They say that too much of a good thing is bad. And Gindara, also known as Cod Fish, Escolar or Sablefish, is a white fish usually served as a steak or sashimi, is a good example.
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| Gindara Steak |
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| Gindara Sashimi |
I once encountered this fish a few years back when a seafood store opened up near our house. My mom would usually prepare it by cooking it in a little butter and adding a little worcestershire sauce, calamansi juice, and oyster sauce or teryaki sauce. The fish is quite soft and flakes up when cut with a fork. Taste wise, I have to say it tastes amazing! It's quite creamy and not fishy at all.
Normally, when we have it for dinner, my mom would serve up at most two pieces of Gindara steaks along with other dishes. And because at lest four of us would have to share with the fish, I get to eat roughly half of a steak cut. A couple of weeks ago, my mom bought this fish from a department store and prepared it as usual. But this time, I enjoyed eating it that I got to finish almost one whole cut of the fish.
I had no idea what was going to happen next. My night went normal, as well as most of my next day, until later that evening. I was in the bathroom doing my business (sorry for sharing this, but I think it might benefit some of you in the future). In the middle of everything, I noticed a rather foul scent different from what I usual smell. I thought it was nothing, but when I washed my behind, I felt that it was quite slippery. And when I looked down, that's when I noticed red-orange oily spots in the toilet together with my stool.
I was scared. I had no idea what was going on, but I tried not to let it show at first. I went online and tried to look for stuff similar to what I have and got even more afraid. I read a lot (and I mean a lot) of articles about them (the orange oily culprits) being caused by malabsorption of fat, a liver/gallbladder/bile release problem, or some kind of intestinal problem. I've read a few saying something about lacking probiotics in the intestinal tract. And because I just underwent some kind of detox with the use of tea laxatives a day before, I thought this was the cause. Others also mentioned something about eating too much fish or nuts, but my little "fish feast" last night didn't really come to mind at that moment.
After about an hour of keeping things to myself, I decided that I had to tell my mom whats going on. She agreed with me that probably it was because of my detox-gone-wrong so I asked my dad to buy me some yogurt and Yakult which are good sources of lactobacilli. Although I thought that I finally found the cause and solution of my problem, I still furthered my research.
After a few more clicks on various links, I found this blog that cleared everything out. This guy was talking about a past experience with a fish called escolar. Compared to me, he ate a lot more of the fish (he said a cut the size of his plate!). Reading his blog, I found out that this fish was once banned in countries like Japan and the United States because of it's possible harm it may have on our health, saying that eating the fish is like eating a bar of butter because of how oily it was. This is due to the fish's inability to absorb oil, therefore storing the oil close to its flesh. A Japanese sushi maker was even quoted of saying that the fish was too much for him when it comes to sushi. The ban was lifted when studies failed to prove how dangerous the fish was to the health of humans and was once again sold in these countries with a warning that people should only eat a maximum of 6 oz. After his story, I looked for a picture of escolar in the internet and at once recognized the all-too-familiar cut of fish.
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| Gindara |
I have to say that my experience changed the way I look at one of my favorite fish steaks. I may have to be careful when I am faced with this dish in the future. And like what I have said, I have to keep in mind that too much of a good thing really is bad.
P.S. I tried my best to look for the blog I mentioned, but I couldn't find it (sorry).
Lots of Love,
J<3
7 comments:
Hi there, from what I read, unfortunately you might have been a victim of seafood mislabelling, and the fish that your mother bought from the store was actually either Oilfish or Escolar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oilfish; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escolar
consuming these fishes would indeed result in explosive (and oily/waxy) diarrhea (Keriorrhea | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keriorrhea), and these fishes do taste similar to Gindara
Thanks for sharing your story... I have also experienced exactly the same thing as yours, and i thought that this is a very good source of detoxifying element to human body!
how did u cure it? i have the same problem now
gindara and oilfish are two different types of fish. but they look alike in fillet form. one is damn nice and the other one causes diarrhoea.
@Kevin Kyle Hao I didn't do any thing. It just went away on its own around three days after . I hope yours did too :)
@Aditya liviandi and unkown I guess you may be right. 'Cause like I said in the post, I've eaten gindara more than a few times in the past but this was the first time I've had this experience.
@Dexter Penaflor hahaha! You're welcome :) I just wish detoxifying wasn't that icky lol
Good pm. Thanks for sharing your story.
Had that experience of that fish when we visited Masbate, Philippines. It's called malapuntik in that province and we had that grilled (no marinate, just rubbed with salt). It really taste good and yup we were advised not to eat much of that fish.
@dhei jf It's true. It did taste really good. That's why I had a hard time from stopping my self to eat most of what was on the table. I was pretty young at that time too (around 14) so I had no idea what was going to happen. But now I'm more careful with the new things I eat.
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