Heh… Susan quite rightly has picked me as a non-expert on fish. :-)
For Perth, I think it also depends where you live and what’s nearby. When I
lived north of the river in Perth I had what seemed to be a decent fishmonger.
When I moved south, there were a few around where I lived, but I didn’t like
them as much. And I would always ask, ‘is this sustainably caught?’ and 9 times
out of 10 I’d be met with blank looks from people who appeared to be completely
unfamiliar with the concept. When I found someone knowledgeable (which I never
did in the south of the river places) I instantly liked that fishmonger because
they knew and cared about what they were doing.
All the fishmongers would have a lot of fish, including whole (which they will
all fillet for you if you ask), but I really don’t know what to look for. It
would be handy to have someone beside me who did know – ’See, those eyes are
cloudy, not fresh.’ To me, fish eyes are fish eyes ha ha.
I guess I have had a deprived life without a self-respecting aunty in it! ;-)
Anyway you can definitely get Red Emperor in Perth but it’s expensive ($55/kg
sounds cheap, Steve! I would expect to pay over $60) so I never bought it...
Over here, we rarely eat fish. We’re not on the coast, of course (boo) and
don’t have a fishmonger locally in any case. Of course, since lockdown, we
can’t get to the fishmonger anyway because it’s over the border. (Also can’t
get half of my regular food supplies – good thing I was well stocked with most
things before lockdown! But I’ve had to stop making bread…) We have had fish
precisely once since lockdown started – and that’s only because the last fillet
of fish we bought (ling) was way too big for us, so I had halved it and frozen
the other half. Had that remaining half a couple of weekends ago so, that’s
that.
Vicki. :-)
On 11 Oct 2021, at 1:28 am, Tilden, Steve ST
<Steve.Tilden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Susan
I can only fill you in on my tourist experiences to Qld, Chris will have to
fill you in on the local story.
However, I’ve travelled to Maroochydore region quite a few times during
Winter – spring. Moolooolaba has a great number of fisheries, where the boats
dock straight in where the fishmongers are.
So the prawns are sensationally fresh – some of the best, and well priced
(last visit 3 years ago)
Red Emperor I saw there in whole form only, and it was very expensive
($55/kg) and not that fresh (ie cloudy eyes) Same for Coral Trout. When
I asked, was told these are caught much further north on the reefs, and then
go to the fisheries at Brisbane and get redistributed.
Restaurants I’ve eaten them at much further north (Cairns/ Whitsundays) have
had very nice (seemed fresh but no fisheyes to look at) fish fillets albeit
cooked
Whenever I’ve seen them down in NSW (where they certainly aren’t caught at),
at a large fishmongers that gets lots of fish distributed via Sydney sort of
close, certainly not fresh enough for me to buy.
I personally eat local caught fish, that are filleted from whole in front of
you at our very small fishmonger at Kiama. Blue eyed cod, Ling, Red Snapper,
swordfish, Yellow Fin Tuna etc. Loads of Aussies go fishing to catch their
own fish, which I used to, but rarely do now.
So Perth is far away from the tropics and wouldn’t get any fresh such Red
Emperor. Vicki is the local for Perth to fill in local knowledge.
So when in the tropics….eat Red Emperor and Coral Trout!
However, the coral bleaching of the reefs is of course catastrophic for all
sorts of fish… so don’t know what this has done to these sort after fish
stocks.
Steve
From: oz-food-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oz-food-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Susan Yuen
Sent: Monday, 11 October 2021 12:51 AM
To: oz-food@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [oz-food] Re: what are we all cooking this weekend?
As a matter of curiosity, is it easy to get good Red Emperor or other fish
where you are?
Are they sold whole or already filleted?
Or do you have to catch them yourself if you want really fresh fish (which I
understand some Aussies do)?
I ask because a friend who had migrated to Perth used to moan about the
difficulty
of getting the whole fish which we buy, and take for granted here.
No self respecting aunty - and I hope I am one - would buy fish without heads
attached
so that you knew if their eyes and gills showed freshness!! I know,, Vicki,
fish eyes!!
Even if we asked the fishmonger to scale and fillet/chop into steaks them for
our use,
we must first check that the eyes are bright, and the gills are red and not
grey
Susan
On Sun, 10 Oct 2021 at 13:10, Chris Palmer <ca_palmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:ca_palmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Friday night we had nuggets of Red Emperor with ginger, baby corn, shiitake
mushrooms and pak choy in a five-spice black bean chilli sauce. Pretty good,
the Red Emperor was very very fresh and tasty.
Saturday night was going to be pasta, but after a hard afternoon of yard work
I made the fatal mistake of mixing us some rum cocktails to relax.
So it ended up being delivery Pizza for dinner.
Tonight will be pasta.
Linguine al Pesto (we're overrun by Basil in our garden).
Followed by a chicken and asparagus salad with a lemon dressing.
Tomorrow (Monday) night we'll have leftover Linguine followed
by veal scallopine with asparagus and lemon sauce.
As Steve said, lots of Spring asparagus around cheaply right now.
Good eating all.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: <oz-food@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:oz-food@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Sent: Oct 8, 2021 4:48 PM
To: <oz-food@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:oz-food@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Subject: [oz-food] what are we all cooking this weekend?
Hi all,
Do you have plans to cook this weekend? What are you making?
I’m still on my as-simple-as-possible-everyday-food roll, so will make a
braise tomorrow with some oyster blade steak, and something (as yet
undetermined, but possibly this Stuffed Cabbage Casserole
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/stuffed-keto-cabbage-casserole__;!!Nd8K6TfUt9jcQpcU_mCx!8dX_cmAE0YTpdmieacKxLhw_C1FavJ9F0LgtpAeTntlHi-CTMw_YDidvc5T4RVoCE6tip4dB$>,
which doesn’t look pretty but has oodles of flavour) with beef mince on
Sunday.
I’ve been saving lots (literally hundreds) of recipes from my Apple Books
cookbooks into Paprika in the last few weeks. At the moment I am on Falastin
by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley. Soooooooo much delicious food, and it’s food
that's designed to actually be cooked and enjoyed, not just to look pretty in
cookbook pictures. I’m starting to get an itch to move out of my culinary
comfort zone… but at the moment I’m far from acting on it ha ha.
[Sidenote: did you know "There is no letter ‘p’ in the Arabic language so
‘Falastin’ is, on the one hand, simply the way ‘Falastinians’ refer to
themselves.”]
Perhaps you are doing some more adventurous cooking than me this weekend? If
so, please post. I shall live vicariously through you. ;-)
Vicki. :-)
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