Choosing Fish

There is no excuse for bad fish being offered for sale any more, now that refrigerated equipment makes it easy to transport fish for long distances in a freshly caught state. What we may sometimes see in fish shops these days are fresh fish that have been in shops too long, or fish that have been in and out of the freezer several times, thawed out and sold as "fresh" or "chilled". Unfortunately, the telltale signs of a thawed-out fish are less easy to detect than those of a stale fish. Look for a reliable fish shop, and for fish that have been iced, not blast-frozen.

A really fresh fish looks almost alive and ready to swim away. Its colour is bright, its flesh firm and rigid yet elastic to touch, and the skin will shine with a viscous slime that is clear and evenly distributed. The eyes are bright and bulging with black pupils, this is an indication of freshness. The eyes of a stale fish have greyish pupils with red rims and are dull and sunken. Fresh fish will always smell fresh and pleasant, while, quite obviously, the more offensive the odour, the staler the fish will be.

Good Selection Fresh fish gleams, has bright bulging eyes and bright red gills.	Bad Selection Stale fish look dull, the eyes have gone grey, cloudy and pupils are sunken and the gills are dirty.