What To Look For When Buying Fish From Your Fishmonger

Don't ever buy fish on a Monday. Don't ever order it in a restaurant on Monday, because chances are it's been knocking around, not since Saturday, which is when it is delivered, but the fishmonger that delivers it in a restaurant has probably has it since maybe Wednesday or Thursday, so you know it's going to look quite dull, which brings me onto exactly what you should be looking for. Now, the first thing is, the eyes are normally a dead giveaway.

If they are completely bloodshot and rugged, then you know the fish has either been frozen or it's been sitting around for a long time. Or worst still, sitting around and hasn't been iced or refrigerated. What you should be looking for is that lovely, translucent, almost life-type texture within the eye, which would tell you that the fish is very fresh.

And it will retain that for a good couple of days before starting to dull. The other thing is, just below the main doors of fin, you'll find a little flap. And if you look inside that flap, and have a good old sniff, just see if you can, you know.

If you can't smell anything, then you know it's pretty fresh. If it's beginning to smell a bit rotten, then that itself tells a little story. And in that flap is the gill, and the gill should be lovely and pink.

So, if you know if you have a little look at them, you know, if they are browning away or blackening, then again, you know it's not the freshest thing ever. And the other way is on the scales, the main body of the fish, it should be glistening and shiny. If it's slimy or really starting to flake away, then you know it's not fresh.

So, those are the key, the big three, I think, the eyes, the gills and just taking a little bit of sniff of the fish. And that's what you should be looking for when you go to the fishmonger. .