Atlanta Fish Market

Today I decided I wanted some lobster bisque and oysters so we set out to go to Steamhouse Lounge. When we got there though, the faint memory of hearing that they had torn down that whole block came into my mind and, true enough, that whole block of buildings has been torn down. We'll have to check out their new location at W Peachtree and 11th Street.

Since our aim was also to go to the Atlanta Fish Market to check out the market offerings, we decided to go to the New Yorker deli. I got my standard roast beef with s/p/mayo. The roast beef was incredibly juicy and good. Still, I got sick later, so it makes you wonder how good it really was.

The Atlanta Fish Market was pretty impressive. We picked up 6 big scallops for about $9 and two salmon trout for about the same. The fishmonger recommended grilling the trout for about 3-4 min per side with some s+p and old bay. They had beautiful looking ahi tuna and salmon. They mentioned that they can special order a lot of things including whole fish. So that was a fun and exciting trip. The fish looked awesome and the prices were good. I expect to definitely go back.

Here's the salmon trout. I topped it with the s+p and a light sprinkling of old bay, as recommended. I put it on a pretty hot cast iron grill pan for 3 1/2 min on the skin side and 2 min on the other. Then I topped it off with a squeeze of lemon. I bought that container of old bay like four years ago and never opened it. I was really surprised how pungent it was when I opened it.

The salmon came out pretty perfectly, I think. I was surprised at how delicate the taste was -- almost as if it didn't really have a taste. The skin looked just like rainbow trout, so I was expecting something closer to that in taste but it was even more mild. Perhaps when I cook rainbow trout, I tend to use some garlic and more lemon specifically because I know it's rather mild. Still, the meat was tender and good. I had to break out the chopsticks to eat this. I don't know how anyone could attempt to use a fork. I also whipped up some green beans and some French potato salad as sides.

Here are the scallops that we picked up at the Atlanta Fish Market. They are a pretty decent size, though the ones from Whole Foods were definitely bigger and, in my mind, a little better. At about the same price, I think I would prefer the Whole Foods ones. We've been having a lot of scallops recently. It's all because they were on the menu at 4th & Swift. Menus are a great place to get ideas for what to make.

We bought some Wondra flour a few weeks ago. It's used by a lot of chefs to either put a light coating on pan-fried items or it's used to thicken sauces. J wanted to try it out on the scallops so I cooked two so we could see if we liked it. It was not bad, but I didn't like the texture it gave the scallops overall. Actually, it reminds me of instant mashed potato mixes in aroma and faint flavor.





For the remaining scallops, I cooked J's with the Wondra and just s+p for me. You can see the added color on his scallops, but I think the taste and texture are better on mine. To each his own, I suppose.