People Say You Should Never Buy Seafood On Monday—Here's The Truth
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You've probably heard that you shouldn't buy fish on Monday. Anthony Bourdain first wrote about it in his famous 1999 New Yorker story "Don't Eat Before Reading This," and since then it's become a kind of lore. But is it still true? Not exactly.
Bourdain's advice was based on the fact that back then, New York City fish markets were closed on the weekends, and many purveyors didn't deliver on Saturdays. This meant the fish you ordered on Monday had most likely been in the kitchen since Friday.
But things have changed, and in 2016 Bourdain actually redacted his earlier advice in a video. "Do me one favor: eat the fish on Monday," he said in the video. While he still didn't recommend going to the "local fake Irish pub" and ordering the mussels, he said that it's a better world now and we have higher standards.
"I knew Anthony Bourdain, I worked with him. He was upset about that quote," said Louis Rozzo, owner of F. Rozzo & Sons, a fourth-generation, family-owned wholesale fish business in New York City.
Rozzo doesn't think that customers should avoid ordering fish on Mondays. "A good restaurant will have fresh fish every day of the week. It's more about the restaurant and not the day of the week," he said.
Rozzo buys seafood every day of the week. And to thwart that "no fish on Monday" advice, he told me that he buys fresh seafood from boats on Long Island on Sunday nights and sells it to restaurants on Monday. This means that the fish you could be eating Monday was just caught the day before.
Tips For Buying Fresh Seafood
If you're picking up seafood to cook at home—perhaps for a grilled tuna steak or pineapple baked salmon recipe—Rozzo offered some tips for selecting the best fish:
For whole fish, the eyes should be clear and black, not cloudy. The gills should be red, not brown.
For swordfish and snapper, the bloodline should be red, not brown.
If you're buying filets, they should be vibrant and translucent. Older filets will dry out and "lose their glow."
The fish shouldn't smell. "You should be able to stick the fish up to your nose and smell nothing. Fish should be odorless," he said.
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