Another time-tested method is to always buy a fish with its head on. “That way, you can see the eyes—they gotta be clear and bulging,” says Pasternack of Esca. “And the gills should be red, because if it’s all purple in there, it means the fish is older.” What’s more, looking at the whole fish allows you to see if all the scales are intact, a sign that it’s been well handled. If you gently poke the side of the fish, it ought to spring back firmly. A spectacularly fresh fish may still have a coating of protective slime (almost like wet snot, says Pasternack). There’s the old smell test: Technically, a fish shouldn’t smell fishy at all; it should smell like the ocean. (Some chefs even claim the cleaned belly of a good fish smells faintly of cucumber or watermelon.)
FedEx can also work for you. Browne Trading runs a phone-in ordering service for everyday consumers that even top chefs agree carries superbly fresh fish, since the company has direct access to the fish auctions in Portland, Maine, where local fishermen sell their catch. “We really want to keep people out of the supermarkets,” says Mitchell. Prices are not excessively steep—a fillet of lemon sole is $12.95 per pound, and a whole tail of monkfish is $6.95 per pound—though overnight shipping can start to make your home-cooked dinner as expensive as eating out. For those who don’t like the idea of receiving unseen fish by mail, there are also the stalls at Union Square Greenmarket, where local fishermen like Blue Moon and PE & DD bring yesterday’s catch directly to the streets.
One way or another, says Meyer of Wild Edibles, “there’s always something fresh.” He leans into his window display, grabs a wolf fish with both hands, and thrusts it at me, holding the mouth open so I can see its rows of enormous jagged teeth. “See, that’s so vibrant!” he crows. “The eyes, they’re totally clear! Those teeth eat crabs and clams, crushing them up, and that’s why the meat on this fish is very sweet.” He holds it to his face and stares it in the eye. “The wolf fish looks very sharp today.”
Email
Print
The Transformation of TV Into an Art Form
The Draw of Dream Worlds in Film
Gosselin, Prince of the Professional Nobodies
A Decade of Defining Moments in Pop-Culture
The Invention of New York's Local Cuisine 
Thirty-Five Short-Lived Looks of the Decade
Two Views of a Swath of the Upper West Side
An Older Generation Moves Into Williamsburg
Ten Years That Changed Everything
A Generation of Overparenting
The Sports Rivalry of the Decade
What Is the Point of the United States Senate? 
