Had this for the first time last night. Bought it from my local fishmonger, who said it was from the Southern waters off of Florida. That said, I decided to give it a "Floribbean" preparation, and poached it in a liquid of blended pineapple chunks, pineapple juice, unsweetended coconut milk, cumin, medium chili powder and a bit of white wine. It was delicious. So today I did a little research to find out more about this fish, at least from a nutritional standpoint. Lo and behold, I foundthis article. Neither my wife, daughter nor myself had even the slightest discomfort. Has anyone had a bad experience with escolar? I'm curious, because it was one-half to one-third the price of the meaty fish that we usually buy (Sea Bas, Halibut, Swordfish), and would consider eating it often. But not if it causes intestinal distress!

Never heard of that.

Between mercury and lead in some fish, and ciguatera in others, it is difficult to know what types of fish are safe to eat nowadays.

I have had it twice in the last three years, once , the meal was just fine, once got sick from escolar, but I thought it was food poisoning

While I, personally, have never gotten sick from escolar that it CAN happen is well known to restaurant chefs and has caused many to simply stop serving it rather than have guests believe they were served ill-prepared fish that made them "sick".

If I'm not mistaken it is not a poisoning thing with the fish but an allergy that some people have (and are unaware of). Pity, too, because it is a great fish prepared simply (grilled or seared/pan-roasted) and served with a fruity salsa.

One solution I've heard of is limiting portion size to 4, 5 or 6 ounce portions. Apparently the allergic reaction is less likely from a smaller portion. 8 ounces, from what I've read, is a ciritical point.

this article was very poorly researched. There's 2 kinds of escolar, one is "toxic", and the other isn't. What you find in restaurants or stores is the safe kind.

D.J.

So, are you saying there are two different fish both known/sold as escolar ? One toxic, one "safe" ? If so, how is it that many people do, in fact, have some sort of reaction to something called escolar served to them in a restaurant ? How does one know which is which ?

While I cannot vouch for the quality of the research in the articles I've read, your argument doesn't make much sense.