20 July 2008

Canberra seafood.

| bigfish
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Just to let you know most seafood caught on NSW Coast is sent to Sydney and Melbourne fish markets after which they are distributed by wholesalers in major towns which basically means Canberra gets very good quality and variety of seafood before a lot of the towns along the coast.

Lot of the seafood is flown in overnight. ie Coffin bay oysters from SA. Salmon and Ocean Trout from TAS. Morton Bay Bug from QLD so on so on.

We are getting damn good seafood the only thing you need to check with restaurant is if they are able to source this supply and are serving it to you?

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liability said :

I tried the place at Kippax out last week. It is on the road opposite the main shopping centre where there is a row of smaller shops.

The oysters were nice, but the cooked tiger prawns were crap. The prawns were flavourless and the shells were soft, which I suspect could have indicated that they were past their prime?

I have since spoken to a couple of people that have bought seafood there and it appears that the quality of the product varies greatly, some weeks it is great, other weeks it is below par.

telissa78 said :

Canberra seafood….most people love to eat fresh seafood or oysters. I found that a new nw seafood and oyster just opened on the northsde (Kippax) have the freshest and finest seafood around. Their oysters are freshly shucked on-site and the fishes are fresh not frozen…

You must have bought the vanamai prawns they are frozen then thawed but the freshly cooked tiger prawns and crystal bay prawns are fresh i bought from them several times and was very pleased with the taste and freshness.

I tried the place at Kippax out last week. It is on the road opposite the main shopping centre where there is a row of smaller shops.

The oysters were nice, but the cooked tiger prawns were crap. The prawns were flavourless and the shells were soft, which I suspect could have indicated that they were past their prime?

I have since spoken to a couple of people that have bought seafood there and it appears that the quality of the product varies greatly, some weeks it is great, other weeks it is below par.

telissa78 said :

Canberra seafood….most people love to eat fresh seafood or oysters. I found that a new nw seafood and oyster just opened on the northsde (Kippax) have the freshest and finest seafood around. Their oysters are freshly shucked on-site and the fishes are fresh not frozen…

Canberra seafood….most people love to eat fresh seafood or oysters. I found that a new nw seafood and oyster just opened on the northsde (Kippax) have the freshest and finest seafood around. Their oysters are freshly shucked on-site and the fishes are fresh not frozen…

If you are after fresh live northern territory mudcrabs, try out canberra based “Mr. Crab”
http://www.mrcrab.com.au

The crabs come direct from Northern Territory and they supply to various restaurants around canberra town

I have always been a regular customer of Blueseas for the last 5 years . Despite minor mistakes which they rectified immediately every time .I don”t have any problem with their quality or prices . i also put an order in this festive season and was quote a price different from yours ( they told me around $ 42+ ) and they did inform me that they would not be able to confirm the price until the afternoon of 23 December because of market situations ( which we all know unless you are buying frozen products ). At the same time I also got a quote from the Fyshwick Markets, and they quoted me $35 for Tiger Prawns of a different quality. From my experiences with Blueseas i always been happy and find them very honest and fair . I am quite surprised that you accused them of holding your Christmas lunch to ransom!!

I’d always heard good things about Blue Seas in Fyshwick. Ordered my prawns from Christmas lunch there last week and was twice quoted $35 a kilo. Paid a deposit of $50. Partner went to pick the order up this morning and was asked to pay an extra $13 a kilo or else he couldn’t take the prawns. He paid it. God knows what happened to the quoted price, but they were effectively holding our Christmas lunch to ransom.

Have complained – no result yet and I don’t expect to hear from them for days, if at all . Fair Trading reckon there may not be much I can do as I didn’t get a written quote. I didn’t think I should have to get a written quote for 2 kilos of prawns from an apparently reputable business, but there you go.

A warning to all others!

Damn – should be ‘sold its name’.

Sorry grammar sticklers.

Fisho King at Southlands sold it’s name and is now trading as The Naked Fish. It was written up in the CT a couple of months back as the best fish and chip shop in Canberra – well worth the trek from the Northside. It does do great fish.

It is closed Mondays and it is a take-away (so only has a couple of tables and doesn’t take reservations).

I buy smoked ocean trout from the Griffith butcher. He smokes the fish himself and it is the best I’ve tasted.

Clown Killer12:43 pm 29 Oct 08

Ant, that van at Wanniassa used to be good, but the guy sold it to a couple of young blokes who don’t have the same business plan – believing what consumers really want is frozen product cooked in old oil. We used to go there heaps, not any more though – it’s just not worth what you pay. On the up side, the queue is almost non existent these days!

The fish and chips joint in Charnwood is surprisingly good. Definitely worth checking out if you’re willing to climb over the stabbing victims littering the shopping centre.

There used to be a shop at Mawson that was good. “Fisho King” or something similar from memory. Haven’t been there for a while, though.

Oh and to add to the Blue Seas kudos, got a nice slab of Sashimi tuna there yesterday, YUM.

Anyone been to Oyster Haven in Fyshwick ?

A hell of a lot of the Japanese fish has been air-freighted from Australian fisheries

Yes, though we import a lot of fish as well. From my reading of the stats, mostly, we export to Japan (and others) our high-value, well-handled fish; and import cheap bulk frozen fish and prawns.

On my brief sojourns to Japan, I saw fish from Oz at supermarkets, in much better condition than Oz fish in Canberra’s fish shops. So, if we can do it for export, lets see if we can do it for local consumption. Of course, both in Japan and here, you can get crap fish. Its just that in Canberra, its unreasonably difficult get good fish, even if you are willing to pay.

I think its a bit like premium grass-fed beef: both consumers and suppliers have a part to play in establishing a market that works.

In Canberra, Blue Seas is better than most; and Belco markets has better stuff than Fyshwick. But there isn’t much consistency, even there.

I always get seafood from Blue Seas in Leeton St, Fyshwick. In my opinion it’s much better quality (i.e. better aroma and flavour) than anything you can get at the Fyshwick markets, in the city or in Woden (can’t comment on Belconnen markets). The prices are also really good. They have excellent smoked salmon there as well, that they pack themselves.

It is still there. I saw it the other night in the Shell servo car park. I think it used to be in Kambah many years ago and did pretty good fish and chips. There was always a queue.

Some dob ins of current good fish shops would be good right now! A while back, there was a caravan at the wanniassa shops late in the week at dinner time, with massive queues due to the freshness of the fish (and the freshness of the oil). Dunno if it’s sitll going though.

Sometimes there’s a ute flogging oysters next to the river as you go past Duntroon…

eat more meat

I remember when Canberra fruit & veg were disgusting because they too all went via the Sydney markets.

Ahh, someone remembers.

“Its ok to eat fish, they don’t have any feelings”Kurt Cobain

Dunno GB,

A hell of a lot of the Japanese fish has been air-freighted from Australian fisheries.

Even in most coastal towns in this country you can’t get fresh fish because it’s all going through the markets.

Its stupidly difficult to get fresh fish in Canberra. Most of what we get is either several days old, or frozen and thawed, or part-frozen and part-thawed many times (that’s what you get when fish is kept on ice). If you want fish that tastes like fish – especially Australia’s excellent oily fish like garfish or mackerel – its a 1 in 100 chance. Why? We live 3 hours from great fisheries. If they can sell great daily fish in Bermagui, why can’t we get at least next-day fish in Canberra?

I suspect the answer is more to do with the low standards people expect, the low prices we have been demanding, and the weight of history. Most people in Oz seem not to expect fish to taste like fish at all, let alone like fresh fish.

Go to a place like Japan, and the 7/11 sells better fish than most “fish shops” in Canberra sell. I’m sure we can do better if we start to reward people who treat fish well — and yes, that does mean paying more for it.

the only one to watch out for, is “barramundi”. half the time it is nile perch, but you still pay through the nose for it.

johnboy said :

Don’t you hate it when fish tastes of, er, fish?

Yeah, i hate it when that happens!!!

And yeah, there really is no such thing as canberran seafood. 3 eyed fish?? 🙂

The old Lyneham fish&chips (now a Turkish pide place) used to have its fish brought straight up from Eden by road twice a week far quicker than airfreight via Melbourne or Sydney … .

Don’t you hate it when fish tastes of, er, fish?

Actually, this topic is quite relevant. There’s been some threads recently about seafood, with numerous complaints about lack of freshness. I pointed out that all seafood is required, after catch, to be processed through the Sydney fish market (and Melbourne, I guess). Which means it’s not “fresh from the coast” as some would assume.

It’s known that some outlets source some of their fish stuff from fishermen on the south coast… bootleg fish or fish contraband or something like that.

But ultimately, it does require some effort from retailers, restauranteurs etc to ensure that what they’re selling is as fresh as can be, and that’s where the good old freezer is unfortunately the big fall-back.

If people know of eateries and wet fish shops that do have particularly fresh fish, it’d be worth sharing. I don’t eat the stuff, but my mother has been complaining that the big slabs of salmon from the fyshwick markets in recent times have had a distinct “off” taste.

Ha ha – does anyone remember Pauline Hanson’s maiden speech – Australia is a lucky country, surrounded by oceans that provide a wealth of seafood…

if half of seafood comes from the sea, and half of seafood comes from the ocean… why don’t they call it ‘oceanfood’ personally i feel that this is the issue of least importance to Canberrans and the nation at large.

ocean sea ocean sea….. which one?

Next on RiotAct:

The state of Canberran potato imports.

Ummm…?

Ok.

Thanks.

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