Hai Thanh Seafood

I went there 2 days in a row to get my fix of fresh-​killed strip seabass.
This is a small sea food shop that actually doesn’t smell much. Probably due to the low costumer traffic. Their selection is somehow limited compared to many shops in the Chinatown neighborhood on Mott and Grand.
My first time there I also got a frozen «brick» of baby octopus for $ 5. (that’s around 8 – 12 octopus once unfrozen). The staff is nice, specially the guy who cleans the fish.

I was in desperate need for two live lobsters for my New Year’s Eve dinner… Where else to go but Chinatown when you’re on a budget and want fresh seafood? So I ventured down Catherine Street, where Hai Thanh Seafood had a tank full of the live critters, for a mere 7 bucks a pound…
But let me digress first… Buying fish in Chinatown can be a scary experience for the faint of heart. Two rules:
— pick a place that’s packed with Chinese grandmas: the Chinese grandmas know good seafood from bad seafood, it’s in their genes.
— pretend that, like a Chinese grandma, you can tell a good lobster from a bad lobster, and in no time they will dig up the best lobster in the tank for you.
That’s what happened at Hai Thanh. Next thing I know, the guy had pulled four lobsters out the tank, and was teasing them to show me which ones were the more lively.
I wish he’d also warned me that lobsters don’t like fresh water… and maybe I wouldn’t have put them in my sink full of tap water after I got home (how smart of me was that!)… I will spare you the gory details, but let me just say that the lobsters did not enjoy it… at all. Nevertheless, they ended up tasting pretty damn good, in fact, about as good as I can remember ever eating.
Note that Hai Thanh is a pretty small market, and their fish selection is limited. Try any of the other Chinese fish markets on Grand St if you want more choices.