Keeping Your Restaurant Busy

As a restaurant owner, there aren't many things more challenging than keeping a steady stream of customers coming in through the front door. Unfortunately, these kinds of challenges can eventually arrest the cash flow of your business, which can cause all kinds of problems in the long run. About three months ago, I decided that it would be a good idea to start focusing more on my own restaurant so that I could improve things. I started small, by changing the way that our team handled a few things, and then eventually worked towards reworking the entire menu. This blog is all about making your restaurant more profitable.

Eating Fish And Seafood: A Buying Guide For Safe Consumption

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The American Heart Association recommends eating at least two servings of fish every week, preferably fatty fish that are high in omega-3 fatty acids. Care should be given to the fish you choose to eat, however. There is a delicate balance between reaping the benefits of consuming fish and seafood, protecting the environment, and avoiding environmental contamination. Here are two things to consider when choosing fish at the market or in a restaurant.

Select Smaller Fish

The largest fish are also the ones that have the highest mercury content. Mercury acts in the human body as a neurotoxin, and a buildup can be dangerous to your brain and nervous system. It can be especially damaging for pregnant women and small children.

Fatty fishes that are least likely to have a buildup of mercury are smaller fish. Choose fish like salmon, mackerel, lake trout, sardines, whitefish, freshwater trout, and herring. Catfish, flounder, Atlantic haddock, pollack, and Pacific sole are other good fish options that tend to be low from mercury contamination. Seafood such as clams, scallops, shrimp, squid, crawfish, and crab are other safe bets. You can safely enjoy these fish and shellfish as often as you like.

Alaskan cod, lobster, fresh water perch, Mahi Mahi, and monkfish should not be eaten more than six times per month, while halibut, Chilean sea bass, albacore and yellowfin tuna, and ocean perch should be eaten three times a month or less. Grouper, orange roughy, swordfish, shark, and ahi tuna should not be eaten due to their tendency to be extremely high in mercury.

Buy American

Americans consume almost five billion pounds of fish and seafood every year. This figure includes both farmed and wild-caught. While you may see great bargains on frozen shrimp or tilapia at the major big box retailers, you'll want to do a little research before buying.

For example, almost all of the fresh shrimp sold in the United States hails from places like Vietnam, China, and other Asian countries, countries that don't have the benefit of government health agencies overseeing their farming operations. In recent testing, a staggering 60 percent of frozen shrimp was found to contain Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli, and MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant "superbug," Staphylococcus aureus. Any one of these organisms can be extremely dangerous- even deadly- in those with a compromised immune system. Protect your health, and only buy seafood and fish that you can clearly determine is harvested in the U.S.

Whether you are at your local fishmonger or dining in a seafood restaurant like Milano House of Pizza, don't be afraid to ask for specific details about the provenance of a fish you are considering purchasing. You don't want to regularly eat fish for a healthy heart just to potentially damage the rest of your body. 

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29 December 2016