Fish Market-Fresh Seafood
 

So, suggestions on where to get fresh fish: tuna, salmon, sea bass, or swordfish? Grocery store offerings are frozen and limited. willing to drive to Portsmouth or Portland to get the best. What say you?

Wolf trap or mill street in Wolfboro

My suggestion
 

Sal's at the Moulton Farm in Moultonborough. Thursday through Saturday. Never been disappointed.

Tide's Fish market
 

Tides's Fish Market is on Route 11 in Rochester just before the Spaulding Turnpike. It's on the westbound side tucked behind the Mobil gas station ( and across the highway from VW of Rochester). Highly recommended.

Captain Bart's on 109 in Tuftonboro is supposed to be opening this weekend. I've never been there, but I hear good things.

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I second the comment about Sal's inside of Moulton's farm. I work in both Portsmouth & Portland and I've yet to find any fish market in those towns that offer anything better than Sal's!!

Definitely Sal’s.

Sal's and Capt'n Barts for sure.......but don't overlook E.M. Heaths
They are supplied by Mehan Fisheries which serves many area restaurants.
Mark Mehan buys most of his product out of Portland.....very fresh.
Try Heaths after thursday ......Mark tests whole swordfish for fat content and it is always juicy and delicious. No sea bass though. Sal's usually has it at Moulton Farms

Clarification
 

Capt. Bart is in Moultonborough, across from Skelleys.

Yankee Fishermans Coop, Seabrook NH

Try monkfish. We had it fresh on Cape Cod a while ago. Excellent firm white fish. Had Sal’s get some for us last week and it was great. The fish itself is ugly as sin though.

The "poor man's" lobster. A little drawn butter...Mmmmm.

They are not attractive, I agree. But very delicious.

I would recommend Concord Beef and Seafood. A bit of a drive, but closer than Portsmouth. Excellent products. Fresh seafood each day. Very good meat products too. Hihg end meat and seafood. A bit pricey, but good always is.

How was it cooked on the Cape? and how did you cook it?

I've steamed it like lobster...

On the Cape it was the main ingredient in a seafood stew along with mussels, shrimp, clams and calamari in a very flavorful tomato based broth served with crusty sourdough bread.

When we had it, we marinated it in olive oil, garlic and a mix of spices. That recipe called for a rub of coarse sea salt. We used less than the recipe called for but it was still very salty, too much so.

I like your suggestion to steam it with drawn butter. Will give that a try next time.

https://www.theboysseafoodcompany.com/
 

The Boy's Fresh Catch, family of fishermen, three boats, they deliver their own catch to various stops near and around Wolfeboro and Farmer's Markets, never been frozen.
Nothing like it.

I find that it does taste like lobster! The Boy's Fresh Catch often has it.

Seafood Thanks!
 

A lot of folks recommended Sal's at Moulton Farms-- great idea: Got some beautiful sea bass for a special birthday dinner, as well as shrimp, cod, fresh vegetables, and some fruit from the market. Nice folks there, beautiful setting, thanks for the suggestions.

Good to know the tip about swordfish!
Hardly ever have it... - m-m-m-m grilled!!!

This sounds intriguing…..never had monkfish, but love lobster. When you steam it, do you steam the entire fish or cut it up? Also, do you use seasonings or just melted butter and lemon?

I’ve only seen monkfish “ready to cook” as in cleaned and filleted. They are really ugly deep sea fish. The taste is mild…but it ain’t lobster.

It's not really a replacement for lobster, but it is delicious when prepared similarly...Try this...I've bought fillets. If you buy the whole fish, you'll have nightmares!

https://www.recipetineats.com/monkfish-recipe/

I've had Heath's 15-20 times since Sam's rec last year--always excellent!

Sal's great stuff, very fresh.

Make sure you check the label.....occasionally they have "previously frozen"
in the case but you want to buy the fresh

Bart's phone #
 

Be aware that Captain Bart's phone number has not come out of hibernation from the winter. They are working with the provider.

Harbor Fish Market
 

It's in the Old Port section of Portland. They are located about 100 yards from where the boats come in. The best seafood I've had and I consider myself a "fish snob".

Fresh Fish
 

Boston Sword and Tuna. Check them out online

Harbor Fish and Sal's - topnotch in every way
 

As I former resident of Maine, I visited Harbor Fish every chance I got and never had a bad piece of fish. I can't say enough about HF in Portland - go there - you won't ever be disappointed.
That sad, Sal's arrival at Moulton Farm a few years ago dramatically improved the local shopping for fish experience. Their Scottish salmon, ocean trout and sword fish are superb. Prices are a bit higher than Harbor Fish but you can't be the quality and freshness.

I have had good luck at Heath's as well on the occasions that I did not want to make any more shopping stops.

Heath's
 

We have always had good luck with the quality of fish and meat at Heath's. We also found some South African wine that we loved while on a safari vacation in South Africa a few years back at Heath's. Don't let the small size of Heath's fool you. It's a great store and it's locally owned.

Monkfish? I Caught One in Rhode Island...
 

Monkfish are known to leave their familiar bottom environment to snatch a seagull floating on the surface! :eek:

They do have an interesting set of jaws. :eek2:

Sal's @ Moulton Farms, Meredith...
 

Went last week and got soft shell crabs and swordfish...

Both were SO good, I went back today and got the same. Their tuna looked fantastic... next week.

Never been to Capt. Barts.

Sal's is great, but I was there yesterday and he was pretty cranky. He's not open on Wednesdays, ( I figured this out yesterday) but was there getting the display cases loaded. There was a guy getting fish, so I got in line, I figured it was open. Then Sal, or maybe it was his son, it was the younger guy, comes in with an armful of fish and starts ragging on the gentleman who was serving the guy in front of me about having to get the fish unloaded. Didn't say a word to me about not being open after looking at me, which was odd, but what ever.

I still didn't get they weren't open, but the guy starts unloading fish. So after it was obvious he wasn't going to ask me what I wanted I asked him if I could get some salmon. He said he didn't have time, he was nice about it, so I asked him if they were open. He said no, they were loading for tomorrow and they are open on Thursday and Friday. So I was a little peeved, he could have told me that before I wasted five minutes of my life standing in line, but whatever, he did apologize.

So remember this if you are there on Wednesday and see them there, they are not open. Also, this is not rocket science, but a closed sign on his display case would have certainly been appropriate, I would have seen it and turned around, and Sal or whoever it was would have saved himself a mini-hissy fit.

Sounds like you can't buy FRESH fish if you go in there on a Thursday. Likely every other day also. Both good reasons NOT to go there.

Imagine, loading fresh fish on a Wednesday, and not selling it until a day later?

What's wrong with this picture?

You're wrong with this picture.

How old is the "fresh" fish you buy at Hannaford or Shaws or ?

Am I missing your point? Freshest fish I have seen available in the area.

Yes, I think you are missing the point. Who comes in on their day off and loads fresh fish into a case which won't be sold for at least 24 hours?

Instead, that fresh fish should have been delivered on a Thursday for Thursday sales.

You're paying absolute top dollar at that particular seafood location. Wouldn't you expect the absolute freshest product? Did you go back on Thursday to buy Wednesday's fish?

The boat that catches the fish is in Boston...Not Lake Winnipesaukee. No where are you going to get fish caught the same day in any market. You'll have to go directly to the boat...And the boat probably caught that fish a few days ago. Boats don't just go out for one day. Your point about the fish being "delivered" on the same day does not address when it was caught.

I was under the impression that all big fishing fleets froze their catch at sea, right away, so that anything you buy a a grocery or that has been shipped up from the major wharfs is always "previously frozen". Is this not true?

That's not true.

I worked at Shaw's in the seafood dept. There are 3 categories for seafood.
Frozen at sea, wild caught and farm raised. Most seafood is farm raised. Wild caught is the the one that most fresh fish is, but is hard to come by. Frozen at sea is what most grocers have and it's just as fresh as wild caught. Happy 4th
to everyone!!

I agree with frozen-at-sea being just as fresh, but does freezing affect the texture? I always thought the ice crystals broke down the flesh, No?

We had a friend who owned a restaurant. He wouldn't use anything but flash frozen on the boat because he said it was the freshest.

Absolutely--the freeze/thaw cycle breaks down proteins in fish and anything else. Some of the impact depends on the specific fish and your palate. A previously frozen Filet-O-Fish is delicious. But very few sushi eaters would enjoy previously frozen tuna, and (I think) most grilled salmon eaters would notice the downgrade to frozen salmon instead of fresh.

Thanks, are you saying "wild caught" isn't frozen? Certainly I have seen "wild caught" that was previously frozen. . .
As to the "freshness", I agree flash frozen at sea is pretty good, but since I have been getting fish from a small fishing fleet, fresh (a couple of days refrigerated), never frozen, I have to say it is distinctly "fresher" tasting than flash frozen at sea.

another shout-out for Sal and Mrs Sal...
 

We have been getting the swordfish and haddock there weekly all summer. It has been outstanding. For the holiday weekend, we had relatives staying with us from the south, who love New England seafood, but can't get it down there. On Thursday before the 4th, I spoke with Janice, (Mrs Sal), about reserving a dozen oysters, 2 dozen littlenecks, (for clams casino), and 6 lobsters. No problem. Picked them up on Sunday morning and they were all fantastic...you could truly taste the difference from the stuff you get at the supermarket.

Lobsters...
 

Those lobsters look like close to 2#'s. Great dinner...No steamers?

Thanks! It was outstanding. Didn't go with steamers this time...opted for the oysters and clams casino as the app. Regarding lob size, everyone should note that Sal only carries 1.5 pounders and up. The ones we got were 1.5-1.75 range.

All sushi has probably been frozen
 

FDA guidelines which dictate that fish sold for raw consumption be frozen under one of the following conditions to kill parasites:

-4°F (-20°C) or below for 7 days (total time)
-31°F (-35°C) or below until solid, and storing at -31°F (-35°C) or below for 15 hours
-31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 24 hours

Thanks, Whimsey--I stand corrected. I did not quite believe your post at first, so did a bit of research. Although freezing and thawing does break down proteins, and I will still stay away from stuff marked previously frozen, it would appear that I have eaten plenty of delicious previously frozen sushi.
Great article on sushi and freezing here: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/n...ep-freeze.html