I went to a fishmonger for the first time yesterday and I have a few basic questions. Should the place smell like fish? I have been informed that it should not smell like fish and if it did they did not keep a clean and fresh store. It should be a pleasant smell. I bought a pound of mahi mahi and a pound of rockfish both fillets. I had to scale and debone the mahi mahi and debone the rockfish. It wasn't like there where a lot of bones or or scales it just looks like they got lazy and didn't finish the job.
I am trying to prepare more fish dishes and it took me almost an hour to clean those fish having not done those particular tasks before, but with small kids I wanted to be methodical about it. So I guess this a multi-part question; Are my expectations to high for my fishmonger, should I have asked him to do those tasks and not assumed they would have been done? The second part is there a good reference to deboning and cleaning fish, what is the best way to remove the skin? I hacked at it with my pairing knife and a pair of wire pliers.
Best Answer
It's common for a few bones to be left behind, so you should always check over the fish before cooking. I use a pair of small pliers to pull out any leftovers. It shouldn't take an hour to clean, though. Any leftover scales should come off with a quick rinse. If the fillet was supposed to be de-boned and scaled, and there were a lot of bones left and scales still attached, that's a bit of a problem.
Did the fish itself smell bad, or was it just the store that had an odor? Did the store just smell a bit "fishy", or did it smell like an environmental disaster? If you're not used to working with fish, you may be a bit sensitive to the smell. Once you get the fish home, you should not smell any off-odors on the fillets.
If you weren't impressed, I would just try to find another place and see if you like it better. It's not a bad thing to have high expectations, and you should find a fishmonger that you're happy with.