Naughty Restaurant

Some people like to eat fish, and I'm one of them.

For those of us who like to eat fish, who take great pleasure in the many variations of the meat styles and flavors, I'm confident that we'd be able to pick tilapia between it and cod.

I chose those two for that example for a reason.

If you don't eat fish: tilapia, when uncut, is a rectangular horseshoe with one side two to three times as thick as the other---it tastes like dirt or dirty clay, and it goes down easy; cod is white and flaky, being a large bottom feeder, the "fish" of fish and chips, and has very little flavor or character on its own.

If you do eat fish: really?

At Corrie's birthday I ordered the cioppino. Instantly the tilapia pieces announced themselves once off the spoon.

Of the flaky white meat that makes up the cod/halibut/flounder family of flavors, some are better than others. One of the best of the family is sole. It has a strong sense of the buttery oils and nutty baseline that characterize the family.

Odeum, a restaurant in Morgan Hill---a Santa Clara County city I'd never heard of---was charging guests for Petrale sole ($32) but they were giving them tilapia, the most affordable fish available.

That's naughty, but not naughty enough to get a titled post. Maybe they ran out and in a pinch hoped nobody would notice. Some people may not have noticed. I would have. Corrie too. Norm. You get the picture, but I can see a fancy restaurant trying to cover their ass for a night.

But somebody, I'm imagining in my head, must have not been fooled, and asked to see the manager. Did this manager then head back to the kitchen and try to hash out an explanation with the sous-chef, or did they know the game? The accusation from a knowing client---this is tilapia and not sole---was denied.

Guess what?

Odeum was prosecuted for deliberately ripping off their guests. It wasn't just one party. Enough people complained, saw no change, and must have contacted authorities. There was an investigation and eventual settlement: a thousand thirty-dollar gift cards (one each per guest after filling out a form) and a $90k civil fine.

Getting busted is naughty enough.

Possible warning sign spotted on the menu: the petrale sole was claimed to be wild-caught.

The recommendation is that you stock your sole from one of the Marine Stewardship Council certified fisheries.