We look at the ocean everyday. It contains fish. Yet, purchasing fresh fish has been a challenge. This makes no sense to me. I must figure this out.
We have eaten a fair amount of fish at the various restaurants we have tried. So, again, we know there is fish. And we all love it, which just increases my desperation. Gus, in particular, streams a constant rant of “I must have poke! Can we eat poke for dinner? How about poke?” Geez, kid. And, Sam really likes ceviche or any grilled fish. And, when it’s hot…which it is almost always…fish just sounds good. So, light…so fresh. I must find the fish.
Of course you can buy fish at the Auto Mercado…but it is crazy expensive (like $20 a pound). I am pretty sure my family of four can put away a pound and half of fish in one meal, so that’s like $30…just for the fish. I don’t think so. Plus, it’s grocery store fish…that’s just sad when you look at the ocean every day.
So, yes, I turned to the internet. I found one site that said they sell fresh fish at the Saturday Farmer’s Market. I checked that out, but no. Another site said there is a market just past the boy’s school. Turns out, it is closed. Another site said the place two doors down from us sells fish on Tuesdays and Fridays, which at first seemed weird because when I went in just after we arrived here it appeared to just be an Italian deli and cafe. But, I thought, “I’ll try again.” So, a couple weeks ago I went in and asked the woman working there (in Spanish). She walked me over to a small refrigerator in the back corner (that I previously thought was in the employee only section) and showed me one shelf with a few small packages of fish (fresh, not frozen!). They had both tuna and dorado…my heart raced with hopeful excitement. “Was it fresh?,” I asked. She tried to respond in English, but messed up her days of the week. So, I tried in Spanish, “De Lunes? De Martes?” “De Martes” she replied. It was Thursday, so the fish was from Tuesday. I would roll with two-day old fish. But, wait…was it crazy expensive? After a few seconds of quick colones to dollars calculations, I figured out that two good sized chunks would be about $15. Not a great price, but better and fresher than anything I had encountered to-date. I was doing it! I came home and proudly presented my find to Matt and the boys and immediately proceeded to making homemade poke and ceviche. They were delicious. Everybody loved it. I rode the high of my success the rest of the night. So I thought, “Well, maybe I won’t hit ‘buying fresh fish from the guy off the boat’ nirvana, but this was not a terrible consolation prize.”
The woman at the deli had said they usually get fresh fish every Friday and sometimes on Tuesdays, so I went back on Friday expecting to repeat my success…but discovered that they had not received any fish. She shrugged and seemed to imply it was strange, but “pura vida.” So, I went back the following Tuesday and, again, they had not received any fresh fish. Well, this may not work after all.
So, I kept asking around. Our property manager said that he fishes once a week and might have some to sell sometime. However, he could never sell us tuna, because his wife has dibs on the tuna. Smart girl. He also said he could take us out fishing sometime…that we could go to the reef, catch yellow fin and eat it right there in the boat with some soy sauce. That sounds AMAZING as a one-time experience. Full stop. But, I don’t think that’s an every week type of event. He also said he thought there was “a guy” who delivers and he would try to find out his contact information. But, when we checked in with him a few days later he seemed to have forgotten that we had had the conversation. Ah, pura vida.
Another woman in his office suggested we look for one of the trucks with “Mariscos” written on the side. She said they deliver to the restaurants and we might be able to buy fish, but more likely shrimp, straight off the truck. To which Matt responded, “I just saw one of those trucks!” She also said there used to be a fish market on the beach, just past Nogui’s restaurant, but the guy had retired. His nephew or son-in-law may still sell fish “near there.” She said we should go by in the morning sometime and maybe we could buy fish there. Hmm…was my ‘buying fresh fish from a guy off the boat’ nirvana within reach after all?
So, we left and headed home. Within 45 seconds, Matt yelled, “There’s a Mariscos truck!” “Where?” I searched. We had just passed it. It was parked on the other side of the street, facing the other way, and there were two guys unloading bags of something. “Do you want to stop?” Matt asked. “Yes!” I said. As I hopped out of the golf cart and trotted across the street dodging moving cars and motorcycles, I tried to decide which verb and verb tense I should use. “Esta veniendo pescado fresco?,” I said trying for the holy grail first. They shook their heads and said “no” without even a pause. I glance at a ginormous piece of tuna wrapped in plastic…probably pre-ordered by a restaurant I decide. “Camarones?” I try again. “Si, camarones” they said and showed me a HUGE bag of shrimp. ” I notice that they are frozen, but quickly decide that it’s probably okay since they sell to the restaurants. “Cuánto cuesta?” I ask. They take out a calculator and show me their math, which means nothing to me, but I see the total and quickly understand that they want the equivalent of $27 US. Feeling the pressure of the moment, I decide that they are probably ripping me off a little bit, but that’s still a lot of shrimp for $27, so I agree and pay them. We get home and separate out the gigantic bag of shrimp into six “shrimp for 4” serving size bags of maybe 40 shrimp each, pop five into the freezer and start to thaw one for dinner.
That’s about five bucks a meal, y’all. Now we’re talking.
So today I tell Matt that after we drop the boys off school, I want to check out the area around the old fish market on the beach and see if we can buy fish somewhere around there. Like a good husband, he accommodates my request. We park the golf cart and walk through the trees along the beach and see an old red building with Pedro’s on it. We notice all the windows are closed up, pass it and walk around to other side. We see an open door and and older woman sitting next to it. “Esta veniendo pescado fresco?,” I reuse my question from the other day. She replies in lightening fast Spanish, but we are able to make out that ‘they’ are still out fishing and will be back later. We figure out that we should come back at around 11 am and agree to do so. Fingers crossed. I may just get my ‘buying fresh fish from a guy off the boat’ experience after all.
A trip back home and couple errands later, we return. We ask again. Unfortunately, there is no tuna, but there is red snapper and Mahi Mahi. She pulls out a huge slab of white fish in a plastic bag and shows me. “Yikes, that’s a lot,” I think. I touch it and notice it’s frozen. “Uh oh, I thought this going to be fresh from this morning” I think. Confused, I ask her. She pokes at it and explains it was from yesterday and it is still very fresh. I feel a slight stab of disappointment and decide this is still the best thing we have found. We find out that she wants 10,000 colones (or about $17 US) for a kilo of fish which Matt tells me is 2.2 lbs (so nice to have a walking encyclopedia on hand). That’s less than $8 for a pound of fresh fish! I tell her we’ll take 2 kilos or about 4 1/2 pounds. We take it home, cut it into three pieces, put two pieces into the freezer for another day and one in the refrigerator for dinner tomorrow night. That’s about $11-12 for fish for four. I’m thrilled.
So, we have not quite reached fish nirvana. We are still one day and a freezer away, but I am feeling good about the progress and enjoying the adventure.
What a great journey!?