Salt-Baked Sea Bass
$68 play money
Sea bass baked inside a salt crust that is cracked open at the table. On the ChowChow Feast menu it costs $68 in play money, which puts it in the Premium tier ($60 to $249). It is a dish worth saving some budget for.
No payment, no address, no delivery. This is a game.
Key facts
- Cuisine
- Mediterranean
- Menu section
- Seafood & Sushi
- Price tier
- Premium ($60 to $249)
- Play-money price
- $68
- Main ingredients
- whole sea bass, coarse salt crust
- How it is served
- A whole sea bass half-buried in a cracked white salt crust on an oval platter
History, tradition and origin
Cooking a whole fish is one of the oldest dishes there is, and in many cultures it carries meaning: a whole fish at Chinese new year stands for abundance, and fish on Fridays shaped menus across Europe. Frying fish in batter with fried potatoes became a working-class staple in nineteenth-century Britain, while salting and smoking kept fish through the winter in the north.
Food economy and industry
About half of the fish people eat is now farmed rather than caught. Salmon is raised in sea pens in Norway, Chile, Scotland and Canada, and sea bass and sea bream in the Mediterranean. Wild fisheries are managed with quotas and seasons, with mixed success. Fish is highly perishable, so ice, freezing and fast transport decide its price.
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