In a message dated 10/20/00 3:10:36 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< David,

I really don't know, I was passing on what I was told. However, you don't
often see the shells when you order scallops at the restaurant, or the fish
market. The price is usually based on the weight of the meat, as I
understand, so I don't think the consumer is getting to see the sprinkles.
Just a guess. What say you?

Frank (Now I can't sleep) in Massachusetts
 >>

In the US you don't see scallop shells at the fish market, but in Europe? You
might well. I think we should ask the European members of the list for
comment.

The US, especially the Northeast, ain't fish eating country. I'm not singling
you out Frank. I've spent most of my over forty years in Connecticut (The
Personality-less State). When I was a kid, mussels were considered bait. No
right thinking Yank would touch them. And squid? You're joking. We still call
them calamari when we eat them. I've never seen squid on a menu, even in a
Thai restaurant. It would be, well, unappetizing!

 As consumers we expand our culinary repertoire only after aggressive
marketing on the part of the seafood industry. And that happens when they've
stripped out the population of some fish species we were used to eating.

I've got lots of vegetarian friends. Me, I eat meat, but I find myself eating
less and less seafood. Some of it's for health reasons. Mussels, for example,
just aren't as appetizing as they once were. (I understand that downstream
mussels are used to monitor for leakage from nuclear power plants. Mussels
being such determined little filter feeders.) I'm pretty much done eating all
bivalves, though I think they are delicious. Strangely I've never been a
gastropod fan. I'll take the garlic butter - you can have the snails. But
eating fish is depressing these days, like eating fricassee of spotted owl or
something.

Yet I don't mind eating chicken or beef because there are lots of chickens &
cows. I'm not being completely consistent because agribiz generates pollution
that isn't doing species diversity any good either. As much as I try not to
make my calls based on sentimentality, I'm only human. And since I've started
diving it's only gotten worse. These animals aren't abstracts when you've
seen them living their lives.  Grouper are as charming as they are delicious.
The thought of eating shark or tuna about breaks my heart. If I'm a guest and
I'm served fish, I eat it. I don't want to be rude. But it makes me feel like
Lucy and Susan when they learn the venison they are being served was a
talking stag. Kinda sticks in the throat.

Ellen (who needs coffee!)