A trip to the Abu Dhabi Fish Market

Tim made his second trip to Abu Dhabi; he was here the last two weeks of May. We had a great time. It helped that I could use some vacation days while he was here (a perk of not being director of the academy), and we had time to explore.

Things I'll be writing about over several blog posts: fish market, Dubai Creek boat ride, seaplane ride over Dubai, water fountain show, aquarium ... with photos and videos.

I'm going to start here with the Fish Market.

We had heard from a few people that it was best to go in the morning before it gets hot. Logical ... the hotter it gets, the more pungent it must be.  So we took their advice and went mid-morning.

We had heard from a few people that you should be prepared to come home and change into other clothes, because you the fish smell can stay with you. We did change a little later; the smell was not bad, but it was definitely there enough. And it was as stinky inside as we had imagined.

We had also heard from a few people to wear shoes you don't care about, and not to wear flip-flops, because the ground is damp from ice melting and dripping, and there is an area where you can have the fish cleaned and prepared and apparently it gets, shall we say, messy. I / we chose not to walk over to that area. But cool that you can have it cleaned and prepared, without getting messy yourself.

There is also an area where you can have your fish (or more common in this English-is-a-second-language area, "fishs" !) cooked, to eat there or to take home.

There are many stalls. 

Quite the variety of fish ("fishs") and shrimp ("shrimps").

When the fish that ends up on your plate or in a tin, you forget how big some fish are (in this case, check out the tuna here in the middle):

I think that people find their favorite fish vendor and go back to them regularly. Am sure restaurant buyers come here, or have the fish brought to their establishments; fresh fish on menus is common in many restaurants.

We stopped at one stall (#40) and talked to a friendly guy (Faisal). He quizzed and educated us on the different fish he had on display, and shared about the texture and flavors of the different fish. His English was very good, and it was fun to learn about fish common to this area, many of which are found in nearby waters. He explained the different colors of some of the fish and crab. If I buy fish, I'll go back to his stall.

One of the area's popular fish (probably been caught and eaten for decades) is Hammour. Unfortunately, it is apparently being fished into extinction. Hopefully they will make a concerted effort to make it a sustainable, because I have tried it and it is quite tasty, and it is part of the culture of the region. Fortunately, lot of other fish options to enjoy.