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Winter Flounder -- This brown fish is the most common shallow-water flatfish in North America. It is a right-sided flounder, which means that it has both eyes on the right side. The tail area on the eyeless side of some individuals, especially larger ones, is yellow, which is why the fish is often called "lemon sole". The winter flounder spends its adult life in the ocean during the summer, but moves into estuaries in the winter, where it spawns in late winter/ early spring. Its small mouth restricts its food to worms, some small fish, and crustaceans. This fish, along with the summer flounder, supports a large sport fishery and one of the most important commercial flounder fisheries in the United States. It may grow to 25 inches long and 8 pounds.



Summer Flounder -- Like all flounders, the summer flounder has both eyes on the same side of its head; in this case, the left side. The eyed side of the fish is brownish with conspicuous black spots; the eyeless side, which rests on the bottom, is almost white. However, the fish can use color adaptation to match the bay or ocean bottom. It also may partially bury itself to camouflage. Also called "fluke", the summer flounder is one of the larger flounders. It feds on fish, squid, shrimp, and crabs, and may grow to 37 inches and 26 pounds.



CULINARY DESCRIPTION



Winter flounder produce both a white and a gray fillet from each fish, but both turn pure white when cooked, as will the fillets from the summer flounder. Flounder are a highly desirable food fish, renowned for their fine, tender, yet firm texture. The taste is very delicate, often described as sweet and nut-like. Fillets are the form typically prepared.



Care must be taken not to overcook flounder for it is a very low-fat fish. As soon as the flesh turns white, it is done. Handle flounder gently when cooking. You would never stir-fry and would rarely grill flounder. Thinner fillets (1/2 inch or less) work best rolled and microwaved or poached. Thicker fillets may be baked with a sauce, or broiled using moist heat, or fried; pan-fry lightly dusted thinner pieces, and deepfry thicker, boneless pieces that have been dipped in an egg wash and coated.



Source: http://www.ocean.udel.edu/mas/seafood/flounder.html

The soles are flatfishes of various families. Narrowly speaking, they are the members of the family Soleidae, but, outside Europe, the name 'sole' is also applied to various other similar flatfish, especially other members of the sole suborder Soleoidei as well as members of the flounder family. The True Sole solea solea is sufficiently broadly distributed that it is not considered a threatened species; however, overfishing in Europe has produced severely diminished populations, with declining catches in many regions. For example, the western English Channel and Irish Sea sole fisheries face potential collapse according to data in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.



In European cookery, there are several species which may be considered 'true' soles, but the common or Dover sole Solea solea, often simply called the 'sole', is the most esteemed and most widely available. (Davidson)



The name 'sole' comes from its resemblance to a sandal, Latin solea. In other languages, it is named for the tongue, e.g. German Zunge, Spanish lenguado.



The name 'sole' outside Europe presents a confusing picture. Davidson says:



In North America, the two names [sole and flounder] are applied in what seems like a haphazard manner across the whole range of flatfish.... So on seeing what we call a sole an American would be apt to describe it as a flounder. If served what we call a flounder he would probably wonder why it had been deprived of the more honorific title of sole. The situation is irremediable. (Davidson, 1972, p. 224)

Indeed, in North American restaurants, the name 'sole' is often used to name any small flatfish, especially when filleted.



Worldwide, members of several groups of flatfish are called 'soles'. A complete list can be found using Fishbase's search function. They include:



Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sole_%28fish%29