There are plenty of good reasons to eat fish generally, and salmon specifically: It's healthy, for one, packed with beneficial fatty acids and other nutritious compounds. If you know what to look for, it's sustainable — fish has a much smaller environmental footprint than, say, beef. It's often quite affordable, especially if you're buying (which you should then be arranging onto a ).
In many respects, fish is the perfect protein. In other respects, it's ..
. well, it's fish, which may not be for everyone. Certain varieties, like mackerel, have a flavor that can only be described as fishy; you can imagine an otherwise curious eater stepping foot into a seafood market, getting a big whiff of the place, and turning right back around.
Folks who aren't wild about a strong fish flavor, though, shouldn't skip the fish market — they should ask for Coho salmon, which offers all of fish's virtues but is famously mild-tasting and easy to cook with. That makes it ideal for the fish-averse, or for any cook who's looking to make a seafood dish whose flavor isn't overpowered by the scent of the ocean. (Outside of the salmon family, tilapia and swordfish are a couple other, distinctly nonfishy fishes.
) One of seven species of salmon native to the Pacific, Coho — also know as silver salmon — is also a sustainable choice. Here's a little more about it, and how it relates to some other members of the salmon family. What is Coho salmon? Without meeting the entire family, here are a coupl.