Have you seen in Price Smart a pretty affordable fish called Corvinata? Well, its not Corvina, guess what it is?

[3tsrd3p3yc86g]

I WONDER WHY THEY DON'T SAY THE REAL NAME on the package!!!

Many Panamanians are disgusted by the idea of eating the meat of this animal due to the fact that sharks are perceived as “human-eating” animals. However, what many of these same people don’t know is that, sometimes, when we eat “ceviche de corvina” we are actually eating shark. This meat comes mostly from juvenile or newborn sharks. In addition, when you go to the fish market or to the supermarket and buy “corvinata” or “cazón” it is actually all-white meat (no dark meat) from small and medium-sized sharks.

SOURCE   http://www.biomuseopanama.org/en/blog/yehudi-and-sharks-ii

[Lee Zeltzer]

Sharks  excrete nitrogenous wastes as urea, which is a less toxic compound than ammonia. A complex biochemical pathway called the ornithine-urea cycle converts ammonia to urea, which can be stored more safely in the blood. In a live shark, ammonia doesn't accumulate because it is quickly converted to urea. When the shark dies, the urea deteriorates back into ammonia, which is why shark meat often tastes and smells of ammonia. Apparently you can remove much of this ammonia by soaking the flesh in freswater or lemon juice before cooking it.

[Patrick]

I heard that it goes great with Blood Pudding!!!

[Bonnie Williams]

I agree that there's nothing better than raw oysters from the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico unless, just maybe, it's Maine lobster.

[wryawry]

"JAWS" had it bass-ackwards.

Your chum,

wryawry

[Keith Woolford]

Interesting article on the subject including Tables of recommended and unrecommended seafoods in Panama. http://www.prensa.com/impreso/panorama/¿corvina-o-tiburon/291659

[Roger Bellido]

Keith

For sure it is an interesting list of recommended and not recommended seafood in Panama.  

I read La Prensa almost everyday and did not remember that list.  Interesting.

[Judy Sacco]

I don't think corvinata is shark.  Shark has a completely different texture.  Various sites say it is a type of salt water catfish.  I haven't found any site that says it is shark.

[Elizabeth Worley]

I don't know for certain, but I've been told that corvinata is farm fed tilapia. I've eaten shark here from the fish vendors and it has a very different taste and texture from the 'corvinata' filets at Romero's, Rey, etc.

[Keith Woolford]

When I specifically asked about Corvinata at El Rey one day the reply was "Chark". "Tiburon?", I asked. "Si". The LaPrensa article notes there are 400 species of sharks in Panamanian waters, some being harvested to the point of extinction.

[Keith Woolford]

My preferred seafood ..on the right.