Where to Buy Fish

Fish Shops @ Granville Island

What with be more convenient when shopping for fish than a place like Granville Island in Vancouver, BC where you will find four fish shops within a stone's throw of each other. In fact, three are found under the same roof of the Granville Island public market: Seafood City, Long Liner Seafoods and Salmon Shop. The fourth one, Lobster Man, is located in another building. If you are interested in smoked salmon, there is a fifth shop, Granville Island Smokery, that is just right beside the Lobster Man.

So what's unique about the stores? The first pair are seen in the following video. Seafood City has the distinction of having a live tank for dunganess crabs, atlantic lobster and assorted oysters, mussels and clams. It carries a set of fresh whole fish, showing off in particular the New Zealand Tai Snapper and the Tunisian Sea Bass. On the other hand, Long Liner is the only one, in addition to a regular line of fish products, to carry New Zealand frozen green mussels on the half-shell, herring roll mops and marinated herring fillet.

The second pair of stores are seen in the next video. Salmon Shop also carries whole fishes. The brill sole and the farmed spring salmon caught my attention. The store also carries a varied amount of oven ready fish products. Lobster Man deals mainly with live shellfishes. It carries the Nova Scotia atlantic lobsters, BC Dunganess Crabs. There is a line up of 15 oyster varieties: Caraquet, Stellar Bay, Pacific Rim Petites, Effingham Inlet, Fanny Bay, Royal Miyagi, Golden Mantle, Summer Breeze, Medium Beach, Large Beach, Mary Point, European Flat Oyster and, Village Bay. Their European flat oysters reminded me of the round shaped Moonstone Oysters from Point Judith, Wakefield, Rhode Island. In addition, the store also carried Perriwinkles, Savory clams, Manila Clams, PEI mussels and local BC mussels. Customers serve themselves on the bivalves and they are provided assistance by the staff in case they need lobsters or crabs. They also cook these for you on the spot.

A fifth store specialized in smoked fish products, principally, the salmon types.

April 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fisherman's Market @ Steveston

Located in Richmond city in the greater Vancouver region, the Steveston Fisherman's Wharf draws a good crowd on weekends. Several fishing boats dock on the pier and sell fish catch of the week. Last Saturday, April 7, 2007, the cold rainy day did not deter me from finding out what fish is available in the market.

Three boats were selling live lemon sole fish about the size of a paper plate. The fish were kept alive in aerated tanks on the boats. Upon the customers' requests, fishes were scooped out of the hold for selection and purchase. A special treat occurred when a live skate and a baby shark was brought out for viewing.

One boat in particular was selling rockfishes of the following types: yellow eye (known as the pacific red snapper), canary, copper, yellow tail, tiger, china and black. Two other boats were carried local shrimps. I noticed that the orange tarpulins used as extended roofings in the selling area made the shrimps looked more red-orange.Three other boats were selling frozen-at-sea (FAS) wild ocean caught sockeye salmon, about 6-9 lbs. per piece.

Here are the other members of the rock fish family. When filleted, they are marketed as snappers. In the picture from left to right: yellow tail, tiger, canary, copper, black and china.

April 11, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

T&T - Seafood Department

Located in the International Village, beside the Skytrain station at Stadium-Chinatown, Vancouver, the seafood department of the T&T supermarket leads all other fish stores in the live product category. It's aquarium carries live: red king crab, BC spot prawns, dungeness crabs, trout, lemon sole, lingcod, rock cod, cherry tilapia. On the ceramic tanks, one will find assorted shellfishes: mussels, oysters, manila clams, geoduck clams, pacific scallops, atlantic hard shell lobsters.