Whether you refer to these fish as local sea bream, scup or porgy it is all the same delicious, mild and flaky fish from  local New England waters. They chomp mollusks and crabs with their knobby teeth, which makes them sweet. What is incredible to me is the vast difference in price and desirability between these guys and their domesticated Euro cousins, the daurade, that many chefs are accustomed to using. Daurade are very uniform in size because they are farmed, but they dont taste nearly as delicious as porgies. Red, Maddai and Tai Snappers are also very similar to our local porgies, ever had a snapper ceviche? Of course you have, remember? On your trip to Mexico last year. Maybe you had too many coronas at the time, but trust me it happened.

Don't tell me you forgot about these guys, too! I'm starting to think you have a selective memory...

Instead of importing expensive fish from Japan, Mexico and NZ I think everybody should give scup a chance! Eating the local bream is good for the fishermen and good for your wallet! Scup have a generous catch limit, they are super abundant and let me know if I am beating a dead horse when I say that its isn’t the species of fish, but the freshness that counts!

Local Bream, the real deal.

Laurent Gras has some photos of Maddai Snapper on his website. They look almost identical to the bream that our fishermen are catching right now.