Seafood surprise: could rebranding this ugly fish as ‘Cornish sole’ make Brits eat it?

Seafood surprise: could rebranding this ugly fish as ‘Cornish sole’ make Brits eat it?

Source: the guardian

2/9/2021

Seafood surprise: could rebranding this ugly fish as ‘Cornish sole’ make Brits eat it?

Credit: Paulo Oliveira/Alamy

Megrim is caught in abundance off the coast of Cornwall, but until now has been much more popular in Spain than the UK. It’s hoped a new name might change all that.
Name: Cornish sole.

Age: Quite new. But actually not new.

Intriguing. Is it like northern soul, but from the south-west? No, but it’s good to get the inevitable sole/soul punnage out of the way early.

So it’s a fish. Looks horrid. Not at all. They love it in Spain.

They’re welcome to it in Spain. Cornish sole, you say? Why haven’t I heard of it before? It’s possible you might have known it as a megrim. Same species, Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis, new name.

No, still never heard of it. To be fair, although it is caught in abundance off the coast of Cornwall, 95% has been exported, mostly to Spain – until now.
Ah, yes, I’ve heard exporting fish to Europe isn’t quite the slippery-smooth process it once was. So someone has changed this fish’s name? The Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, no less. They consulted consumers, buyers and restaurant owners who said the name was putting British people off. “There’s this negative thing with megrim – it’s a ‘grim’ connotation”, said the CFPO’s chief executive, Paul Trebilcock.