PaPaPeng wrote:

> The Oriental method (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc.) of cooking
> seafood is to preserve its freshness and natural body juices that
> roasting and frying will destroy.

Too many of us are too far from the sea to have much freshness left in our
fish to preserve.

> The cooking time for fish is critical and extremely short. The fish is
> done as soon as the flesh
> turns white. The smooth texture and distinctive flavor of almost raw
> flesh is preserved.

Seafood cooked by any method just be just cooked.

> Raw fish is a delicacy. But this needs fish that
> is very, very fresh and therefore only specialty restaurants serve
> them.

Some raw fish is a delicacy. Try raw trout sometime and you will understand
why it is always served cooked.

> We will never dream of roasting or baking fresh fish as it overcooks
> it and dry out the flesh turning the flesh tasteless, tough, rough and
> fibrous to the tongue.

It overcooks it if you bake it too long.

> There will be some fish dishes that will be deep fried. The deep
> fried breaded crispy skin and brittle fins is a delicacy. Only a few
> fish, mostly flat fish, qualify to be deep fried. Do notice that
> once the skin is peeled back the flesh is fresh and juicy and just as
> tasty as steamed fish.

Fish has to be fairly firm in order to be suitable for deep frying.

>
> There are other methods of cooking seafood the oriental way. I am no
> culinary expert and can't give a deserving description of the art.
> But I sure know what's good eating.

There's nothing wrong with a nice fresh pan fried trout. Salmon baked in
pastry can be a real treat. Salmon is also very good when cooked on a
grill. There's a lot to be said for the taste and texture variations in a
piece of fish that has caramelized a bit on the outside. I think that most of
us in this newsgroup are quite adventurous when it comes to different foods
and ethnic styles of cooking and really don't need any preaching about which
is the superlative style.