Published on 12, July, 2020
For the first time ever I went to a fishmonger's shop with my mum. I've always had a kind of phobia of butcher's and fishmonger's shops.
Anyway, the staff in this fishmongers were all my worst fears confirmed. My mum asked the young woman behind the counter if any of the fish were local.
A young man and an older man both heard the question too. There was a silence for about 5 seconds while they looked at us like we had three heads.
Then the older man stepped in, and looking at the fish in the window and said with some disdain or annoyance the mackerel was probably local.
We bought a plaice and it was tasty enough but mine had a few bones still in it. we won't be going there again.
The thing that amazes me though is for a fishmonger's to keep going in today's economic climate they must have plenty of repeat customers. I just wonder why. The fish was more expensive than a supermarket, and in my opinion it's only worth paying more if the fishmonger is able to tell you about where the fish have come from.
Some places, including near me, have a fish van which sells locally caught fish the day it has been caught. Literally it comes off the boat and into the van and on it’s way to a number of local villages. It might be worth checking online if there’s similar near you, that way you ‘know’ that the fish is both fresh and local without having to ask the seller.
I really like the sound of that! I had a look but it doesn't seem anything runs like that here. There's another fishmonger's in a posher part of town though. The one we went to was in the town centre. So we're going to try there next, the place we just went to has a 4.3 review average on google but the other one we want to try has a 5.0 review average and they both have 9 reviews each so it looks quite promising.
Try a local market, the fish vans usually go to those too