Posted by Aaron Okada in fish and shellfish, shops on May 26, 2008 at 8:06 am
Just An Old Fashioned Butchery & Seafood
165 Lakeshore Road East, Oakville
905-842-5252
Walking through my local grocery store, I’m feeling in the mood to pick up some salmon for dinner. I weave my way through the isles of frozen seafood products to the fish counter, and browse the selection of the day. Pale salmon; whole snapper with clouded-over eyes; limp pieces of halibut; and jaundice-coloured wild sea bass. The smell, oh the smell! Standing there surrounded by that pungent aroma of rotting seafood doesn’t bode well for my appetite. It's pasta (without seafood) for dinner.
So many people I know cringe (or at least shy away) at the mention of having fish for a meal. They are haunted by the same experience I went through, having that pungency of a day-old catch burned into their memory and are robbed of the real joys that seafood should bring us. As a cook, I’m incessantly (or annoyingly) telling people, “Seafood doesn’t stink. If it does, it’s rotten.” In today’s world of big box stores and high volume production, we all too often exchange convenience at the price of losing quality. The Europeans have the right attitude; they still have the old world lifestyle of shopping in markets and boutique-style specialty shops on a daily basis to make sure they always have fresh, high quality foods.
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