DIARRHEA, OR NOT

 
The Asian market didn’t have salmon. The fishmongers didn’t even know what it was. Alice decided on escolar.

At dinner, Alice googled escolar. It is diarrhea fish, aka “Ex-Lax fish: banned in Japan and Italy.” The package, from Taiwan, mentioned something about possible digestive problems: “Escolar is rich and decadent . . . might cause abdominal discomfort if overconsumed.”

Alice wouldn’t eat the fish, but I would. Why would anybody knowingly eat “diarrhea fish”? Ask me. I also ate at Taco Bell recently.

Escolar is used in sushi, so how can it be banned in Japan? I have to look into this.

Wikipedia . . . “Escolar (Lepidocybium flavobrunneum) has been banned for sale as food in Japan since 1977 due to its high concentration of indigestible wax esters (gempylotoxin). While not toxic in the traditional sense, consumption often causes keriorrhea, a form of severe, oily diarrhea. It is often fraudulently mislabeled as ‘white tuna’ or ‘butterfish.'”

Escolar is simply a chunk of fat, and it’s cheap, which is probably why Alice bought it.

At Taco Bell on Monday, I read the Wall Street Journal while “dining.” The CDC advised customers to avoid T-Bells in Ohio and other Midwest states. I figured that was old news (WSJ print edition). I figured T-Bell had solved the problem by now. The store manager said business was down 75% in the store. Good. No teenagers or nutcakes in there.

The T-Bell Crunchwrap Supreme is worthy of risk-taking. The escolar, not so much.

(So far, so good.)