan.  They're tasty, boneless, and cheap.  I've been frying them up with a little S&P, Old Bay, and some of my BBQ rub, but I'm thinking I might want to try some on the ECB.

As I understand it, pangasius is in the catfish family, and is also called "shark catfish."  I'm guessing I could just hot smoke it until it looks done?  I use an ECB that's been converted to gas-assist.  For most of my smokes, I use a big chunk of sakura cherry.  When it starts to cool down, I add some butane heat.  Seems to work pretty well for me.

Anyways, if anybody's got some input on smoking pangasius, I'm all ears... or whiskers!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangasius


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## brayhaven (Oct 21, 2014)

Those are "farm" raised catfish from se Asia. There was a documentary on the web a while back. If you knew what they feed them, you'd think twice about eating them :). 
I only eat wild caught fish.  I'll take the mercury any day :)
Greg


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## thinblueduke (Oct 21, 2014)

Greg,

I haven't seen the one you're talking about, but I usually take web-based documentaries with a grain of salt, or a full shaker's worth.  There's a lot of corporate-funded and politically-funded disinformation on the web.  In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if someone was worried about losing market share.

Thanks for your input, though.  I'm glad I didn't ask about hot dogs.  Those wild-caught wieners are getting harder and harder to find these days.


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## brayhaven (Oct 22, 2014)

thinblueduke said:


> Greg,
> 
> I haven't seen the one you're talking about, but I usually take web-based documentaries with a grain of salt, or a full shaker's worth.  There's a lot of corporate-funded and politically-funded disinformation on the web.  In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if someone was worried about losing market share.
> 
> Thanks for your input, though.  I'm glad I didn't ask about hot dogs.  Those wild-caught wieners are getting harder and harder to find these days.


Well, it's certainly your call. Of course the propaganda is in both directions as the Vietnamese attempt to assure the world their fish are pure and safe :o). Their government funds the PR efforts. Our catfish farmers have produced some documentaries also, showing the conditions the fish are raised in.. 

The indisputable facts are that they are raised mostly in the Mekong river which has areas that are severely polluted.  Many of the cages are located down stream from populated villages where the high "nutrient" content of the water reduces feed bills :o). The waterfront homes have holes in the floor for toilets, the off water areas are served by open sewers that drain to the river.  Industrial pollution is also rampant in areas of commericial production. There are no standards of raising the fish as we have here in terms of water quality, feed, fish concentrations or handling procedures, during processing.. etc etc. The new farm bill this year is supposed to address some of these shortcomings, but there is skepticism it will do anything.  The fish farming & processing itself is causing pollution.

I spent time on the Mekong River many years ago and it always smelled like raw sewage.  That was when the country had a population of 17 million.  It's quadrupled from that now, much of that along the river.  

I don't even eat farm raised fish here in the US, mainly because I don't like the texture or flavor as well as wild caught. 

But, it's an individual choice.  They're shipping a lot of that stuff and somebody has to eat it :o).

Greg


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