Fish Market Forces
Located in a sort-of no man’s land of office buildings and hotels, the Maine Avenue Fish Market is tucked away in a bizarre little pocket of waterfront activity in Southwest. We were there to grab a few fish steaks before the evening rush hour for a Friday night grillfest. And we were hungry.
Newbies to the market, we walked slowly, browsing the wares while vendors coaxed us to stop here or there for a special on tuna or a pound of shrimp or whatever else. This place is like the red-light district of raw seafood. (“Baby, c'm'ere, I got a reeeeaaal good grouper that’ll make you scream!"). Keep walking, and while you’re trying to figure out what exactly the difference is between large and jumbo shrimp (uh, they look exactly the same), you see something called lobster shrimp, a hybrid that reminded us of something from a B horror film—“Mutant Crustaceans Walk Among Us!”
From there, you’ll see more exotica of the sea—tiger shrimp, a zillion types of squid and octopus, all piled high in a gray-blue mass. Then stone crab, blue crab, mountains of crab legs, and lump crab in a dizzying array of containers. At this point, you’re not sure what to do: Do the safe thing, and pick the salmon; get crazy and buy some tiger shrimp; or get the hell out of there before you hurt yourself.
This kind of situation can be dangerous, as the combination of extreme hunger, curiosity, and the promise of copious amounts of food can lead to total irrational behavior. This DCist came very close to being like, “yeah, I’ll take five pounds of lobster shrimp and a few of those squids over there,” and then running out of there with not a clue of what to do with any of it.
Luckily, salvation was just around the corner: the cooked food section (read: I can eat NOW!). Enormous containers of shrimp and crab were being sold by weight, and the vendors were enthusiastically vying for our business. One free sample of delicious shrimp secured our purchase: a pound of plain medium shrimp and another pound with a generous dusting of Old Bay. (Note: A pound of shrimp is A LOT. But we were hungry.)
We also settled on five giant steaks: tuna, salmon, halibut, mahi-mahi, and swordfish. The vendor, who was all business, couldn’t have cared less about our lack of fish knowledge. She just held out a plastic bag with one hand, while the the other arm rested akimbo on her hip, as if to say, “Put some fish in this bag, so I can get on with my day.” But she didn’t. She just waited quietly while we made up our stupid minds.
After taking in this great local tradition, we marinated and grilled the steaks, every bite of which was extremely fresh and succulent, reaffirming our belief that it’s best to get fresh food from the people who know it best. So do your summer cookout right, and hit the fish market. Just eat something first.
Maine Avenue Fish Market
1100 Maine Avenue SW
Photo by Flickr user Bien Stephenson and used under a Creative Commons license.