In a bold culinary coup designed to seduce diners into seeing our “lowly” inshore panfish as something worthy of that saffron your sister in law brought back from Morocco, Rhody Rep. Seth Magaziner has worked with commercial fishing interests to guild the once-boring scup as a golden food-fish, worthy of royalty. State seafood marketers announced last month the official renaming of the local scup. Henceforth, the plentiful but branding-challenged bottom-feeder will be known by the decidedly more ‘pinkies up’ moniker: golden sea bream.
For Rhode Island’s commercial fishermen, the change is an attempt at floating them a financial life raft. For decades, commercial fishers have hauled in millions of pounds of the sustainable, sweet-tasting fish, but they feel the fish’s sales don’t match up with its flavor. Fishermen hope this golden “glow-up” will push the long-overlooked scup to the front of the case and onto more upscale plates.
For consumers, the rebranding means the local seafood counter is about to look a lot fancier. And maybe they’re right; diners who previously turned up their noses at “scup tacos” just might gladly pay $34 for a pan-seared “Rhody Golden Sea Bream” drizzled with lemon-caper butter. It’s the exact same fish, but now it matches the wine list.
However, we would urge caution before everyone jumps on this glamorous bandwagon. If neighboring states Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts adopt the name, coastal menus will descend into total linguistic chaos. Neighbors who call it “porgy” will have to change their signs, and local purists – stubbornly clinging to the vulgar ‘scup’ – will be forced to choke on the words ‘golden sea bream’ while crying in their clam cakes. Ask a grizzled old-timer at the Galilee docks where to catch some golden sea bream and you can expect to hear some words you wouldn’t repeat in mixed company!
The name change takes effect immediately. The fish, entirely unaware of its new high-society status, remains silver (not golden), spiny, and highly delicious.
But one has to ask, are the hoity-toitiest among us really so gullible that simply including the word ‘golden’ in the name of something they previously rejected might be enough to pry open their Gucci wallets? I’ve seen the commercials for The Real Housewives of Rhode Island, and I think I get it, now.
