Sea Bass
First issue: this is not the fish called Chilean sea bass, served with some frequency in restaurants around town, is not really a sea bass, and it's not the fish I'm talking about here. (It comes from the Southern Ocean, near Antarctica, and we're just doing local fish in this survey.
A number of sea basses live in the Gulf of Mexico, and we're seeing them on our tables more often. Until recently, we had more experience with sea bass from our trips to New York than we did around here. The sea basses are much more common in the Northeast, where they are much liked.
With good reason. Black bass, white bass, and striped bass (in order of my preference) are very fine eating fish. They're fairly easy to catch, too (that's what I'm told, anyway) and easy to fillet. The smaller ones (the striped bass can get pretty big; the others are around the size of a speckled trout) are very good fish to roast or fry whole. They lend themselves well to being baked under a pile of kosher salt (the way Chef Jamie Shannon used to do at Commander's Palace).
As for the fillets, they're pretty and pale ivory, excellent in the standard white-tablecloth dishes: meuniere, with pecans, poached and topped with hollandaise, etc.
We don't see this as often as we'd like to, but it's a great fish you should certainly grab if it turns up as a special anywhere. John Besh likes it and serves it often at August.
