Leslie Williams seeks fresh fish in Dublin, and returns with some recommendations.

Photo: Leslie Williams

Dublin has always been a difficult place to buy really good fresh fish. Yes there are fish mongers but I have found the quality variable in all of them, except perhaps Cavistons in Glasthule.

Cavistons, while reliable, is by no means cheap and most of us have to rely on supermarkets, which are always unpredictable. I have never managed to acquire fish heads or bones from a supermarket, which strikes me as particularly odd (where do they go?), and a cause for worry.

So, for my money the best places to buy fish at the cheapest prices (unless you know a fisherman) are as follows: Moore Street, the pier in Dun Laoghaire and Nicky's Plaice on Howth Pier.

The cheapest and my favourite is the market in Moore Street where there are usually three sellers down at the Parnell Street end. Two stalls stock the most popular Dublin fish such as Ray, Cod, Mackerel and Smoked Cod with occasionally Plaice, Gurnard, Whiting and even conger eel. The third stall is almost always the most interesting with the fish just mentioned usually in stock plus anything from squid, octopus, crab claws, prawns, queen scallops and shore crabs to lemon sole, monkfish, red mullet and hake. Fish heads and bones are always available and of course free of charge.

On my visit two Fridays ago I bought a 12oz hake (filleted weight) plus three huge plaice all for 4 euro (1 euro per fish is generally the price of a standard fish with shellfish usually costing 1.25 - 4 euro per lb). Last Thursday I bought a pound each of crab claws (2.50 euro per lb) and prawn tails (4 euro per lb). I simply boiled them and served them with a salad plus some brown bread, garlic mayonnaise, and a bottle of Trimbach Gewurztraminer - a wonderful feast for two with the food costing less than a tenner.

Unshelled Queen scallops and live shore crabs are my favourite treats from Moore Street, which cost 1.25 and 3 euro per lb respectively, if memory serves. With shore crabs I simply boil them and crush them and make a straightforward bisque with fish stock, tomatoes, white wine, cognac, mirepoix, garlic., liquidized then strained twice and finished with cream. Two pounds of shore crabs will make generous portions of glorious bisque for four people. In addition live shore crabs are great for scaring people in the office!

The fish are all bought daily at the fish market behind Smithfield so you are utterly dependent on what is available in the market (as things should be). Obviously the women cannot afford to buy the most expensive fish and if the catch is low they will have very limited stock but this is the risk you take. Remember they have no way of storing the fish so they must buy it fresh every day. The fish is kept cool with ice but I do advise going before 2pm in winter and before midday in summer.

The women are there from Tuesday to Friday (except the Tuesday after a bank holiday) with Tuesday the best day for shellfish (as the boats have been out over the weekend). Remember if the weather is bad and the boats haven't been out, then the women won't be out either.

Next cheapest after Moore Street is, I believe, the hut at the end of Dun Laoghaire Pier. Turn left at the BIM building on the coast road and go straight down the pier (don't turn left or right). At the end of the pier is a brown/grey box of a building and this is where the fish shop is. The fish are bought daily from Howth so again you are getting what is available that day. The shop is open from Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday 10am-1pm.

If you have small children make sure to bring them along as there are usually a couple of friendly seals hanging around the end of the pier and the shop lays out fish heads and scraps for you to feed them. The squeals of delight from the children feeding the seals are one of the delights of buying fish here.

The last time I visited I was there early and I saw the re-assuring site of a fisherman surrounded by a couple of dozen boxes of freshly landed scallops, which he was methodically cleaning for the women in the shop. The scallops were huge king scallops and cost 2 euro each unshelled. They were gloriously sweet and rich tasting and went in a warm balsamic dressed salad with some deep fried goujons of cod.

They had some lagoustine there that day also plus monkfish, black sole, hake and ray, plaice, cod etc. Cod cost 5.80 per lb, which is about 1-2 euro cheaper than most supermarkets. In the past I have bought baby turbots, clams, swordfish and squid. Heads and bones are of course always available unless the seals got them first.

Nicky's Plaice at the end of Howth pier is really the only place to go on the pier and lives up to its reputation as one of the best fish shops in Ireland. Prices are similar to the pier in Dun Laoghaire but inevitably not as cheap as Moore Street. Last Thursday they had cod, plaice, sea bass (imported), ruffy (think a huge white fleshed goldfish), swordfish, tuna, mussels and whiting. Staff were pleasant and informative as always and my swordfish was sweet and succulent and the ruffy delicate and light in flavour (a bit like plaice in texture). Both were spanking fresh.

The great thing about Nicky's is that you know the fish has only traveled a few yards to his shop from the boats moored along the pier. The atmosphere in the shop is relaxed and very friendly and is great for advice. You genuinely feel you can buy here with confidence while prices are very competitive. Cod cost 13 euro per kilo (slightly more expensive than Dun Laoghaire) and prawn tails were 9 euro per kilo (reduced from 13 euro). Swordfish was 20 euro per kilo and ruffy was 15 euro per kilo). Heads and bones are of course available and they smoke their own salmon and cod. Nicky's is open Tuesday to Friday and their website is at www.nickysplaice.com

While you will find a much better range of fish in Nicky's or on Dun Laoghaire Pier and Cavistons cannot be beaten for their range of fish, I still like the pot luck aspect of Moore Street and I have never got bad fish there yet - unless you count the time I naively bought at 3.30pm on a hot July day - I wondered why it was half the price of normal.the cat got a big treat that day...

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