Meat prices, was Re: [Sca-cooks] Marrow substitute

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Truman Barnes:
>Hey I live on the east coste and the fish prices are out of reach.   Chirhart
>
>Sue Clemenger <mooncat at in-tch.com> wrote: Fish prices are expensive 
>here because we're so far inland AND we're not
>anywhere near a major market or airport.

While I agree that many of the fish prices are insanely high, if you 
are lucky enough to live in a place near the ocean (as both Chirhart 
and I do), there are [comparative] bargains out there if you know 
where to look, and (this is gonna be one of things that sounds bad no 
matter how tactful you are) if you're not too choosy about what fish 
you buy. By which I mean, be choosy about buying fresh, high-quality 
fish, but don't overlook perfectly good fish because it's not salmon, 
halibut or striped bass (or whatever it is you're familiar with). 
Find out what seafood, if any, is local to you. For example, in the 
New York City/Long Island area, the local cod, mackerel and shad are 
pretty much out, ditto flounder, but the bluefish are just starting 
to get respectably big, porgies or scup are prominent now, and fluke 
won't be in until the summer. Buying local fish in season is usually 
a good way to get good prices: it costs the vendors money to store 
them, so they want to get rid of them quickly.

Markets that cater to various ethnic communities that eat a lot of 
fish are probably better than ones that don't, both in quality and 
pricing. Without engaging in ethnic stereotyping of any kind (what, 
me??? I never!), I suspect that the Duck Wong Trading Company or 
Competello's Fish are both better bets than John Whitbread's Olde 
Fish Emporium.

Another hint is to check the sports pages of your local newspaper (if 
you live near the ocean); often commercial "party boats" will 
advertise there, indicating not only where they dock and when they 
leave, but more importantly, what they're expecting to catch. This is 
one great indicator of what seafood is local to you. You don't 
actually have to go and catch your own fish (although it's pretty 
cool!).

Adamantius, doing 87 things at once

-- 




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them 
eat cake!"
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04