I went shopping yesterday and bought two kinds of fish that are sorta new to me.

The first is tilapia, which Steve Shaw would presumably reject outright because it is widely farmed. I assume these fillets were not from wild-caught fish because I could buy them without feeling a deep pang in the wallet. I have read that tilapia is very popular with people who make (and, presumably, eat) fish tacos, so I plan to cook them à la Méxique (or my idea thereof), with lime juice, garlic and cilantro.

The other is a big packet of frozen fillets -- it was on special, of course -- of a species marketed here as "basa", which Wikipedia tells me is Pangasius bocourti, a catfish native to the delta of the Mekong River. Now, I know that our neighbours to the south consider catfish to be a staple food and, often, a great treat, but I have a hard time overcoming prejudice against the species that thrives in the Ottawa River and its tributaries. I was brought up to consider catfish (called barbotte where I come from) to be dangerously inedible because of its bottom-dwelling, scavanger nature -- but then, when I was young, the Rideau River was but a step up from an open sewer. Thanks to public health efforts and stern regulation, things are better now.

Back to the basa. Anyone out there with a good catfish recipe they'd care to share?