3 ms·

This happens extremely often in Greece, targetting clueless tourists.

metroholografix 7y ago
I seriously doubt that this happens "extremely often" in Greece. First, for small fish like fresh anchovies and sardines (extremely popular and widely sold) this problem is nonexistent. Most/all tavernas and inexpensive restaurants in Greece that have bigger fresh fish on the menu encourage you to go into the kitchen and either pick the fish yourself or watch it being picked/prepared for you. Additionally, when grilled or fried the entire fish is served on the plate. Finally, the really expensive gourmet fish restaurants have a reputation to uphold and wouldn't risk it to target "clueless tourists".
- dependenttypes 7y ago
  > for small fish like fresh anchovies and sardines (extremely popular and widely sold) this problem is non-existent. Yes, I am referring to bigger fish indeed. > Most/all tavernas and inexpensive restaurants in Greece that have bigger fresh fish on the menu encourage you to go into the kitchen and either pick the fish yourself or watch it being picked/prepared for you Where did you get that from? That absolutely never happens. And even if it did happen unless if they had the fish labelled the tourists would still be unable to know if they were being tricked. > the really expensive gourmet fish restaurants I was mostly referring to taverns. You will find lots of them in touristic areas. Gourmet restaurants not so much.
  - qqn 7y ago
    Agreed, I lived in Trikala and Athens for close to a year and never heard of this "pick your own fish" option. In fact, I was surprised by how unpopular fish seemed to be. In Thessaloniki all we ate were gyros and pizzas (poor students), the restaurant owner who served us in Nafpaktos was proud to call his town "the meat capital" of the country, on a trip to Delphi and Olympia we just had the typical meat and roasted vegetable/salad shared meal, and in Crete my friends told me the best thing was rabbit stew. Either way, we had only meat in both Heraklion and Chania. In Rhodes we were told by a souvenir seller that they ate "everything", but that octopus was the best... until they all got eaten. The deer were also good, but those got eaten as well... so gyros for us there too. The two seafood meals I do remember were at the base of Poseidon's temple in Sounion (a small, pretty dodgy Russian café at which we ate because it was the only thing there and the bus wasn't coming back for another hour), and traveling in downtown Corfu in the middle of their deadest season and being offered some pink fish the size of a shoe for €50. We ended up getting some fresh prawns and pizzas for much, much cheaper. The marble and roses and Venetian influence were well worth the rip-off attempt though. I'm not saying no one eats fish there, just I had ample time to see it if it were the case and, well, nope. Very surprising for a peninsula, but then I just figured they were overfished. What I did learn though is that my absolute favourite Greek food is their simple salad. You can literally taste the sun. All these places: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Trikala,+Greece/Thessaloniki,+Greece/Athens,+Greece/Delphi,+Greece/Olimpia,+Greece/Nafpaktos,+Greece/Crete,+Greece/Rhodes,+Greece/Corfu,+Greece/Sounion,+Greece https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Trikala,+Greece/Thessaloniki...
elorant 7y ago
No, it doesn't. In tourists' spots in Greece the fish is served whole, not filleted. There's no way you can order one thing and be served something else. Also the menu regarding fish products isn't fixed. It depends on what is available on any given day. What can and does happen occasionally is to be served fish that isn't quite fresh.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  Serving the fish whole doesn't address the problem that most people not accustomed to being served a whole fish likely don't know what a salmon or tuna or trout or tilapia or yellowtail or what have you actually looks like, let alone be able to differentiate between them. Sure, maybe they'll figure out some obvious cases (catfish are pretty distinctive, and anchovies/sardines are typically served whole even in the "West"), and some freshwater fish like salmon and trout might be recognizable to folks who've gone fishing at least once in their lives, but otherwise there's a pretty good chance you can point at a halibut, say "this is a tilapia", and get someone to believe you.
- dependenttypes 7y ago
  The actual menu paper is static, it usually just says to ask the server about what is available for the day.

I seriously doubt that this happens "extremely often" in Greece. First, for small fish like fresh anchovies and sardines (extremely popular and widely sold) this problem is nonexistent. Most/all tavernas and inexpensive restaurants in Greece that have bigger fresh fish on the menu encourage you to go into the kitchen and either pick the fish yourself or watch it being picked/prepared for you. Additionally, when grilled or fried the entire fish is served on the plate. Finally, the really expensive gourmet fish restaurants have a reputation to uphold and wouldn't risk it to target "clueless tourists".

dependenttypes 7y ago
> for small fish like fresh anchovies and sardines (extremely popular and widely sold) this problem is non-existent. Yes, I am referring to bigger fish indeed. > Most/all tavernas and inexpensive restaurants in Greece that have bigger fresh fish on the menu encourage you to go into the kitchen and either pick the fish yourself or watch it being picked/prepared for you Where did you get that from? That absolutely never happens. And even if it did happen unless if they had the fish labelled the tourists would still be unable to know if they were being tricked. > the really expensive gourmet fish restaurants I was mostly referring to taverns. You will find lots of them in touristic areas. Gourmet restaurants not so much.
- qqn 7y ago
  Agreed, I lived in Trikala and Athens for close to a year and never heard of this "pick your own fish" option. In fact, I was surprised by how unpopular fish seemed to be. In Thessaloniki all we ate were gyros and pizzas (poor students), the restaurant owner who served us in Nafpaktos was proud to call his town "the meat capital" of the country, on a trip to Delphi and Olympia we just had the typical meat and roasted vegetable/salad shared meal, and in Crete my friends told me the best thing was rabbit stew. Either way, we had only meat in both Heraklion and Chania. In Rhodes we were told by a souvenir seller that they ate "everything", but that octopus was the best... until they all got eaten. The deer were also good, but those got eaten as well... so gyros for us there too. The two seafood meals I do remember were at the base of Poseidon's temple in Sounion (a small, pretty dodgy Russian café at which we ate because it was the only thing there and the bus wasn't coming back for another hour), and traveling in downtown Corfu in the middle of their deadest season and being offered some pink fish the size of a shoe for €50. We ended up getting some fresh prawns and pizzas for much, much cheaper. The marble and roses and Venetian influence were well worth the rip-off attempt though. I'm not saying no one eats fish there, just I had ample time to see it if it were the case and, well, nope. Very surprising for a peninsula, but then I just figured they were overfished. What I did learn though is that my absolute favourite Greek food is their simple salad. You can literally taste the sun. All these places: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Trikala,+Greece/Thessaloniki,+Greece/Athens,+Greece/Delphi,+Greece/Olimpia,+Greece/Nafpaktos,+Greece/Crete,+Greece/Rhodes,+Greece/Corfu,+Greece/Sounion,+Greece https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Trikala,+Greece/Thessaloniki...

elorant 7y ago

No, it doesn't. In tourists' spots in Greece the fish is served whole, not filleted. There's no way you can order one thing and be served something else. Also the menu regarding fish products isn't fixed. It depends on what is available on any given day. What can and does happen occasionally is to be served fish that isn't quite fresh.

yellowapple 7y ago
Serving the fish whole doesn't address the problem that most people not accustomed to being served a whole fish likely don't know what a salmon or tuna or trout or tilapia or yellowtail or what have you actually looks like, let alone be able to differentiate between them. Sure, maybe they'll figure out some obvious cases (catfish are pretty distinctive, and anchovies/sardines are typically served whole even in the "West"), and some freshwater fish like salmon and trout might be recognizable to folks who've gone fishing at least once in their lives, but otherwise there's a pretty good chance you can point at a halibut, say "this is a tilapia", and get someone to believe you.
dependenttypes 7y ago
The actual menu paper is static, it usually just says to ask the server about what is available for the day.