Feminism in a fish market????

If you come into my market and treat me, as a woman, like an inferior thing compared to my husband, I'm not going to like you. Fish lady is a feminist. I was always led to believe a woman can do anything. I was a "tomboy" as a young girl, leading to feminism in my teens and a Women's Studies major in college. Now, I grew up in a family business where my mom after 30 some odd years of retail sexism has this quote on her bulletin board"Do you want to talk to the man in charge or the woman who knows what is going on?" Yes, my husband does work many more physical hours in the market than I do - for obvious reasons with 2 kiddos under 5 that want to be with Mom. Yes, sometimes he does know more about ordering and availability . . . that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about all the folks out there that think I am incapable of knowing information about the seafood, where it came from, what it tastes like, how to open an oyster . . . the dumb everyday things that as an owner of a seafood market I need to know, and because I am a woman I do not. pshaw!! you say . . . ask my husband, it happens all the time. I'll be waiting on them and they have a question about something, they turn to my husband and ask him. Or, they ask me, I answer and then they turn to my husband and ask again as if what I said didn't matter at all. People assume I can't skin a fish if I'm the only one there "are you able to take the skin off?" "Do you know how to skin it?" or shuck an oyster "I don't suppose you know how to shuck an oyster?" while working one Saturday by myself, a woman and her husband who had been waiting in line get to the counter and order 2 dozen shucked oysters. I explain to them that I am the only one there at the time and cannot take the time to shuck them as I have a steady line of people. "Where's the man, he can do it" I again explain I am the only one there and I know how to shuck oysters but cannot because there is a line of people behind them that I cannot make wait, it's been steady." The woman turns to her husband and says "she doesn't know how and the man isn't here to do it." I'm like wwhhaatt?? I smile and apologize, give them our card and tell them to call ahead next time. My favorite recently is this sourpuss old lady who has some spunk left in her somewhere, maybe . . . turns to me and says "are you the wife?" yup, that's me. Today as a woman left with her 3 dozen shucked oysters she says "thank your husband for this" I smiled and let her know I shucked them . . . "you did these all by yourself?"

Everything is Rotten and other random thoughts

Fresh, it's the word that precedes EVERYTHING in a seafood market. There just isn't any assuming when it comes to fish or it's shellfish cousins. If it doesn't say fresh, then it's not, or so the customer thinks. But even then, the written word must be questioned. The "fresh haddock" tag is looked at and then the customer makes eye contact "is the haddock fresh?" Of course I always answer with a smile and an up beat "it is." And of course I'm most always thinking "no dumb ass it's rotten today, that's what I"m in the fish business for." I understand they feel they must ask, but in all seriousness if you want to know how fresh the fish is at your market - don't ask this idiotic question, ask to smell it, look at it up close. But unless you wash your hands, please keep your grubby paws off the fish, or I will make you buy it.

Other frequently asked questions we hear: "what is the freshest thing in the case?" or "when did the haddock come in?" People, just because something came in to our market on a certain day doesn't make it any fresher . . . I"ve seen Scottish salmon, flown over from Scotland fish farms fresher than local haddock. It all depends on how the fish was taken care of. The salmon in Scotland are fished from the pens and shipped over night to Mass. then trucked up to the wholesalers; sometimes the deep sea fishermen don't get to shore for a few days, the fish is packed on ice but it is still a few days . . . it has to be off loaded and then trucked out or to a filleting company and then us. I've definitely come to understand the public has no real knowledge about seafood and it's freshness, at all.

Fresh somehow doesn't equate with "the last one." The "last one" never sells. One tub of crab left, one piece of haddock, one oyster, one seaweed salad, one smoked mussel. If left, it will sit there. People get funny about it, they make a negative connotation in their head "it must be old." Warning flags are popping up all over it "ROTTEN" . . . there's only one . . . nope, can't do it . . . "is that your last piece?" "oh, I guess I'll take the sword instead, is it fresh?" So when a customer buys the last 2lbs of flounder and that one last piece puts it over to 2.13lbs and they go "oh that's too much you can put that one piece back" I, instead say "do you mind if I add this? I won't charge you for it, but it's the last one." MOST people smile and accept graciously. Then, there are the ones whose uneasy button was just pushed. "oh no, I couldn't do that, it's more than I need." It's one fricken bite, maybe two, really. SO then I have to explain the last piece won't sell, etc. Then they get all "well go ahead, but I'll pay for it" and we do the stupid "oh no no" dance . . . which I always win in the end 'cause I'm the one accepting the money.

I had a guy last year from Florida wound up about the "FRESH LOBSTER" . . . "I'd like to get some of those fresh lobsters packed to go. I'm heading to Florida and am going to throw them in the back of my truck and bring them to my friends." Well . . . . lobsters last approximately 24 hours outside of the water . . . "you planning on getting to Florida in 24 hours?" I ask. Blank stare. I think I chuckled. How about the woman who wanted to buy salmon for her dinner party on Saturday . . . on Tuesday. "It will be fine on Saturday won't it?" Um, no . . . straight forward, NO! And my personal favorite: we have a mousy woman who comes in randomly and always asks "what came in today?" and then ask "is it fresh?" she doesn't have a sense of humor and drives us a little crazy. So one day, my other half replies to her "what came in today?" . . . "nothing, it all came in last week" and chuckled. She wasn't impressed and gave him a blank stare. Didn't we laugh our asses off.

Ice

Ice, it's a funny thing at a fish market. We have a giant ice machine. We use it for everything - to ice down the fish in the walk-in, layer the bottom of the fish case, keep our oysters & mussels displayed on and lastly, to help our customers keep their seafood cold for the ride home. We are not allowed to sell ice per order of some state licensing office . . . we can only give it away. I gladly give ice out to my customers. I like their seafood to stay fresh not only for their enjoyment but so I don't get blamed for selling them "bad fish." It gets a little repetetive saying "Do you need ice in the bag?" so we vary the ways we ask. "You heading right home Earl or do you need some ice?", "You going to be more than 20 minutes, would you like some ice?", "ice in the bag today?" you get the picture. I usually encourage the indecisive "better safe than sorry." I love it when our regulars bring their own cooler with an ice pack. It saves me the jaunt to the back of the market to scoop ice into a plastic bag. On good days when we are organized and prepared we have a cooler w/ice by the counter. Most days we do the jaunt a few hundred times.

The most infamous ice story is the woman who bought 6 Maine shrimpmeat, yes I said 6, and then asked to have that on ice. Now at $4.99lb, 6 shrimp meat was only a few cents. So for a few cents she got her 6 shrimpmeat in a plastic bag, a plastic bag of ice and then a special "cooler"bag we give out for seafood on ice (otherwise the melting ice just wrecks a paper bag). I basically paid this woman to come get 6 shrimpmeat! We've had people not understand why we don't put the lobsters right on ice in their cooler, ask for ice for their goat cheese they bought at the farmers' market and my most recent favorite "can I have a bag of ice for my drink outside?" from a man who was obviously not sober. I told him he could bring his drink in and I'd put a few cubes in for him. One older lady questions my husband at the fish case - "do I want iced tea?" um, no . . . as we snicker to ourselves. Then there are the summer residents who think they are local and tell me how they want their seafood packed in the ice "put ice on the bottom and then put it inside another bag with some on top . . . " Oh really?! Oh, and the regular who digs in the ice display under the oysters to "top off" his oysters. The one I will never understand is the people who make a big deal about being picky about the freshness of their seafood or buy something for sushi and then refuse ice. Now, I don't care if you live 10 minutes around the corner, if you are eating the tuna for sushi, KEEP IT ON ICE!! And if you are buying mussels and then going grocery shopping on a hot day in the summer and you refused to take ice from your local fishmonger who offered and you get home and find your mussels are bad and you call to complain . . .