Most bounty from the sea can often be found in the pricier section of menus in restaurants. One of the reasons for this is the highly perishable quality pf these prime catches. Seafood needs to be preserved or cooked immediately of they lose their best flavors or develop an unsavory taste. Sensitive palates can tell if fresh premium ingredients were used in the dish just like the keen ear of a musician distinguishing the sound of a Steinberger Bass from any other bass guitar. But you won’t need a sensitive palate to know if the seafood is cooked fresh or not.
Fresh seafood smells good, looks good and feels good before and after cooking. If you encounter seafood dishes that have moderate to strong “fishy” odor and leaves a bad after taste, then it probably wasn’t cooked fresh anymore. Here are some tips that you can use in picking and keeping your sea foods fresh.
Seafood meat is best purchased when it is still alive. Shellfish, crabs, shrimps and lobsters can often be found in the market alive. This is not always the case when it comes to fish. Most fish found in the market have already been iced. The scent, appearance and texture of fish are your freshness indicator.
A fresh catch doesn’t have any strong odor and smells like a hint of the sea breeze. You should check the color of the eyes, gills, and scales of the fish. The eyes should be clear and bright and a bit bulging. Cloudy eyes are signs that the fish has been in the counter for over a day. The scales should also look bright and tight on the skin. The gills and fins on the other hand should be bright red to pink in color. If gills have turned brown or gray already then it’s probably nearing the end of its shelf life.
We may not be food connoisseurs but we definitely know how to appreciate the goodness of fresh seafood. You may go over these sensible tips every time you go out for seafood. Freshness is always the key to superb tasting seafood meals.
