When you are eating in a top San Diego restaurant, you can rest easy knowing that they are experts at buying seafood. What do you do when you aren’t ready to go out to eat, and you want to cook your own seafood? It can be worrisome if you don’t know how to look for the best seafood. With any food that you buy, there are things you need to look out for, but seafood is one you have to be very careful about. In this article, we are going to talk with you about the five rules of buying seafood.

Seafood Fish

1. Don’t Forget Any Allergies

When you are buying seafood, make sure you don’t buy seafood you or someone you are cooking for is allergic to. While this may seem like common sense, sometimes it is easy to forget if someone is allergic. If you aren’t sure of allergies for someone you are preparing food for, make sure to ask them if they have allergies before you Get Maine Lobster Tail Delivery for the whole crew!

Some of the most common seafood allergies are:

  • Tuna
  • Salmon
  • Shell Fish
  • Shrimp

There is other seafood that people are allergic to, but these are some of the top ones to look out for. No amount of cooking will remove allergens from the seafood, so you want to avoid any seafood you have allergies to.

2. Evaluating Sea Food Quality

After you choose the type of seafood you want, you need to figure out if the fish is fresh. If your seafood is not fresh, it won’t taste the same, and you are not going to enjoy a succulent fish. Before you make a selection ensure that the seafood has been held 32 degrees. This can be done by refrigeration, by ice or a combination of both.

When you’re looking at whole fish, there are clear signs of freshness. Often the eyes are full, bright and clear. When the fish is losing freshness, the eyes start becoming cloudy, sunken and pink. Gills ought to be bright pink or red. You do not want dull looking gills. Fresh fish won’t have loose slime.

Fresh fish will spring back when pressed down upon. The skin should be bright and shiny even after it’s been taken out of the water.

Fish fillets and steaks should not browning around the edges. Don’t buy steaks that are packaged in water since they deteriorate quickly in water.

3. Recreational Fish

Shellfish and fish are gathered by individuals to eat personally. While commercial fishing might be banned in some areas, you can still fish for recreation in these places. Make sure you see if there are any health advisories in the area before you go fishing. Make sure you bring enough ice to submerge the fish or at least surround the fish with ice. You want the fish to stay cold until you can get home and put it in proper storage. Use drinkable water when you rinse and clean your catch and clean any equipment that you use.

4. Know Which Fish are Good Raw When Buying to Eat Raw

Before you are ready to buy and eat raw fish, you need to make sure that you know which fish are the best fish for eating raw. Some of the best fish that you can use for sashimi are:

  • Salmon
  • Mackerel
  • Freshwater Eel
  • Squid
  • Sardine

5. Look Locally

Make sure to look locally for your fish because you can get fresher fish. The further inland you are, the less fresh your fish is likely to be. Look for a local Asian or Japanese market so that you can find fish that are the freshest and most delicious. Also, they may have some fish blocks set to the side, so you can grab them for easy sushi making.

What Are Some of the Best Recipes for Fish?

If you have a great source of fish, you might be looking for good recipes to try at home. Here are a few great ones you can look fix up when you want to wow your friends with your fish kitchen skills and tasty recipes.

There are so many things you can do with fish from main courses to appetizers and delicious sushi. Learning the various recipes is the fun part, but making sure that you are buying the right fish is essential. Now that you know how to look for the best fish, you can select what you want and start working on your favorite fish recipe. Besides for doing your own cooking, you can now figure out if the fish at the restaurants you are eating at is serving the best fish.

While it is likely that the restaurants you are eating at are going to have the best quality of fish when they are near the coast, you will be able to rest assured and feel confident in the fish you are eating instead of putting your blind faith in the chef that you’ve never met.

Feeding your friends fish and having big get-togethers where you can serve fish recipes will become a go-to activity since fish are tasty when you know what you are doing and what to look for. The next thing you will need to do is learn how to cook fish properly, and then the picture will be complete.

What are your favorite recipes to prepare with fresh fish and seafood? Leave a comment with your best suggestions in the section below.