Imagine a fish market, clean and bustling, where the molluscs on display include a half-dozen varieties of live clams, a dozen different types of oysters and cockles, and diver scallops sporting shells the size of saucers. The display includes langoustines, turbot and Dover sole from the North Sea, but there are also innumerable Canadian products in the mix: bluefin tuna, both belly and loin, as well as albacore, Atlantic lobster, Dungeness and snow crab, sea urchin and king salmon, to name just a few.
There is far too much glistening, fresh, bright-eyed fish on display to catalogue here. But I can tell you that my order for the evening spread eventually included four kinds of crab, four kinds of oysters, clams, smoked Irish salmon hand-sliced to order, live scallops and some Italian farmed osetra to boot. And that while waiting for it all to be packed up, I passed the time with a quick sashimi tasting and a glass of sake at the in-house sushi counter. And then grabbed a lobster roll at the next counter, just in case.
Needless to say I was not in Canada, but abroad. Not at a wet market in Asia, where the live shrimp are so perky that they jump out of their baskets. Or in Sydney, where they balance the confounding variety with cooking lessons on site. In this case, I was in lower Manhattan, at the Lobster Place in Chelsea Market.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Macleans