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Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by thaumasiotes on Sunday September 20, 2020 @11:06PM (#24539406)
> on average half of Americans have fish sticks once a year?

It's probably a lot less spread out than that. Some people might like fish sticks. But in my mind, they're something that people give to kids. I haven't had one in decades. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a large majority of purchased fish sticks are not purchased by someone who intends to eat them.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by zhte415 on Monday September 21, 2020 @12:06AM (#24539689)
Certainly tends to be popular with kids in the UK as a quick and easy dish: Put them under the grill (broiler), heat some backed beans, butter some bread, fruit for desert, and there's a reasonably nutritious fast food lunch once a week that can be prepared in a hurry.

On numbers:

A quick search [1] suggests 1.5 million fish fingers are eaten per day in the UK (18 per second).

A US search was less easy, but at 25,000 tons per year, and 26 grams per stick, that'd be the equivalent 2.6 million fish sticks consumed (purchased, I suppose) per day in the USA, which on a per-capita basis is interestingly much less.

[1] https://www.intrafish.com/marketplace/youll-never-guess-how-...

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by mattmanser on Monday September 21, 2020 @04:12AM (#24540957)
For other confused Britons.

Fish sticks = Fish Fingers != seafood sticks

If you said fish sticks to most people in the UK, they'd think you were talking about these:

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/287149425

A common gastro pub lunch time dish here in the UK is a posh fish finger sandwich, usually hand made fish fingers in a crusty white bread with a tartare sauce.

https://images.squaremeal.co.uk/cloud/article/9374/images/be...

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by implements on Monday September 21, 2020 @10:03AM (#24543587)
For the financially distressed you can also make a serviceable fish finger sandwich with toasted and buttered thick white sandwich bread and a scrape of Pataks curry paste.

Iceland do 28 “prison grade” fish fingers for £2, and you can ‘cook’ them in a microwave for the same time it takes to do the toast.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by faichai on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:03AM (#24541245)
Posh Fish Fingers = Fish Goujons
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by 082349872349872 on Monday September 21, 2020 @06:45AM (#24541851)
https://www.tatler.com/article/new-rules-of-social-engagemen...

What's Hancock's Golden Rule?

Edit: seems to be the "rule of six". Best exceptions are country sports: hunting ("scaring the horses") and angling ("revising our knots"). Worst exceptions: canoeing/kayaking (too reminiscent of american beer) and gymnastics (unless one is the Duke of York?).

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by wil421 on Monday September 21, 2020 @07:57AM (#24542271)
At least tesco tells the truth. In the US those would be called imitation crab sticks. Where imitation would be in a small font that isn’t noticeable at first glance.

Crab flavored cod sticks.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by SamBam on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:58AM (#24543514)
Almost always pollock in the US, but yeah.

https://www.google.com/search?q=imitation+crab&tbm=shop

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by thaumasiotes on Monday September 21, 2020 @12:05PM (#24544989)
This fails to demonstrate that "imitation would be in a small font that isn’t noticeable at first glance". It's always prominent, and often part of the single most prominent piece of text on the package.

https://www.google.com/shopping/product/8945736565554256086?...

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by orclev on Monday September 21, 2020 @10:47AM (#24544095)
More generally labeled as Krab.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by soylentcola on Monday September 21, 2020 @11:27AM (#24544535)
Yeah, we call it "kay-rab" to avoid confusion.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by quercusa on Monday September 21, 2020 @10:54AM (#24544172)
This USian was quite a few decades old before realizing that Four of fish and finger pie might not be a strange British delicacy.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by soylentcola on Monday September 21, 2020 @11:27AM (#24544526)
Heh...I assume you do know the meaning now. Got a chuckle when I learned that as well.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by OJFord on Monday September 21, 2020 @04:06AM (#24540923)
Oh, fish sticks = fish fingers?

I assumed they were like crab sticks, but mixed fish.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by VBprogrammer on Monday September 21, 2020 @06:20AM (#24541692)
Amusingly, crab sticks are usually made of pulverised white fish and starch. They don't actually contain any crab.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by Fnoord on Monday September 21, 2020 @07:13AM (#24541999)
Surimi also contains chicken egg protein. I guess for emulsifying. Surimi might contain crab, but then its a very small % (the legal requirement).

I bought real (river)crabs at Ikea. Needs a lot of time to get rid of the ice, and its a bit messy and tricky to eat (take your time!), but I found it delicious. The flavor is unlike anything I ever had, and the texture is pristine and delicate. After a while, it even becomes fun to dismantle them. Though the very first one got my glasses full with... whatever it was.

As for fish sticks, I know the brand we got contains Atlantic cod. Its a very cheap fish, and quite frankly it tastes disgusting (had it out of oven while cooking on budget). However the sticks add structure (crisp/bite and salt I suppose) to the otherwise bland fish which remind me of rotten fish, so they make it edible. Our daughter (2) loves them, and they can easily be prepared in an airfryer or oven. They might be a bit salty though.

Normal Atlantic cod I'd rather just feed my cats. Even with seasoning I still find it barely edible, and I just got this rule with fish (and shellfish) if it smells or tastes something remotely resembling rotten, I don't eat it. Cause as kid I ate enough of that already. Plus I generally eat my foods seasoned, with herbs and spices. Dill, for example, goes great with a lot of fish.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by throwaway0a5e on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:17AM (#24542964)
Pretty much any fish will be decent as a fillet. Pretty much nothing you get in a fish stick or processed product is going to be any good because if it were it would have been made into something higher margin. Fish sticks are the hot dogs of the ocean.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by OJFord on Monday September 21, 2020 @07:22AM (#24542044)
Yeah, I wouldn't buy something sold as 'fish' fingers personally. If I wanted them, you can (at least in the UK) also get 'cod fingers', 'haddock fingers', perhaps others (e.g. hake) rather than minced fish surprise.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by nemacol on Monday September 21, 2020 @08:12AM (#24542379)
Are the crabs you purchased from Ikea crab legs or more like crayfish (aka crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, mudbugs, or yabbies.)?
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by pvaldes on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:04AM (#24542818)
Ikea wouldn't sell the crab sticks. Cooked crayfishes are part of the swedish culture. They even have a summer party (kräftskiva) based on eating those. My father caught a lot also when he was young.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by Fnoord on Monday September 21, 2020 @08:22AM (#24542455)
Red crayfish, they were quite small. Not a gigantic lobster (would love to try that too). My ex-girlfriend had hermit crabs as pets. These were smaller, and they sometimes attacked or ate each other (when vulnerable without shell due to losing skin), which put the cycle of life in perspective. Still felt a bit odd.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by OJFord on Monday September 21, 2020 @07:18AM (#24542022)
Huh I didn't know that, or that they were Japanese ('surimi') - I've only ever had or seen them in France.

(Not that I've been to Japan, but I'm English, so not having seen them here I just associated them as being a French supermarket snack.)

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by thaumasiotes on Monday September 21, 2020 @01:21PM (#24546015)
> I didn't know that, or that they were Japanese ('surimi') - I've only ever had or seen them in France.

Could be a coincidence. Naomi is a very traditional Hebrew girls' name, and also a Japanese girls' name.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by kube-system on Monday September 21, 2020 @01:03AM (#24539980)
It’s mostly seen as a food for kids in the US too.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by coldtea on Monday September 21, 2020 @04:09AM (#24540945)
On the other hands most US adults eat what many would deem kids food...
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by mrguyorama on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:40AM (#24543262)
The cynical take is that many US adults never really grew up
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by watwut on Monday September 21, 2020 @03:24AM (#24540727)
All the food that US sees as "for kids" is stuff that I dont want kids to eat too much.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by wil421 on Monday September 21, 2020 @08:21AM (#24542448)
Nobody has to feed their kid or themselves that crap. Unfortunately, many people are just fine pressing some buttons on a microwave to feed a family.

I don’t like feeding my kid any baby food, even organic, but we make the majority of it.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by qppo on Sunday September 20, 2020 @11:25PM (#24539487)
Averages aren't really good metrics for statistics that don't fall on a bell curve, like with a lot of consumables. Take alchohol [0] consumption, if you look at raw numbers the "average" American drinks quite a lot per day, but it turns out the average American probably doesn't drink much at all.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think...

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by thaumasiotes on Sunday September 20, 2020 @11:33PM (#24539530)
I think my parent comment's point, that the premise "marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks" hasn't actually been shown, stands. Sure, the average doesn't tell us much, but it does tell us that consumption is really, really low. The more you push consumption levels up to realistic amounts for some people, the more other people you have to admit will never touch a fish stick in their lives.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by singron on Sunday September 20, 2020 @11:31PM (#24539516)
It's like they say: the average American is half male, half female, and has 1.9 children.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by bryanrasmussen on Monday September 21, 2020 @02:19AM (#24540389)
It actually varies by year and region with a slightly higher than half percentage being male https://ourworldindata.org/gender-ratio
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by Simon_says on Monday September 21, 2020 @03:32AM (#24540775)
No, not in the US. Most Americans are women. China and India skew the global percentages.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by newen on Sunday September 20, 2020 @11:34PM (#24539537)
The modal American is the more correct term I guess. Mode is a type of average, so it works out.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by samatman on Monday September 21, 2020 @12:13AM (#24539723)
I think what we're getting from this is that the modal American doesn't eat fish sticks in a typical year, since the mean American eats half a serving.

It's likely that modal group is so large that the median American doesn't eat any in a typical year, either.

For the record: I have eaten 0 fish sticks in 2020, so far, and expect that the record will stand.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by mark-r on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:57AM (#24543497)
I think the average American doesn't understand averages.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by nkrisc on Monday September 21, 2020 @12:43AM (#24539886)
The only fish sticks I eat are the ones my kid doesn't. Perhaps it's not accurate to say that marketers convinced people to buy them for their kids.

If I want an easy to cook seafood meal I'm just throwing a frozen tilapia fillet in the oven with some garlic and butter.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by DiffProg on Monday September 21, 2020 @01:25AM (#24540104)
Agreed. Fish sticks must be a regional thing, maybe East Coast where more fried fish is common. The only cheap fish of this sort that I see around the Portland area isn't fried, it's tilapia.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by ako on Monday September 21, 2020 @01:00AM (#24539963)
Seafood? Tilapia are freshwater fish...
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by rags2riches on Monday September 21, 2020 @01:10AM (#24540020)
"Seafood, edible aquatic animals, excluding mammals, but including both freshwater and ocean creatures." Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Picking words apart and applying literal interpretations to their component is often a bad idea. Language rarely works that way.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by Angostura on Monday September 21, 2020 @03:43AM (#24540825)
That's a bizarre definition:

Cambridge English dictionary: "animals from the sea that can be eaten, especially fish or sea creatures with shells"

Merriam Webster: "edible marine fish and shellfish"

These are much more reasonable definitions, more line with modern usage. I doubt you will find any dictionaries that mirror your Britania definition.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by nightski on Monday September 21, 2020 @03:48AM (#24540846)
I grew up in and have lived near the land of 10,000 lakes (MN) almost my entire life and not once in my 35+ years of life has anyone referred to fish out of those lakes as seafood. Ever. In fact people around here I feel would be utterly confused if you did. I wouldn't fault him with not following Encyclopedia Britannica exactly.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by zrobotics on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:49AM (#24543387)
Huh? In MN, WI and the upper peninsula of Michigan I have sat in multiple restaurants that had a seafood section in the menu that proudly claimed fresh caught (insert nearest great lake) fish. Maybe not so much in Central Minnesota, but I have definitely seen this in Duluth, and I doubt that the average Minnesotan would be confused by calling lake fish seafood. Although if we are being truly pedantic I suppose that the great lakes would more properly be considered inland seas.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by neonate on Monday September 21, 2020 @02:23AM (#24540419)
Totally agree, but GP may not be a native speaker.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by VBprogrammer on Monday September 21, 2020 @06:10AM (#24541629)
If someone said they didn't like seafood, or even had a seafood allergy, would you happily serve them a freshwater fish and expect them to eat it?
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by nkrisc on Monday September 21, 2020 @07:55AM (#24542244)
Yes, but I chose the word "seafood" because I wanted to broadly refer to all fish and edible aquatic animals, and I figured people would know what I meant since the discussion wasn't really about where the fish are from.

I couldn't think of a better word that refers to cuisine involving animals that live in the water.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by orclev on Monday September 21, 2020 @10:51AM (#24544135)
That's because there isn't one. Fish of any kind is generally considered to be seafood.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by Falkon1313 on Monday September 21, 2020 @03:14AM (#24540679)
They are an alternative to chicken nuggets that could fill another day on the school lunch menu and also for parents whose kids would only eat bland brown things or who didn't want to cook. Almost no one really intentionally eats them.

People who wanted fish and wanted it simple would go with canned sardines, canned tuna, or canned salmon made into salmon patties. Those who wanted fresh fish and were willing to cook would just get fresh fish and cook it however they wanted.

How often do you see fish sticks on a gourmet restaurant's menu? If you ever see it on a restaurant's menu, it'd be in the "kid's meals" section of a cheaper restaurant, next to or in place of chicken nuggets. If people actually wanted them, it wouldn't just be tucked away there.

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by jacobush on Monday September 21, 2020 @06:20AM (#24541694)
Made me wonder how good fish sticks would taste, made from fresh fish, newly ground, (i.e. not breaded fish filet!) and some kind of really nice bread crumbs and eggs for the crust.
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by mrguyorama on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:44AM (#24543312)
Isn't that just over complicating fish and chips?
Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by pwinnski on Monday September 21, 2020 @11:33AM (#24544598)
I ate these quite regularly as a kid. We were poor, and fish sticks were cheap protein.

Then a few decades went by when I wouldn't eat them at all.

Then I married someone who grew up on an island and couldn't understand why I don't eat more fish (I live in Dallas!). So now fish sticks are back on the menu. And still pretty cheap!

Re:How marketers convinced America to eat fish sticks by fatnoah on Monday September 21, 2020 @03:48PM (#24547648)
Fish sticks w/BBQ sauce and some peas was one my staple meals in college. I still occasionally crave it, but probably only act on that craving ever other year or so.