Tag Archive: keelung fish market


One of the 70 million sharks killed this year. How terrible.   Are the other fish black trevally (known for their stinging spine that will cause agony – I think).

“Rare fish” is really raw tuna.  The very large prawns were US $15 each!  Brother and sister ran the show.  Almost opposite the Dianji Temple in a famous area known as Keelung Miaokou (page 126 Lonely Planet TAIWAN 8th Edition 2011).

RED FISH.  Very small coral trout (or lunar-tail trout) probably from aquaculture.

The name (species) of this fish had me baffled. Look carefully – then it’s suddenly obvious.

The rule with eating shark is – only eat small one’s, the smaller the better – less mercury.  How many people realize that fake crab sticks and fake lobster meat (surimi) probably is shark.  Surimi has been highly washed and pulped before flavor and color is added to resemble expensive seafood.  I avoid shark meat.

I’ve not seen this before.  A friend told me it was Manta Ray steaks.

Early morning is when the buying action happens.

KEELUNG FISH MART

I’ve never seen anything like this place. A good documentary film potential, but you’d need to work fast. After a couple of hours, as the sun comes up, everything vanishes.

Located near the harbor, Keelung is the traditional fish market servicing Taipei. Every imaginable seafood item would be here somewhere.

Much is still alive – even cuttlefish in a tank.

The price of ‘A” grade fish is much the same as in Australia.

South American frozen locos were offered as ‘abalone’- 12 medium-sized shellfish for AUD $44 – not in the same league as true abalone.

CANNED ABALONE

The most prestige brand is Calmex (USA) AUD $84 to $90 per can (contains usually just one abalone). It was quite delicious years ago but a bit too expensive today.

How to cook the fresh version, Chinese style, is still an unfolding story.

Boil slowly for four hours with a whole chicken and some ginger is one recipe.

Location of Keelung Fish Market

Octopus sausages are unknown in Australia.  They tasted good too.

Stingray can taste like crab meat if cooked a certain way.

Bag of oysters for about AUD $10

Note the teeth and large black eye in the picture at right.

Obviously a deep water predator species.  I did not know the name until recently when I saw some being unloaded at Coffs Harbour fish wharf, Australia.

The young professional fishermen explained “it’s a very oily fish, you can only eat a small amount otherwise it gives you diarrhea”.

It’s called a Rudder fish.

The reason for the high oil content is to do with enabling the fish to change depths quickly without “blowing it’s air bladder”.  The usual air bladder in most other fish enable them to  maintain neutral buoyancy at a chosen depth pressure.

The Rudder fish uses it’s high oil content for buoyancy instead of having an air bladder.

My guess would be they hunt prey like squid from deep water at night  to  near the  surface suffering no effect from the pressure changes.

Maybe the oil from this fish has medicinal properties?  That is usually the case.

Bamboo cat sharks are alive