A Visit To The Fishmonger

In Calgary, we might serve seafood one day every couple of weeks.  Western Canada is cattle country.  Pork and chicken is comparatively inexpensive and I suspect, heavily subsidized.  Here in Costa Rica, it's hard to find beef at the small town grocery stores and what you do find is a bit dodgy.  Seafood, however, is cheap and abundant.  Since I could throw a stone from the house to the Pacific it makes sense that we're consuming seafood 3 meals out of 4 and enjoying them all.  This is largely due to our local fisherman, Vin.

Vin (pronounced Bing) is about a 15 minute bike ride from us, on the edge of Cabuya.  Cabuya is a strange little village in that once you reach the sign announcing that you've arrived, it takes another 10 minutes to pedal through town.  That's not because it's a big place, it's just that everything is spaced out on acreages along the beach.  Thankfully, Vin is on our side of Cabuya which means I only sweat off one liter on my fish shopping bike ride.  It's easy to find Vin's if the sign that has been wedged between two branches in the hedge hasn't blown away.

Vin's shop is basically his home which is located on the beach.  If the door is open, there's fish for sale.  On each of my visits to Vin's I've encountered a different species for sale.  Whatever was caught that day is either laying out ready to be dressed or in the freezer cooling down.  Vin, his wife or son will tell you what's available.  I've tried to translate, with some success but at one level, it just doesn't matter.  It is always fresh and tasty.

So far we've had dorado (maui-maui), corbinetta (sea bass), loro (???) and an unpronounceable fish I bought yesterday as well as camerones (shrimp) and almejas (clams).  Vin loads a portion of his catch into a cooler secured on the back of his truck and delivers to the local restaurants.  If I visit Vin in the afternoon then travel into town I know what will be on the restaurant sign boards as the catch of the day.

Well, I've nothing humorous to pass on in this blog entry.  Being able to purchase seafood caught that morning and serve it for dinner has been a great experience.  It is something that we are removed from living in most large cities and something I know that I'll miss when I return home.

Both China and Azul have been venturing into Jake's space here in the casa, the beetle versus cat, pet evaluation is underway and there is an elderly topless German woman on the beach these days so there is a possibility of humour in a forthcoming entry.