By Seth Rolbein
Comparing fish markets around the world is always fascinating, and always reminds me of the historic depth and power of our fishery back home.
Latest example: Sicily.
Mondello, at the fringe of muscular Palermo, perches on the sea with a fine sand beach that lures tourists – sound familiar? A Coast Guard station abuts a small fishermen’s market. Mondello residents swing by to peruse and buy.
The market is makeshift, if something centuries old can be called that. There is modern canvas shade but no ice; best to get this fish to a cool place straight away. Plastic totes contain what was retrieved in small boats at sunrise, single men working single days close to shore. See photos of the market, and what’s for sale, in our photo gallery.
Visitors to the open air market in Mondello, Sicily, often take home a Lampuga, dolphin fish (no relation to the mammal), which makes for nice fillets with dark flesh.
Mondello, at the fringe of muscular Palermo, perches on the sea with a fine sand beach that lures tourists. Brilliant early morning light illuminates a row of brightly painted wooden boats tethered to a wharf.
Polpo, octopus, still moving in the tub when you poke them, again small and young. Tiny mesh nets these fishermen play out capture life we would consider immature, illegal.
The market is makeshift, if something centuries old can be called that. There is modern canvas shade but no ice; best to get this fish to a cool place straight away.
The fish are filleted while Mondello residents swing by in cars and motorcycles to peruse and buy, earlier the better.
The Sicilian coast is famous for sardina, sardines, which often wind up in the signature dish spaghetti con sardina. The fishing is done by single men working single days close to shore.
Mondello, like Cape Cod, suffers from the greying of the fleet. On Cape there are efforts to reverse it with Fishermen Training.