Dory? Sutchi? Pollack? Pollock? Disambiguation and Comparison

** Dory vs Sutchi

Increasingly in supermarkets across Malaysia, and apparently in other parts of the world too, we are getting lots of frozen whitefish originating from Vietnam.

Often labeled as Dory Fillets, these frozen fish fillets can be found in all major supermarkets such as Tesco, Giant, Jusco etc.

However, it seems that the so-called Dory Fillets had been mislabeled after all.
These fillets from Vietnam are actually an entirely different fish species, namely Sutchi catfish (also known as Siamese shark or iridescent shark, though it is not a shark, but catfish).
And the supermarkets know this.
Initially packaged and labeled as Dory Fillets, now most packages are labeled as Sutchi Fillets.
But to most people, they are still known as dory fillets, including yours truly until not so long ago.

The real deal, John Dory, is a really, really ugly fish which is the top predator in its habitat.
For more info, refer to this entry in Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, here's the deal on Sutchi catfish. A rather much more handsome fish compared to John Dory :)

However in terms of nutrition, John Dory champions over the Sutchi catfish.
Briefly, John Dory has higher polyunsaturated fatty acids percentage over the saturated ones as shown in this page from Australia Government's Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.
Contrastingly, the Vietname-sourced Sutchi Fillets contains high percentages of saturated fatty acids and low percentages of polyunsaturated fatty acids in a study published in 2008.

Hmm ... I guess I'll think twice the next time I feel like buying the Sutchi Fillets from the supermarkets. Which brings something else to mind, are our local restaurants that offers dory in their menu really do source the actual John Dory, or are they getting the 'not-John-Dory' Sutchi Fillets from their suppliers? As certain restaurants charges over RM20++ for their Dory selection, it'll be preposterous if you pay that amount only to get the inferior Sutchi Fillets.


** Pollock/Pollack
Pollock and Pollack is one and the same. No idea why there's two names for it. I'm sure the answer is out there somewhere. Here's the description on the fish in Wikipedia.
And the nutrition data for pollock can be found in this page.
Quote from page:

The good: This food is low in Saturated Fat. It is also a good source of Magnesium and Potassium, and a very good source of Protein, Vitamin B12, Phosphorus and Selenium.

The bad: This food is very high in Cholesterol.

So, a picture has now formed. That is, Sutchi Fillet (not nutritional), John Dory (nutritious), and Pollock (high cholesterol).

In terms of taste alone, John Dory has a distinctive light, sweet flavor. Sutchi Fillets has comparable flavor to John Dory though at times, they could be almost tasteless alone. Pollock has fairly strong fishy flavor, which necessitates the use of ginger or lemon juice to help "tame" the flavor.