Immitation is not always the best form of flattery

For those of you who know me, you know that I have a true love for food and, therefore, a love of the Food Network. However, the other day while watching Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee (she made a fabulous clam chowder by the way, yummy!), she used immitation crab in one of her dishes. This left me with the question..."What the hell is immitation crab?" and why is it in so many things? What do people have against the real thing? Obviously, we enjoy the flavor of crab otherwise why would we be striving to immitate it. So I decided to research this enigma and found that immitation crab is actually Alaska Pollack, that's right, it's fish! Actually, it is fish with natural and artificial crab flavorings added to it. Where one goes to find natural or artificial crab flavorings, I have no idea. But then I started to feel bad for the unappreciated Pollack, is it not special enough to be enjoyed as itself? Must it dress up as crab in order to get attention? Pollack is not up there with the other recognizable fish entrees of Halibut or Salmon or SeaBass. Would I get funny looks at restaurants if I ordered Pollack cakes? I say we give the Pollack the recognition it deserves. After all, Pollack has probably done a lot in furthering the fame of the crab, where would California Rolls be without it?

So, the next time you reach for those California Rolls, I suggest you take a moment of silence and thank the Pollack for the sacrifices it has had to make to further the career of the crab over his own!