Haddock help
A UK reader wrote to me asking where she could find haddock in Israel (if at all).
I just checked, and unfortunately haddock is not being imported to Israel at this time. I know of two fish and chips restaurants in Jerusalem -one in Mahane Yehuda and one on Ben Yehuda so I thought I would see what fish they use.
You can see that the fish they use at the Fishenchips restaurant in Mahane Yehuda are lavrak (sea bass), salmon, musht (tilapia), and denis (sea bream). Apparently they also use cod.
The Fishbar restaurant on Ben Yehuda uses cod, burie (mullet), red tuna, sole, St.Peter (tilapia), and denis (sea bream).
Regarding the Hebrew name, the dictionary says it is חמור ים- “sea donkey” but that does not seem right- I will confirm that it is the official name.
There are a few lists in the blogosphere that translate fish names from Hebrew to English, but my favorite (and the most accurate) one is Marc Gottlieb’s at culinart kosher. I have a few comments, however:
- Albacore tuna is “tuna levana” טונה לבנה and not just tuna. Skipjack tuna is “tuna behira” טונה בהירה.
- “Salmon” סלמון does not have to be Atlantic salmon- in fact, only Norwegian salmon is imported into Israel.
- “Bass” in Hebrew is spelled באס and not בס. There is a non-kosher fish called בסה “basah” which is pangasius.
I hope this helps! If I hear of haddock being imported, I will let you know. Thanks for writing in!
couponing in the holy land 
To be nerdy about it, albacore tuna is טונה ארוכת-סנפיר, but I added “tuna levana”. I also added skipjack, and removed the unnecessary ‘Atlantic’ from salmon (everyone needs an editor).
However, I couldn’t find compelling evidence to change the way bass was spelled in Hebrew, so I left it.
Thanks for helping tweak the data.
FYI. the charts are also available to go at http://m.culinartkosher.com/charts/ (there’s an Android app)
Hi Marc-
Thanks for commenting!
I base my information on the Israeli legislation- there is a list of official fish names in the import guidance document (pp.30-40). There they have bass listed with the alef. I must correct myself- they do list “Atlantic salmon” as “סלמון”- I apologize, but the fish is still imported from Norway. The distinction between skipjack and albacore tuna is from the canned tuna standards from Machon HaTekanim (p.3) That is what the manufacturers have to put on the label. I have not seen the other names listed in the table used.
Sorry for the confusion everyone- I should make the distinction between the scientific and legal names.
Funny, because I used the scientific names to correlate the Hebrew and English through fishbase.org.
I’d be more willing to believe it was a typo or misspelling. Let’s make it easy and we’ll all just eat לברק (“levrak” sea bass)
You were right about the salmon; and there are more than two types anyway, but still it generally comes from Norway. The stuff worth eating, anyway. Still waiting for Arctic char. And coho salmon…
But no matter what, I am *not* listing chum salmon 😀
Agreed!
Scientifically, Fishbase is the Torah for fish names, but legally it becomes a matter of commercial interests to name a fish a certain way.
I would be thrilled if you would post a recipe for levrak for us!