Saturday, April 3, 2010

Marché aux Poissons



The outdoor food markets were booming today here in Aix. Tomorrow is Easter or Paque and everything will shut down for two days. Townspeople were laden with sacks of vegetables, meats, cheese and flowers and I was no exception. However, I'm forgoing the chocolate easter bunny this year because the lines at the Chocolateries were out-the-door-and-down-the-street. I did take the time to wait in line at the patisserie for a beautiful little cake...I'm not totally crazy!


As promised, today I'll give you a peek at our fish market. 


On Saturdays there at least 3 fish venders at Place Richelme. I am only familiar with about 1/20th of the varieties of fish that they offer. Oysters and shrimp I understand...

 .
BUT.....what are these things anyway?


And some are just too ugly to eat...although I hear that the more grotesque the fish, the tastier...


Others, like the Coquille St. Jaque (scallops) are truly a beautiful miracle of nature...


The venders will scale, cut, filet or shell your fruits de mer (fruits of the sea) if you ask. Very helpful for someone like me.


I'll leave you with these two fellas...
I swear I could hear this one screaming HELP!.. in a teeny, tiny voice....


...and this poor bloke seems just a little stunned by the fate that has befallen him.


My little, black goldfish, Maurice, is swimming about nervously as I write this page. I wonder what's up with him?

Photobucket






6 comments:

  1. I hate it when you see them trying to crawl out of their containers. I was once behind a lady at the supermarket who had bought a live crab and it was crawling down the conveyor belt trying to do a runner (well, a crawler).

    I do eat all these things but it doesn't stop me feeling a pang for them now and then.

    Have a lovely Easter

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  2. I'm afraid if I saw a crab crawling away I'd have to name it and take it home.

    I do love crablegs, though.

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  3. Great pics! What will your Easter dinner be?

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  4. Cool post and nice pictures. looks like a fabulous fish market

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  5. Hey D
    My buddy Jay in NY recently this winter bought four dozen live crayfish in the asian market in Flushing Queens (known by many as Floo Shing...) ...He then went on to pick up his daughter at school...He got out of his truck to meet her and when she opened the door of his pickup to get in...out they did start coming!!!....As it was sleeting out with some major wind to boot, my buddy was hard pressed to get a move on....His daughter was not ...She was not getting in that truck...So he spent a good half an hour getting pinched picking up his god forsaken meal off the road and out of the truck..The problem by then was that several of the little beasts had already made their way under seats and even into the heating system.....He found and/or smelled crayfish for at least two weeks.............Which reminds me of another story.....Two guys I know here in Vauvenargues went heading out to a posh club in Aix....They hit and killed a sanglier (wild boar) on the road...Given how delicious a sanglier can be when it's cooked up, they decide to throw it into the back seat and deal with it later.....Several hours and drinks later, they come out of the club to find that not only was the sanglier not dead, but it had destroyed any and everything in the car from the seats to the dashboard.....They could only open the door and let the narly thing out into the parking lot of the club!!!
    Let's do a fish dinner soon.....with only the ugliest fish we can find...
    Bisous

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  6. Delana,
    I've never seen such a thing as the horrible looking fish with the other guy sticking out of his wooden hinged mouth! Great photos.
    Enjoy Easter. I got the kids chocolate bells, hope they like them.
    Aidan

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