While in Houston, my parents took me to Waterfront Seafood, which is a fresh fish market in Kemah, Texas. This place was so cool. We pulled into the parking lot, and we could see the Gulf to our left along with a marina. We went in, and there was fish on ice surrounding the whole market. They had everything from shrimp, code, gator, red snapper, blacktip shark, and many others.
The first thing I wanted was shark. I have only eaten it once or twice at select restaurants, and I always enjoyed it. The market was serving up blacktip shark, and they had a whole one — minus the head — just sitting on ice. I said, “I want some shark.” They asked, “How much?” I didn’t know how it would work, but I knew they sold it by the pound. “I’ll take two slices off the tail.” The worker cut took the whole shark over to a machine reminiscent of cutting wood, and cut two strips off the tail, perpendicular to the head. These chunks were about 1″ to 1 1/2″ in thickness. They were crazy. He even cut the skin off. Later my dad and I were able to cut that into eight very healthy fillets. I am excited to cook them.
Next, I eyeballed some shrimp. They had a few varieties. First, I went for the Colossal shrimp. These things are huge. They are probably every bit of 4-6 inches in length. I bought about a pound. The gentleman threw a few extra in because he was super cool. Next, I bought some already tailed brown shrimp. I got two pounds of that.
After that, I looked at some of the fresh fish. I couldn’t pass up some red snapper fillets. They looked too delicious! I bought about 2 pounds of that.
Finally, I knew I wanted gator. They had them prepacked in one pound bags in a freezer. It’s not as cool as having it freshly cut right in front of me, but I was excited, nonetheless. My dad told me that a friend of his serves up gator by frying it in Aunt Jermima pancake mix. I will have to try that.
All in all, buying fresh Gulf fish from Waterfront seafood was a pleasant experience. As soon as I got home today, I set out some shrimp to thaw. I was running out of room in the freezer anyway. I will be saving the shark for a special occasion. Who knows, maybe I can get my fish-hating wife to eat some.
If you haven’t had a fresh fish market experience like this, I highly recommend it.