A note about buying fresh fish

Fresh is the only way to eat fish and that’s that, so it’s absolutely vital to be able to judge accurately whether fish is fresh or not. You sure as hell can’t trust your fishmonger and you can’t blame him either: he is dealing with a very perishable product and occasionally needs to have some dummies on whom he can palm off stale fish, otherwise he’d go broke. Just make sure it’s not you!

So let me give you a bit of advice on what to look out for. Fresh fish looks bright, slippery and lively – and not at all dull. The white underskin of flat fish should be really white and not yellowing. Stale fish really looks miserable. The eyes will be sunken and the skin can be gritty and dry and sometimes shiny, with a strong fishy smell. That’s straightforward enough, but between the time fish is really fresh and the time it is really stale there are several days during which it will be gradually deteriorating. It is in this period that it’s difficult to tell just what condition it is in, particularly if the fish has been cut into small pieces. You have to judge by the colour and smell. White fish should be white and the best thing of all to remember is that fresh fish doesn’t smell fishy – it just has the merest scent of the sea, reminiscent of fresh seaweed.