Zambolis apartments

Zambolis apartments
For your holidays in Chania

Sunday 27 June 2010

Fish (Ψάρι)

I live away from the town centre, away from the main cluster of suppliers of primary food products, so I don't get a chance to buy and cook as much fish as I would like. Frozen fish is readily available (and easy to store), but fresh fish does not compare with frozen, and not all varieties of fresh fish are actually frozen. Frozen fish is sold pre-packaged and ready to cook, unlike fresh fish, which is always sold whole, guts and all. This is what I like about fresh fish - you get to know all its parts, and there is a sense of transparency in your purchase.

Frozen fish is OK when you can't get fresh fish

Some of the food practices of the locals may seem strange to me; and in a similar vein, some of mine will probably seem strange to them. I can't understand why they laugh when I tell them I sometimes buy fresh fish from the market and freeze it, for example, like we do with lamb and goat. "It's available fresh every day," they remind me, "and you're freezing it to use another day?" I do this every now and then because of the demands involved in combining work and daily cooking, in the same way that I often cook the main meal of the day in the evening of the night before, and I always cook enough to last two days. There is also another reason which is just as important to me: I find it inexcusable to drive into town just to buy fresh fish, as an attempt to reduce unnecessary driving, not just to lower my expenses but to try to live more greenly. So every now and then, when I come across fish that looks really fresh, I buy enough to freeze some for another day that I want to cook it.

Large shrimp is generally difficult (or too expensive) to buy fresh - this shrimp was bought frozen. Τhe langoustines (below) were tasty but rather overpriced for what I was served.
nikos taverna ayia varvara egaleo athens

Fresh fish is plentiful all over Crete; no surprise, Crete is an island. It's available from the many small fishmongers' businesses that we have in the town, as well as in some large supermarkets which have a fresh fish counter, albeit with a limited range of species, most of which have been raised in fish farms. There are also a number of fish stalls in the main market in Hania, the Agora. The wide range of the many fresh fish species available daily is one thing that our tourists often remark on. I am so used to this that I sometimes take it for granted. When buying fresh fish, there is only one thing that I do not take for granted, and that is the price.

A typical fish stall in the Agora (above) and in a shop in the town (below).


fishmongers hania

When I buy fresh fish, I am usually in town for another reason, such as banking, special purchases and bureaucracy purposes (the latter being one of the biggest time wasters in daily Greek life). After parking my car, the first shops that I come across as I enter the main centre are the fishmongers'. There are two in particular that are located on opposite sides of the main square in the town. They are my first browsing point. We do not eat a lot of fish in my house, yet fish is what I really crave for as a main meal. I had got into the habit of choosing the fish I wanted to buy and asking the fishmonger to clean it for me, and after paying for it, he would pop it into freezer so that I could go about my urban chores and pick up my fish after my last port of call before returning to the car park.

agora market
The Agora not only sells fresh fish; you can have a cheap fish meal at one of the mayeiria (eateries) there too.

On one particular day, the variety I wanted (galeos, a kind of shark) was not available. It is usually sold in sliced slabs, like salmon, and ranges in the 10 euro price range. It's expensive, but not as expensive as other varieties, like bakaliaraki (European hake) which is my favorite, and can be sold for anything between 13 and 25 euro a kilo. I was about to turn away.

grilled sardines
Filleted sardines - cheap and delicious; and if y9ou know they are very fresh, you can place them in a bowl of olive oil and vinegar, and leave them in the fridge: they then taste just like canned sardines!
raw sardines in vinegar

"But I've got something even better today," the fishmonger tried to tempt me. "Why don't you buy some peskandritsa instead?" I'd never heard of peskandritsa (a kind of monkfish) before, and looking at it, I decided that I had never seen an uglier fish in my life. Its head looked like a shark's, as it lay open, gaping at me, with its all its mangled interior staring out at the world, while its torso going down towards its tail looked like a glistening ice-cream cone, with its conical shape. It looked rather large. Its ugliness was counterbalanced by the fleshy white fullness of its meat. Its outward appearance gave the impression that it had just been fished; it looked very fresh.

This fish was being raffled off in the Agora by a peddler.

"How do you cook that?" Always a good question to ask: Greeks love their small fish fried, their large fish barbecued, and white meaty fish cooked for a soup.

 koutsomoura fried
This variety of red mullet goes by the name of 'koutsomoura' which means 'crooked face'. It's very tasty, but watch our for the bones; it's a more expensive species of small fish.

"Oh, this will make more than one meal," the fishmonger explained, with a big smile on his face. "The top part makes a delicious base for a psarosoupa, while the body," he continued, "can be sliced into fillets and fried or cooked in the oven." I realised that I would have to buy the whole fish, and not just the part I wanted, because he wouldn't be able to sell only a part of it; each part of this fish had a different purpose for a meal.

Salt cod (bakaliaro) is a storable alternative when you feel like having fish but don't have easy access to fresh stuff. Bakaliaro is eaten on special occasions during the Greek Orthodox fasting periods.

"I've never seen it before," I said, stalling time while trying to think about whether I should invest in some. I thought it could be a good idea: we'd have two very different fish meals in the same week.

petalidea beetroot skordalia egaleo mussles saganaki egaleo
Shellfish like these ones are not sold frequently - I usually go out for a meal to enjoy them; these particular ones were served at a restaurant in Athens.

"Oh, you'll love it, it's so fresh," the fishmonger continued, " and you'll probably some back to me" - as I always did, because it pays to know your fresh produce suppliers in Greece - "and tell me that it was the best fish you've ever tasted." They may say that about everything, but this time, the appearance of the fish matched the fishmonger's description. 

My 'own' fishmonger, packing bakaliaraki (European hake) for me. This section of the fish stall shows the cheaper varieties of fish.

"Which one do you want?" The fishmonger was trying to close the deal. I pointed to the smallest one. I couldn't see a price tag anywhere, which is actually unusual, as most fish is usually clearly labelled in all the town's fisheries.

gavros and horta
A typical fish meal in my house includes horta as a salad.

"Would you like me to prepare it for you?" he asked. He was moving too fast. I had no idea how much I was going to pay for this fish. I am in the 'economy' class in everything I buy, whether it's clothes, shoes, entertainment and holidays. This doesn't mean that I buy only cheap food. Quite the opposite: we buy expensive local produce at the best quality that we can afford. This is typical for most Greeks who live in villages. Being regionalists, they will look for the best local produce at the best price. Take graviera cheese for example: it's never cheaper than 11 euro a kilo. We prefer goat over lamb meat, the latter always being cheaper than the former (lamb costs about 8 euro/kilo while goat is 10). We hardly every buy frozen chickens: a whole free-range chicken costs at least 20 euro each. We don't skimp on fresh produce, but we like to know what we're paying, because life has always been expensive in Crete, even though it doesn't look like that to our tourists, whose average salaries are much higher than ours.

agora market
One of the more unusual fish I tried recently: skate wings (σαλάχι - bottom left hand corner); I once had the, should I call it pleasure? of seeing a skate caught at Kalamaki Beach, a blue-flag beach near my house.

I asked about the price of the peskandritsa. The fishmonger picked it up and weighed it. "Let's see, he said, that's just over two kilos, so that's 52 euro, so..." Did I hear right? I wondered. "... Just give me 50 euro," he continued.

small bream
Bream - φαγκρί

50 euro! Just 50 euro! I don't carry much more than that on a daily basis in my purse! I couldn't afford to pay 50 euro for fish on that day, nor on any other day for that matter. And even though this happened a long time ago, my price range is still much lower than 50 euro for the price of one fish, and my purse still doesn't carry much more than that in cash. Needless to say, I didn't eat fish on that day.

*** *** ***

Fresh fish can be bought for anything between 5 and 30 (and much much more) euro a kilo, depending on the size, variety and season. The prices (everything is sold by the kilo) of fresh fish range from 5-7 euro for the very small fish, like maritha, gavros, sardela and atherina* (all different kinds of sardine and anchovy), which are highly popular, mainly due to the price, but also because they are very tasty and easy to cook, to the medium range of fillets like galeos (shark), salahi (skate) and salmon at 10-15 euro a kilo, to a massive 25-30 euro for larger species, like barbounia (red mullet) and bakaliaraki (European hake). Shellfish are also well represented, but not the very big varieties: you'll see lots of baby-sized shrimp, octopus and squid, and maybe some mussels, but not crabs and lobsters. Oysters and scallops are only seen on Clean Monday.

gavros mediterranean anchovy
Gavros and other small sardines and anchovies) are cheap and highly popular all over Greece. Sea urchins on the other hand, are not well known as a sea food all over Greece - and they aren't exactly cheap either.
sea urchin

Fish tavernas (psarotavernes - ψαροταβέρνες) are a great place to sample a variety of fish. The price you spend all depends on the species you choose. Frozen fish is cheaper than fresh fish. The larger the fish, the more expensive per kilo it costs; shellfish is usually more expensive than fish. The range of fish available is wide, but it is still limited in terms of the species available: for instance, I can't find oysters (except on Clean Monday) - oysters, along with paua fritters, are two kinds of seafood that miss very much since I left New Zealand.

The range and size of the seafood pictured above is considered very exotic for us - it is found in Portugal, and by the looks of the price tags, it isn't cheap there, either.

But one thing is certain: fresh fish is available on a daily basis, and the fishmonger is a lively part of our daily world. And even if you are not a great fish fan, the theatrics of the fishmonger's daily routine will be one of the things that will stay in your mind after a trip to any Greek island. The way he picks up the slippery fish and places them in a paper cone, the constant pouring of buckets of water over his wares, the gumboots he wears in all kinds of weather including the sweltering conditions of our hot summers, none of this gives any clue to the dangers faced by fishermen out at sea to bring that fresh produce to our plates.

ravdoucha waves on the rocks
Octopus and calamari are the most popular taverna choices.
ravdoucha waves on the rocks

The economic crisis is probably not going to help the fisherman to maintain his previous standard of living, but maybe it will help us all to be able to afford to eat more fish, as the prices of many products once considered luxury items have actually reduced (cars, for example, are cheaper).

bbq kalamaki hania chania
Our friend George loves to put on a good show at his house by the sea.
For a more romantic feel to your holiday, you can eat your choice of fish and any other Greek delicacy at a cheap taverna by the sea, where you won't know if the people at the table sitting next to you are package holidaymakers, or locals or millionaires; they will have come to the same place that you did for the same reasons, and chosen their meal from the same menu card that you did. And even if you are not a millionaire, you will feel like one, as you sit by the sea, enjoying your meal without anyone hurrying you away, with the waves lapping the shore close to your feet, under the warmth of the Mediterranean summer's evening sky.
evening meal by the beach

Whatever the outcome of the mess my country is in, at least I know I don't have to go away on holiday to eat a little fish by the sea. I can do it close to home.

*these small varieties of fish are available even more cheaply in the mainland; in Athens, gavros can be bought for 4 euro a kilo

©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.

18 comments:

  1. You've got my mouth watering now. Seafood is my favorite food, and your pictures show it at its finest. I wonder though about that peskandritsa. When I google it, the picture that comes up is what I know as a monkfish, though when I google dragon fish that's something else entirely. Since I've never heard of peskandritsa, and my guru Alan Davidson doesn't have it either, could you please look at the pictures and see what looks like what you saw at the store? I'm very curious!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. i've changed it to monk fish - whatever it was, it was definitely ugly!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love fresh fish,but do not like he small ones full of bones. I have a thing about choking on a bone, so I like the large fillets. I miss the Kiwi fish and chip shops.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Peskandritsa is monkfish. Best to just buy the filleted tail meat. The remainder is good for making psarosoupes.

    I can't wait to be in Greece and ogle at the catch of the day and pick what's freshest and eat it that day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Do you have Sea Urchins like these?

    http://unidiva.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. I live in inland so the only fresh fish would be trout or Kokanee, which is a landlocked salmon. The thing is our fishmonger can bring fresh fish in every day by noon so it is available when we need it. I love seafood so sometimes pay premium dollar for this special treat.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ours are black, like the ones the woman is carrying in the photo - when we buy them, they are always shelled and ready for us

    ReplyDelete
  8. We have lots of mussels and scallops (without the shell) here. Malpeque oysters are a favourite of gourmets, they come from Prince Edward Island (an island province to the east of New Brunswick), but they only keep about 10% of them, the rest are shipped to places like New York, Boston, Toronto and Montreal. I've only ever had raw oysters once, the last time my Papou came to visit us here ('96 or '97)...I prefer canned smoked oysters with a squeeze of lemon. Oh and we have lobster too, of course, but they can be hit or miss (sometimes there's not much meat in the shell...but it's not like we get to weigh them in our hands...and you pay extra for the shell, like meat with a lot of bones).

    So we have a looooot of fresh shellfish (sometime the scallops are frozen too, but they also have a local-ish source, from Digby, Nova Scotia, the province to the south-east of us), but I find the actual fish selection is often limited. Salmon (farmed, generally), trout (rainbow trout has a pink flesh similar to salmon, but is cheaper and less fatty), and a mix of other things - sole, halibut, shark, smelts, and the newly trendy bottom-feeder fish like tilapia.

    I just looked at the most recent sale flyer for the closest grocery store, and they have prime rib premium grilling steaks at the same price as the scallops ($9.99/lb...which is confusing because of course it's in kilos on the package...).

    I don't buy much seafood anyway since 1) I always seem to ruin it when I cook it, 2) it's expensive, and 3) Chris won't eat it unless it's breaded like the fish at a fish and chips place). So I only ever eat it when I visit my parents, since they enjoy it and have the money to buy it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. OK, you absolutely floored me with your fish costing. If I could eat fish everyday, I would. And especially when I am in Greece. But the prices at tavernas for fish are often higher than my food per diem allows, and unless my husband splits one with me (he isn't a fish fan, and he is allergic to seafood), I often bag off. The exception, octopodi. My goodness, there is NOTHING like it. There is a greek restaurant in my town (more than half of the customers are greek expats, so you can tell it is pretty authentic. They even serve horta--americans NEVER opt for that--except us.) and when i saw octopodi on their menu, I scoffed. When the waiter came back to the table, I asked him in greek if it was good--like GREECE good, and told him i have never had octopus in the states after Greece ruined me for it. He assured me it was "real" and offered to take it back if i didn't approve. It seemed like a deal i couldn't pass up, so i ordered it. A few minutes afterward, I saw a 50-60 ish greek man peek his head out of the kitchen, look at me, nod and pop back in. I got a double helping of octopodi, grilled nicely with the right amount of char. I didn't send it back. I can't say it was EXACTLY like greece--for one specific reason--the octopodi had not hung in the sun to dry (I can just see the food inspectors having a heart attack as they drove up to see fresh octopus hanging over the doorway of a restaurant!), so it lacked that little bit extra chew that pairs so nicely with the grill flavor. But, it was 20 minutes from my home, it supports local businessmen, and I didn't have to fly to Greece to get it. And it was good.

    Many Mediterranean places here will sell grilled, whole fish, especially Bronzino, at very high prices. I have a sizable grill at
    home, and I am pretty good at it (my paidikia are killer), but I can't find a fishmonger who will get me the kind of fish I'd want to grill.
    And honestly, getting small fish (whitebait, esp) is nearly impossible. I grew up eating smelt (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smelts)--it was a tradition among the Chicago part of my family to go out and
    watch the fishermen with their nets pulling in the catch during smelt season (migration? mating? i never knew.) and then celebrate with mounds of freshly fried fish. Smelt are fresh water fish (the only kind i ate growing up), and you can only occasionally get a bag of frozen smelt (surely sent in from the great lakes i grew up on) at the grocer. But small fresh fishes are still considered non-eating food. Jokingly, they are called "bait." Well, i love bait. So sue me. :)

    So long and short, thanks for the post. it made me hungry, a little envious, and more committed to find a fishmonger who can take care of
    me!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fish can be so pricey sometimes, especially if it a meaty one, like monkfish. However, cheap fish like sardines are much better for you, because of all the good fatty acids, so there is no need to splurge!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Maria your post was excellent. As a child I remember the amount and quality of fish we used to get in Salonica was uncomparable. It was all wild catch then and everyone could afford it. Sole and red mullet were my favourite . What puzzles me is how there is so little wild fish now since the demand is satisfied by farmed fish as well.

    The strangest fish I ever had is flying fish caught by a friend on holidays. I cleaned them myself and they made an excellent fishsoup. Quite meaty and no bones.

    By the way, in our place goat meat is inferior to lamb meat as it dries out during roasting and hence less pricey. You do love your goats down there.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It still baffles me why fish is so expensive in places that actually catch it. In South Africa,my family lived in Port Elizabeth(everyone knows where that is now thanks to the World Cup) and we'd go down to the harbour early in the morning a pick and choose from the catch that had just come in, which was actually much cheaper than buying meat and from what friends tell me it still happens today.
    The only place in Greece where I really had cheap fresh fish in abundance (so much in fact that after two weeks I was craving meat) was in Koufounisia where each family has about 5 fishing boats that go out every day, as soon as the boats come in with the catch you'd go and choose the fish you wanted to be prepared for your supper, so when you arrived it would be almost ready for you to eat.....The most memorable meal I had there was an "astakomakaronada" with two HUGE lobsters on this massive plate of pasta with a red sauce and I remember it cost me the princely sum of 10 Euros!!!! A pork chop at the same restaurant was 8.00 Euros!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. "peskandritsa" is a little expensive but it's very delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Nice tip Greg. Anafi is another place to enjoy cheap wild caught fish.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Even a common lake or river fish here can be quite pricey, much less an ocean fish that must be shipped into the Midwest. As a result, I very rarely have fresh fish to prepare and rely instead on frozen (and not even whole, at that). Still, I won't complain loudly as I'm grateful for what I do get, especially now when prices are inching up because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (even if the seafood we buy doesn't come from there).

    There is a local trout farm that has wonderful fresh fish available at the farmers' market; I may have to buy some this weekend after developing a hankering from this post!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I just saw the sign at the fishmonger's "αχινοί Χανίων" and I got so unbelievably jealous! I haven't had cretan sea urchin in many years. You know, I spend a month every summer in Xania until I was 12.I have an uncle who's from Xania and those were the best times of my life! I wish I was there now !!
    Magda

    ReplyDelete