KARE 11 Walleye Extra

[Corey Bechtold]

Tommorow on the KARE 11 Extra they have a segment on the Walleye you get at resturants. They take some samples of the "Walleye" and test it to see if it's really Walleye! All I know is the only way to know for sure is to catch it yourself!

Just a little FYI.

[jigginjim]

I ate at Cracker Barrel in lakeville one night. Order the walleye dinner, to try a some new ideas for making fishing, and got catfish. When the waitress asked how is the walleye? I told her "the catfish was ok but I wish they would have said, the walleye maybe replaced with catfish if out of walleye." She asked "how do you know it was catfish?"

My wife said "he knows what type of fish it is. He's a fishing guide and he the one who cooks all the fish at our house." I got the dinner for free, because I didn't make a big scene over the which. They said they had a new cook.

[Jeremy airjer W]

The wife and I had the walley dinner this last summer at the Tavern on Grand. By far the best restaraunt walleye I've ever had. No wonder why they call themselves "Minnesotas Official Restaraunt"!

[Tom Linderholm]

O.K. here it is! If you are paying less than $12 for walleye you are getting sauger(european). Chances are right now you will be hard pressed to find real walleye in your local restaurant. Walleye is going for as much as 4/5ths as Saltwater Tuna right now. With that being said alot of your walleye from local restaraunts is coming from europe (not really walleye). Sorry for the truth.

[MRWALLEYE2005]

What about Red Lobster?

[Fergus Mor McErc]

It's been correctly stated that the fish billed as Walleye in the local restaurants is more than likely Sauger, however, the Sauger served here is probably from Lake Erie or Lake Winnepeg. Freshwater Fish Corp. is a part of the Canadian government and probably supplies the US with 90% of the Walleye/Sauger sold here and most of it is from Lake Winnepeg. (At least that's how it used to be when I was in the business.)

Freshwater Fish Corp has been selling Sauger as Walleye to America for decades but it is shipped to this country labeled as 'Yellows", (no mention of either Walleye or Sauger) and Norhtern Pike is shipped here as "Jack's'. The Zander is the European Walleye.

[hanson]

I was listening to this on the way in to work this morning. Amazing!

Kare 11 went to a dozen or so restaurants in the twin cities. The restaurants are supposedly 'Famous' for their walleye. They took samples of the fish they were served and had them analyzed in a lab. Half of the restaurants weren't serving walleye but were claiming to be. Apparently if you aren't getting walleye, you are getting Zander imported from Eastern Europe.

Its an interesting story.

[Catfish John]

another common substitue is the Alaska Pollock aka Walleye Pollock

Species Name: Alaska Pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). Regional names include Walleye pollock, bigeye cod, snow cod, whiting, Pacific tomcod and Pacific pollock.

Geography: Central California coast to Bering Sea, south to Kamchatka (Sea of Othosk) and southern Sea of Japan.

Seasonality: Year round (frozen) and fresh during fall & winter (frozen is more common).

Appearance/Flavor: Translucent white meat, which becomes opaque when cooked. Taste is similar to cod, but flakes are smaller than cod and it’s not as firm. In Japan, the roe is sometimes salted, colored with red vegetable dye and sold as Momijiko.

[LEECH21]

I'm a kitchen manager for a Green Mill, which is based out of the cities, and we definately serve REAL walleye. It comes to us straight from Canada.

[Tom Linderholm]

We as well serve Canadian Coldwater, but we have to we are based on Lake Superior and If a customer asked where the walleye was from I think most of us would have a hard time saying "Oh its from Amsterdam". I will tell you what though when "eyes" shot up to $7+ a pound those $4 european fish were looking mighty good for my food cost. We get people in the restaurant who gripe over paying $18.99 for walleye because they get it for half the cost at the local pub. What they don't understand is exactly what Kare TV has exposed. Bottom Line...You get what you pay for!

[Corey Bechtold]

jigginjim, that's too funny! It will be interesting to see if they test that resturant you were at last night!

Corey Bechtold

[huskiesplayer15]

I didnt know sauger was european, i thought it was zander that come from over the big puddle? Weird.

Best Fishes

Chris

[mnvikingsfreak]

who cares!!?? is kare 11 so desprate for filling their 30 minute spot they need to send a sample of "walleye" to a dna lab? this is funny! walleye,sauger etc... throw some tarter sauce on it and you cant tell the differnce

[MRWALLEYE2005]

Im going to stay away from eating walleye at restaurants from now on. There better right after there caught than at restaurants anyways.

[Fishook]

If you order "Alaskan Walleye" you are most likely getting Pollock. Alaska is one of two states that do not have Walleyes as a fresh water fish. Also, that fish sandwich you order at a fast food place is probably "bleached" fresh water rough fish like Carp, Suckers, Buffalo, etc. I have been personally told this by a commercial fisherman when I asked him 'what do you do with all these rough fish you net?'

[JohnMickish]

Very good article. Some of the better restaurants are not telling the truth. I'm sure everyone will be honest for a little while now but you know that they will go back to the cheating ways to make a few extra bucks.

[frabillfisher]

Ah dump i jsut ate a fillet-o-fish from macdonalds today ..if thats the truth no more fish for me..stick to walleye I know is reall walleye

[Jaypo]

Airjer is right.. If you haven't had the walleye at Tavern on Grand in St. Paul, you are missing out! My wife and I were engaged there over that fish (whatever it was). Call it Sauger or Walleye, but Tavern prepares it masterfully!

If it is good enough for foreign presidents(Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990), you may want to give it a go...

[Fergus Mor McErc]

The fish you get at McDonalds etc... is not rough fish. It's Cod. Do a web search, it's easy to find out what's in most of what we eat. Some lesser fish sandwiches may use Whiting or Hake but Cod is one of the most eaten fish in the world, because of places like McDonalds.

[ironman]

I also started a thread on this subject...it's listed as "OH no not the Zander"...it's right here in the ice fishing main forum. I personally dont think it's a big deal...I go into greater detail in the other post...no need to repeat myself. I've had great walleye and bad walleye...I've also had good and bad steaks, I'm not about to go shoot a cow if I run out of hamburger at the house. I'll take my chances at the steakhouse...I just hope they dont serve me Angus that's really holstein!!

[Valv]

A couple of years ago I had my folks from Italy at a restaurant and I bragged about Minnesota Walleye, so they ordered it. Well I guess now I know they probably ate something that came from their backyard.....

I wonder how many european personalities have eaten Zander instead of Walleye, while staying in Minnesota, and were impressed from the taste of this exquisite fish...