Why are uk supermarkets so rubbish at fish?!

[frogsoup]

The first picture is of our local sainburys fish counter at about 7.30pm on Thursday evening - monumentally crap, right? It looks like the kind of fish counter you'd expect up some mountain, 500 miles from the sea, where the only available transport is by horse and cart. The second is from a Spanish Carrefour (copied randomly from spanishfoodblog) and looks pretty much like every large supermarket in France and Spain that I've ever seen - ie fully stocked with a mouthwatering range of incredible fresh fish and shellfish. Even at their best UK fish counters are usually pretty shit. We don't have a single fishmonger locally either, despite living in a city of 125,000 people, less than 50 miles from a major port. WTF is wrong with uk supermarket buyers?!

I suppose you are right countess. I just want to buy huge fresh prawns at 10 euros a kg in my local supermarket

I try to never buy fish from a supermarket while in the UK. I’ve been to several that you could clearly see didn’t keep on top of worming.

I would like big cheap flavoursome tomatoes too please.

Go to waitrose

Yes me too Countess!

I'm really lucky that we have a fabulous family run fishmonger in the town local to me.

They source locally (one of the sons is a fisherman and they sell his daily catch) and tbh you have to get there in the morning (early afternoon you can still buy but less choice) because when today's stock is gone, that's it.

I appreciate that - because I know it's "today's" produce.

Like anything else it's supply and demand and I think a lot of us aren't prepared to (or can't) pay for premium fresh fish/seafood and compare prices to the frozen food isle.

For me (and my family) it's a real treat that we are happily able to pay for - but that's not true for everyone. We had some amazing Crab and langoustines that I look forward to buying again . I used the latter to make rick steins langoustine, tarragon and clotted cream tart and did a crab linguine. It made the expensive seafood go a long way in terms of portions but still being delicious.

A hell of a lot of U.K. catch gets sold in Europe simply because they are prepared to pay appropriate prices for it.

It moves and changes price according the Morrison's fish counter guy I know.

First day - on the counter.
Second day - in the cabinet beside the counter
Third day - BOGOF and in the floating/indi counters.

A fishmonger would be amazing! We have a fish van once in a while but last time I bought from it I got sold some squid with half-a-kg of sand stuffed inside. It might have been a mistake, but from his response when I mentioned it, I doubt it:(

I love fish shopping in Spain. Squid was less than 4 euros a kilo, dirt cheap! Giant prawns about 5 per kilo in Portugal. We have a good fish stall at our city market in my town, but have a pick carefully or you end up paying about £10pp.

I agree with a lot of what you say frogsoup , it baffles me why an island people are so reluctant to eat fish.

Until about the mid 1960s, most towns had at least one fishmonger, or sometimes a greengrocer/fishmonger. The range of fish was pretty standard, haddock cod plaice, rarely monkfish or shellfish.

Then as supermarkets (with no fish counter) started to dominate, and a large fishmonger chain collapsed, people seemed to lose interest in fresh fish, and frozen fish took over.

So now there is a generation of people who never ate fish with eyes and gills as children, they've only ever eaten square fish out of a box.
They don't know how to prepare it or eat it, so they don't buy it.

They think that fish is a bit scary with bones and heads, and don't want to try anything unusual. But salmon is hugely popular, so perhaps that will be a gateway product for people to start experimenting and enjoying fresh fish again.

I love the French fish counters, and fish markets, such a delight!!

You’d find the fish counter empty at 7.30pm on any given day at Morrison’s. The department itself closes at 7pm.

I find that not liking fish is very common amongst British adults. I don’t see how anyone can not like all fish, given the different tastes and textures but many many people claim not to.

Ada yes I agree with that. I grew up preparing and eating whole fish (I remember catching one age 4 and it being taken home and me helping prepare it for my tea!) and it's never seemed strange, but I have a lot of friends who'd consider themselves adventurous eaters and generally pretty cosmopolitan, but still run scared from preparing whole fish.

They are not much good at fruit and veg either.

I think what you say is true wrt the pp.

I remember my GM buying whole fish from the fishmonger and seeing them in her kitchen sink whilst she scaled and gutted them herself (she said she did it better than the fishmonger!).

That said I think it's true of meat as well wrt people not wanting to see the "animal".

I appreciate how lucky I am because I've also got a great butcher in my village never mind the local town!

He always laughs (kindly) at me because I buy my meat "whole" - buy which I mean I make my own mince, happy to de-bone a leg of lamb etc etc. He's said he's long stopped being surprised at how many people won't handle meat - they want it presented supermarket style about as removed from the animal as is possible.

I have to order in items like shin, feather steaks, oxtail, brisket, collar of bacon etc because a lot of people don't know what they are or how to cook them.

It's a really shame as lots of these cheaper cuts are delicious when cooked properly (nicer than "premium" meat imho).

I appreciate I'm sounding like I'm from the previous century but I'm actually relatively young (early 40's) I just learned to cook from my GM and DM who were brilliant cooks (DM still is, GM sadly passed but celebrated every time we use one of her many handwritten recipes).

Forall whenever I go back to France I buy several kg of green beans and weep in delight

Having said that, to redress the balance a bit, if you've ever tried to find a decent curry in France or Spain, you'll know there's some things we do manage considerably better over this side of the channel!

God yes re the curry

Yes I agree about meat cuts too. That's why mince is so popular or chicken breasts, they don't look like a recognisable bit of animal.
You often hear people say they won't eat fish with a face or meat with bones!

Then there is all the fuss over veal and rabbit!

Well you can understand why the French don't do curry, as they have hardy any historical links with India.

The Waitrose range is actually more limited than Morrison’s because they will only stock fish from sustainable sources. It limits the choice a little bit what they do sell is fabulous.

Unfortunately it's supply and demand. I love fish - most types - and so do my family but we rarely eat it as it's so expensive. And it's very true a lot of people are scared of cooking it so if you add that factor to the expense of experimenting, it's hardly surprising a lot of people pass the fish counter by completely. With the result that supermarkets usually only ever stock the most popular, best known fish varieties and, what little choice they have is pricey because even then, there's a risk it won't get sold at full price. Whether or not I'm imagining it as well, the constant price rises applicable to all foodstuffs in recent years, seems, to me, to be even greater with fish. I just can't afford it now except on special occasions (we have a seafood Xmas dinner!) or when there's a stupendous reduction.

I would love to see the likes of European fish counters here but I doubt it'll ever happen.

I live on a smaller island than the mainland and I have to travel to buy freshly caught fish. When I say travel, it's about 3 miles but I did buy a good (reduced) sea bass from tesco for dinner tonight. It came from Greece. I really need to up my ideas, but having said that, I can only get to a fishmongers on a Saturday, they are closed by time I get back from work.

Our local market has a few fishmongers. At least six I'd say, as well as small cockle stalls.

Temporary are you by the sea? Six fishmongers, wow! Though having said that, even a lot of places right by the sea seem not to have much seafood. I was in St Davids recently and it seemed pretty fish-free

Yes, as close to the sea as it gets! We are totally spoiled for choice.

The fish counters aren't too shabby at the local supermarkets either. We've a few restaurants with a good selection of fish too; we had a marvellous seafood platter in the summer sitting on the beach. Can't wait for the sun again!