Friday, June 8, 2012

Haymarket Fish Monger Quiz

One of the best things about working in Boston is seeing the open air market that appears on Fridays on my walk to work.  All year this market is packed with mostly fruit and vegetable vendors that are unloading truck loads of produce to sell to Bostonians. From this sea of commerce, my favorite vendor is the fish monger.  I don't know much about him or where he gets the fish he sells, but I plan to learn more and chronicle my discoveries on the Catch-M-All blog. I will need Catch-M-All fans to help to figure out some of the species that he is selling.


The Haymarket Fish Monger

Every week he seems to have new fish and some others that may have been around since the last week.   The new ones usually look really fresh, no fishy smell, and have crystal clear eyes.  It is a true street market with people haggling for price and negotiating for quality.  I could spend an entire day just talking to all the customers from different countries to learn how they are preparing these fish. 

For the first time, carp have shown up in the market. These are easily 15 pound fish. I forgot to ask how much they cost (next week I will ask). 


Here is a fish that has me stumped. Last week a worker told me that it was a barracuda (wrong). This week the owner called it a gar.  This is not the gar that I know. I caught many long and short nose gar in Indiana and they have much different scales. These fish have almost smooth skin.    



They have the toothy grin of a gar.


What do you think?  What kind of fish is this?  Where is it from?




1 comment:

  1. I think its a houndfish which is a needlefish. I hooked one in North Carolina a couple years ago. Had it on the line for five seconds. It jumped three times like a tarpon would. Guys at the marina told me what it was.

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