Is tuna replacing salmon as the default fish?

Almost all restaurants tend to carry at least one fish dish. And for years its seemed that the "default" fish dish for most restaurants has been salmon. As a Salmon lover, this was always disappointing: salmon is a great fish, flaky yet firm, with great natural flavor which can hold up to many sauces and preparations. Nevertheless, most restaurants haven't given it the love it deserves, and have subjected it to boring, generic preparations and flavors.

In the past few months, I've noted an alarming trend. Tuna, another one of my favorite fishes in its various forms (Ahi, Albacore, Yellow Tail, Blue Fin, and the bacon of the Sea, Toro) has seemingly started to replace Salmon as the default fish of most restaurants. Tuna is meaty, with a fresh clean flavor: a canvas upon which a great fish dish is made. However, that doesn't mean that the only way to prepare it is with a sesame crust, a soy/ginger reduction, rice, and bok choy. And I understand that the reason why this preparation is so prevalent is because its good. But look, try to show some creativity. Mix it up for crying out loud.

Let me give you two examples of mixing it up, one good, one horribly wrong, from a weekend of fine dining last week in San Jaun, Puerto Rico. First the good: "Pegao" tuna with chipotle chili from Pikayo. Pegao in Puerto Rican cooking refers to the crispy rice that sticks to the bottom of the pan after cooking stews and other rice dishes. In this deconstruction of the Puerto Rican classic, tuna tartare sits on a thin, crispy fried rice cracker, with a a chipotle aoli on top. Chipotle is a great flavor to pair with tuna (one I had never had before) because it has the distinct chili flavor with mild heat so as not to overpower the subtle taste of the tuna. The meaty tuna was delicious with the creamy chipotle and the rice cracker added great texture.

The bad: at BLT (Bistro Laurent Tourondel) I had the barbecue ahi. I was drawn to this dish because I saw a preparation I had never seen before and I appreciated the creativity, at least in theory. When I ate my dish, however, I realized that the Ahi was merely drenched in a overly smokey steak sauce. Whats great about barbecue flavors is that the inherent flavor of meat can hold up to the intense smokiness. The Ahi, could not. What I first thought was a creative twist, turned out to be another example of this disturbing trend—ahi as a default fish, with uncreative preperations.

Tuna and salmon are delicious fishes and neither should be a default on any menu. Tuna shouldn't replace salmon as the default fish. In fact, no fish should be a default fish.

(Fish=multiple Fish, Fishes=multiple species of fish)