Tilapia’s mild flavor pairs well with a host of seasonings

Tilapia is:

a.) a Siberian lap dog

b.) a tasty pudding

c.) a mild-tasting white fish

d.) none of the above

This quiz appeared on a T-shirt worn by a member of the Tilapia Marketing Institute in the late ’90s. A few years later the National Fisheries Institute reported the mild-tasting white fish had inched onto the Top 10 seafood list. But even with clever marketing ploys, Midwestern consumers sometimes still feel like fish out of water.

Turns out, tilapia is for the timid.

A freshwater fish, tilapia stays fresh longer than saltwater fish varieties during shipping. Tilapia’s mild, firm-textured flesh with few bones pairs well with a host of flavors and is adaptable to a variety of cooking methods, including baking, broiling, grilling, poaching, braising and steaming.

Tilapia can be substituted in recipes that call for sole, snapper, flounder, cod, sea bass and orange roughy. An excellent source of protein minus the saturated fats, it is a heart healthy choice: A 4-ounce tilapia fillet contains about 90 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acid.

Tilapia is sometimes referred to as “St. Peter’s” fish because legend says it is the fish from biblical times. More recently tilapia was flown on the shuttle to see whether they could thrive in space station fish farms.

As one of the most important food fishes in the world, tilapia is bred in fresh-water ponds on every continent around the world except Antarctica. In the United States, tilapia production is concentrated in Texas, Arizona and Florida.

This story was originally published April 1, 2014 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Tilapia’s mild flavor pairs well with a host of seasonings."