Auckland Fish Market

We took a family outing to the fish market on the far end of the harbor.  It's a huge market, with an early-morning auction for restaurants and commercial sellers, and a retail market below.  Chock full of every type of local seafood fresh from the sea, it was a treat to poke around.

There were live sea urchins.  The skinny, silvery fish to the right are ghost fish.

 Here are some ruby fish.  Look at those big eyes!

 

 

So many selections!

Flounders are my favorite Evolution-Is-Cool fish.  We're looking down on him from the side.  Both of his eyes are on this side.  As a fishlet, his eyes were located on both sides, but one of them migrates over to the other side as he grows up.  His backbone is along one edge.  He swims on his side against the sea floor.  

Eek!  Live eels!  Slithering!

Here are cockles.  They live in the sand.

Here are scallops.  The red/orange bits are the roe sacks.  (Buy a scallop, get fresh caviar free!)  The roe is rich, soft, and delicious,

 

 

 

And whitebait.  They're tiny baby fishlets that they scoop out of the water around the south island.  You eat them whole.  We tried some in a pancake/fritter.  We didn't care much for them... the fishy flavor was a bit too aggressive, and their visual similarity to worms was a little hard to get past.  Still, someone must love them.  You see it right; $160.00 for a kilogram.  That's about $55 per pound, US.

Amiri posed by the buoy decoration, but was a little distracted by the automatic door that he wanted to run in and out of.

 

 

We finished up by visiting OCEANZ, the on-premises fry shop, which has been voted as 'Best Fish and Chips in Auckland' several years running, for some fried treats.  The recognition is well-deserved-- the fish really is amazing.  And since it was probably swimming just this morning, no wonder!  The smaller, oddly-shaped nuggets are green-lipped mussels.