Fresh fish without a market stall

I do not have the familiar market with iced counters where fish is shown with head and eyes. There is a shop near home, a tray and a label. So I look more carefully than when grandmother bought from her regular stallholder at the bazaar.

A fillet should shine like a wet stone, not like a grey rag. The smell — sea and cucumber, a little iodine, not ammonia and not “yesterday’s pan”. If the pack is puffed up, I do not even start an argument. Salmon should be even in colour, without dry white corners. Cod and haddock — firm, they do not spread if I press the tray lightly through the film. Skin, if there is skin, is silver, not sticky. I look at the date, but the nose matters more: sometimes there is still a day left on the pack and the smell is already heavy; sometimes it is the other way — today’s date, and the fish is alive. I am not afraid of frozen fish: inland here it is an honest option. I look for no huge ice coat and no yellow dry edges — that is freezer burn, and it is a pity to fry that.

At home I do not keep fish “for later” in the same tray. I move it, cover it, into the cold. I defrost in the fridge, not in the sink under a hot tap: a hot tap cooks the edge and leaves the middle raw. My pan is dry and hot, the piece patted with paper, salt at the last moment — salt it long in advance, juice runs, and the fish starts to stew in its own water. Lemon, dill, a piece of butter — and that is all. I do not mask doubtful fish with garlic: garlic is for taste, not to hide a smell. If it already bothers me before cooking, today it will be chicken. For the children — without bones and without theatre, a small piece, potato or rice beside it. Smoked fish I keep as a store, not as a mask; fresh fillet goes into the pan today. Tins in the cupboard — on a sandwich if the day has completely fallen apart, and they smell of smoke, not of the sea. A tin opened is finished the same day, not left in the metal on a warm hob.

Fresh fish in my house does not wait “for later”. Either it goes in the pan today, or we have chicken and say so. Where do you buy fish in an ordinary town without a big market — and what do you check besides the date on the pack?