Fresh Seafood

By using Senor Google out of curiosity, a simplistic explanation is that there are two basic types of lobster:

"• Clawed Lobster – Clawed lobsters are generally divided into two categories: American Lobsters and European Lobsters. Those lobster-lovers who live in North America are most familiar with the American Lobster, which is harvested off the coast of Maine and other New England states as well as near Canada’s Atlantic Provinces such as New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. European Lobsters, as one might expect, are found in the waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean from northwestern Norway all the way to Morocco and the Azores. They can also be found in the Mediterranean Sea west of Crete and sometimes in the Black Sea.

Both American and European clawed lobsters are of the cold water variety and thrive in chilly, shallow waters. American lobsters tend to be brown in color before they are cooked while the European variety is often blue. Both turn bright red after they are cooked.

In general, clawed lobsters have more meat than spiny lobsters and are the type that restaurant goers on the east coast of North America will most often find on menus. Much of their meat is found in their very large first set of legs/claws - those closest to the head. (They have 5 pairs of legs in all; the others are smaller.) Their tails don’t have as much meat as their spiny counterparts but tails from a Maine lobster are still considered to be the best and sweetest of all lobster meat.
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"• Spiny Lobsters – This kind of lobster is typically a warm water crustacean. Also known as rock lobsters and often indicated as such on a menu, this variety is found off the coast of California and often near Florida and in the waters of the Caribbean Sea. As a matter of fact, they are the biggest food export of the Islands of the Bahamas. They can also be found in the Mediterranean Sea and near Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and some other southeast Pacific islands, as well as along the coast of South Africa.

Physically, the Spiny Lobster looks different than the clawed lobster. The spiny variety has extremely long antennae, which helps it detect movement nearby, and –as the name indicates – it is covered with pointy spines to help protect it from predators. Unlike the American or European Lobster, these types of lobsters do not have large front claws but instead have five identical pair of legs. Because of that, most of the meat is found in the tail. "
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Stopped by yesterday for some fresh dorado and was amazed to see a bumper crop of assorted fishes. I mean the fish were stacked high and wide, covering their entire display case. They must be doing very well indeed.

Remember it's a holiday week and lots of Tapatios are out here staying at their "weekend" houses.

Ah, nice insight David, I think you nailed it. Of course the win for us is a huge selection of fresh fish which was good and is now great.

Yes, I love it! I've noticed on Saturdays and Sundays the majority of customers are Mexican. So I would expect more on long weekends and Holidays. This is good for us because we want the place to succeed.

With that in mind Saturday mornings should be the primo time to shop. Do you know what time they open? If so, see ya there, then.

I got stuck behing a group that was buying fish and took for ever to buy a huge quantity, I realized they owned a restaurant and a lot of the fish store business is a wholesale business.
Friday would be a big day as traditionallly the catholic eat/ ate fish that day.
I have been buying fish everyday for the last few days and most of the customers are Mexican any day of the week.

Yester day I got the last flounder/sole type fish that was delicious, the day before good mussels, today they had a good section of robalo, curvina, huachinango, pargo to mention just a few. I bought the curvina as it was really fresh.

Wholesale for the restaurants puts this place in the big leagues for quantity, quality, selection and the probability of success. Now with the Catholic angle Friday mornings will be a must shopping day. Thank youuuu Brigitte!

Tuesday, we stopped and bought 16 of the 16 - 20 size large shrimp. We split the shrimp into two portions for 2 of us meaning 4 shrimp per person for 2 meals. We froze 8 shrimp. That night we had Baked Stuffed Shrimp with seafood stuffing, mmmmm deelish. And of course drawn butter. We had a wild rice as an accompaniment.

That seafood store is the greatest addition to Ajijic. And it smells clean and looks clean.

oncesubtle wrote:With that in mind Saturday mornings should be the primo time to shop. Do you know what time they open? If so, see ya there, then.

I think 8:00.

Thanks David. I went there this morning at 10 a.m. and they were just starting to load the display case which tells me that if this is typical the earliest time to shop would be after 11 a.m.. Did manage to get a couple of kilos of fresh albacore (262 pesos) and noticed a bumper crop of huachinango, live oysters and mussels being sorted for display while the rest of their products were covered or out of sight.

Also got their business card with their phone number being 766-2203 and their web site at: www.pescaderiapacifico.com Pretty slick operation, card says they've been in the business for 30 years.

10 is late for them. Probably the truck was late. We ordered something months back and it didn't show because the truck broke down. I'd expect that on most days you could shop by 9.

brigitte,
you could offer a one day course on how to buy seafood lakeside.

if U put your arm into a barrel of crabs... the ones that grab hold and won't let go....

they're fresh!!

[quote="hockables"]if U put your arm into a barrel of crabs... the ones that grab hold and won't let go....

they're fresh!![/quote]

So, my darlin´wife walks up to the seafood monger´s stall at the Chedraui Supermarket in San Cristóbal de La Casas with the intent of buying mussels and, upon inspection, notes that the mussels for sale are dead.

WIFE; These mussels are dead. I don´t buy dead mussels!
FISH MONGER: Well, of course they´re dead. You want to eat live mussels?
WIFE: Let´s put it this way. I´ll only consume mussels I just personally did in myself and if you don´t understand that you should not be selling mussels.

Attention seafood lovers: Today the Pacifico Pescaderia (the new fish market just west of Ajijic) has a bumper crop of all the usual fishes and notably, fresh tuna (albacore), monk fish and a nice selection of halibut up to 14 lbs. Also in stock are frozen Alaskan king crab legs, lg. pacific lobster, and live oysters and clams. So if you're in the mood today is a great day to shop.

[quote="oncesubtle"]Attention seafood lovers: Today the Pacifico Pescaderia (the new fish market just west of Ajijic) has a bumper crop of all the usual fishes and notably, fresh tuna (albacore), monk fish and a nice selection of halibut up to 14 lbs. Also in stock are frozen Alaskan king crab legs, lg. pacific lobster, and live oysters and clams. So if you're in the mood today is a great day to shop. [/quote]

Dawg was in there today seeking fersh mussels which they did not have in stock telling me that they expect to have an abundance of this delicacy in on Saturday. I did note a huge inventory of fresh fish and some other types of shellfish. They seem to do a very significant wholesale business with a large restaurant clientele. One client. while I was there, walked out with an enormous sack of fresh oysters in their shells. What a great asset this branch of the Pacifico fish mongers in the Mercado Del Mar in Zapopan is to our community. Since they opened a few months ago, we have repeatedly enjoyed fresh fish and certain types of shellfish we have purchased there. We´ve lived here in Ajijic for eleven years and used to have to drive to Zapopan for this kind of delicious seafood. No more. They have now brought it to us.

I think this is the best thing that has happened to Ajijic in the 11 years that I've been here.

Bet they didn't have a 27 pound monster called Rocky:
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This monster was caught in a shrimp net off the coast of Maine last week.

I think they are going to release Rocky because of the danger he presents. Saw yesterday where with the size of those claws, he was capable of breaking a man's forearm.

I would like to release Rocky into my ring of boiling salt water. I have 12 friends and 2 lbs of butter that would love to see this match......Jajajajaja.

We were @ The Costco in Guad this afternoon... They had Bay Scallops nearly the size of yer fist... some pretty decent looking Lobsters too....

Crabs were fresh cause they were blink'n and play'n with themselves .....

hockables wrote:We were @ The Costco in Guad this afternoon... They had Bay Scallops nearly the size of yer fist... some pretty decent looking Lobsters too....

Crabs were fresh cause they were blink'n and play'n with themselves .....

Very decent looking indeed,but did you notice the prices?
Chris

When it comes to seafood NOB, one of the buzz phrases has become: sustainable seafood. One the surface, this certainly may qualify as an admirable goal but it now appears that compliance with labeling guidelines may often be questionable:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/some-question-whether-sustainable-seafood-delivers-on-its-promise/2012/04/22/gIQAauyZaT_story.html

viajero wrote:

hockables wrote:We were @ The Costco in Guad this afternoon... They had Bay Scallops nearly the size of yer fist... some pretty decent looking Lobsters too....

Crabs were fresh cause they were blink'n and play'n with themselves .....

Very decent looking indeed,but did you notice the prices?
Chris

We get baby scallops from our fish monger who goes door to door in our Community every two weeks. I believe a one kilo bag is $ 80. pesos. We get 4 meals out of it. Never fishy, always tender and perfect. We buy tilapia too.

He has shrimp, cooked shrimp, tilapia, sea bass, red snapper, etc. All frozen solid.