Not Fishopping from Fish Market

If we talk of sea food in India, it is basically just fish, prawns (or shrimps) and crabs.

One of my previous story, discussed about the tricks and tips one must follow to buy good quality fish from the market, but what about crabs and prawns!

These mouth-watering (and expensive) sea food, do need some special concerns. Here are some of the very simple observations you can make to ensure that you don’t end up buying stale stuffs from the fish market.

For prawns and shrimps

1 Check it’s neck region. If it is not hard enough, or the head tends to fall off the body, then they are going bad

2. The next thing is its smell. They have a strong smell, if it is giving out a stale smell, they are probably rotted.

3. Ensure that the prawns and the shrimps have the firm eyes. If the stock is old, and is no more good, the eyes are the first to dissolve or get detached.

4. Same goes with the legs or the thin tentacles, mostly for prawns. Prawns which have been kept for a longer time, or are stale, will have their legs and tentacles getting detached easily.

3. For both prawns and shrimps, it is better to buy them with their heads and scales on. An already cleaned shrimp or prawn is more prone to begin rotting.

For crabs the best buy tips would be-

1. Preferably never buy dead ones. They are generally sold semi alive, or alive. You can choose yours and get that packed into pieces by the seller.

2. The weights of the crabs are told to define the quality of the crab.

In both cases, it is very difficult to identify the good ones, because they themselves have a huge variety in themselves. There are a wide range of prawns and shrimps are available, and same goes with the crabs.