Food markets in Chinatown, good stuff?
In a few cookbooks I've flipped through recently, the introduction to the Seafood section always contains some preface about fishmongers and fish markets. They warn, "if a fish market smells fishy, they're carrying old fish." I walk down Grand St. almost every day and I see (and smell) a whole lotta fish. There are plenty of people shopping, so what gives?
What is the quality of food at markets in Chinatown?
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2 Comments:
The smell isn't coming from the fish, it's the mess they make around the shops. Most of the chinese people I know don't buy the fish on ice, buy the fish in the tanks and have them kill and gut it. Even if you buy the fish on ice, you can check for how fresh it is by looking under the gills & the eyes.
I don't know how the Chinatown (in SF, NYC, Toronto, take your pick) have this amazing ability to transform over the course of the day, from the being some what clean first thing in the morning, into a big giant mess, and produce giant mountains of garbage by late afternoon.
Still remember my first trip to the Chinatown in NYC, there was a dead fish mysteriously in the gutters, at least 1/2 a block away from the nearest fish market. To this day, if in Chinatown with my brother, we would randomly say "Watch out for the fish!" for no good reason.
Quality of food and price at markets in Chinatown is generally good if there are chinese people shopping in it. Else they would quickly go out of business. However sanity conditions tend to get ignored until an epidemic hits. (i.e. world's largest chinatown, Hong Kong, after SARS)
gnomatic at 4:26AM on 08/06/08
Chinatown markets in general are especially good for produce bargains and there's a reason why they can buy cheaper and sell at lower prices than mainstream non-Chinese markets. NPR had a really good piece on this topic in january 2007 - here's a link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6827952
phaelon56 at 10:40AM on 08/06/08