'Straya bound: Sydney's WONDERFUL Seafood Market

Fresh and dee-lish seafood salad of Balmain "bugs" and prawns, Sydney-style, darlins'!

G'DAY darlings! Well, La Diva is countin' the days til I get on that plane and am in Sydney, Australia once again! (remember darlings, DJ Nevah L8 is an Aussie and yours truly lived there for 10 years!)

As you know from earlier posts, La Diva LURVES all the wonderful fresh produce available in Sydney and in particular, I am JUST AMAZED (still!) at the variety of seafood offered to the public and at such reasonable prices. It's enough to make any foodie faint with desire! One of the fave places for La Diva to shop for the most incredible selection of seafood I've ever seen was the Sydney Fish Markets located at Pyrmont, just outside of Sydney CBD. La Diva would traipse over there on her lunch break for some freshly grilled fish, salad and a crisp chardy and then get all the fixin's for a seafood supper!

Darlings this is only a SMALL selection of the seafood available at any number of the retailers at the Sydney Fish Market! Click on photo for a close up!

In the wee hours and behind the scenes, these are the people that bring the freshest fish to Sydney restaurants and retailers and beyond!

Both a retailer AND a wholesaler, the Sydney Fish Market is the largest working fish market in the Southern Hemisphere and offers a variety of purveyors selling over a 100 different species of seafood each day. Starting daily at 4:30 am, hundreds of industry buyers inspect the fish before the auction begins an hour later with approximately 20,000kg of seafood sold EVERY HOUR or 65 tonnes daily! After the auction, the fish is whisked away and sent directly to retailers and restaurants for tourists and locals to enjoy!

Darlings, you KNOW how much Sydney-siders LOVE to eat outside! Who wouldn't with such vistas and weather?! Click on the photo to see all the details!

However, ANYONE can go to the market and buy fresh fish either to cook at home or eat there. Some of the retailers also have a restaurant on-site where you can pick your fish and have it grilled or fried to order! A superlative Sydney specialty, Sydney rock oysters are sold pre-shucked and ready for slurpin'! And, what would a lunch in Sydney be without a bit of grog to go with your fish and chips? Besides getting wine and beer at the restaurants, you can purchase a bottle of wine or beer from the on-site bottle shop. Australians are very civilized indeed.

Ahhhh, the lovely and sweet Sydney rock oyster!

The Sydney rock oyster in its natural habitat

Want to know what fish is on special this week? Or what fish is running and in season? It's SO EASY TO BE GREEN, just check the market's website here and you can find out what's on sale before heading out the door! You can also find recipes and how to identify, cook and store fish; the website is a virtual font of handy fishy info! Additionally, the site offers an email newsletter packed with restaurant and cookbook reviews, articles on specific seafood species and food and wine news.

Only ONE of the retailers, the diversity of seafood available at Peter's is displayed in long, winding glass cases around the shop.

At the Sydney Fish Markets, the purveyors aren't just all seafood retailers. One can pick up fresh made bread at Gregory's, some fabulous lavender cheese or buttery cheddar at the Blackwattle Deli, there is a green grocer there with all the fruit and veggies to complete any meal and of course, a tackle shop too. You can see the list of all the fish market retailers and restaurants here.

In Australia, you can actually buy prawns with the well-flavored heads still attached. Try and find THAT in an American grocery. How else does one make a seafood stock if the prawns have no heads?

Finally, the fish market also offers an on-premise seafood cooking school that is absolutely outstanding. La Diva went there herself a few years back and learned how to make a DIVINE seafood laksa! The school offers a variety of classes for the beginner to advanced cook and boasts a number of cooking styles: Paella or stir fry or how about an intensive weekend workshop with one of Sydney's leading chefs? Sigh, I sure do miss this place...

Bugs are funky, little pre-historic crustaceans that are like small lobsters...of course, they are succulent and sweet!

When one shops for seafood in Florida, you would think our seas are only swimming with yellowtail snapper, grouper, Key West pink shrimp and gulf oysters! Considering that Florida is a peninsula surrounded by the sea, La Diva is absolutely certain that our waters have more variety than that. So why is it that unless you own a restaurant, the average cook here in Florida does not see the huge assortment and selection of seafood species like they do in other parts of the world? If any of you Florida readers have an answer, I would certainly like to know!

Darlings, enjoy ONE more food porn photo of the lobster-esque Balmain bug!

FIVE MORE SLEEPS TIL OUR AUSSIE ADVENTURE BEGINS!!!!

G'day for now!
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