TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Fresh fish

Where is the best place to buy fresh fish - Grand Marche? Skipjacks? Somewhere else?

Marigot market early on Wednesday morning

yes marigot open air market on the waterfront. Watch the boats unload their catch, fish all colors.

Wednesday and Saturday mornings. You to be there early.

Thank-you everyone, Marigot market it will be -early.

We found the Marigot market a bit daunting, as many of the fish for sale, we could not recognize, and had no idea how to cook... There was a big beautiful mahi mahi being sliced up, but it had already been bought (in its entirety) by a dutchman, no others available. :>)
Another time we got very good fish to take home and cook from Skipjacks, 2 species, both were excellent.

I beg to differ from your statement. The Market supplies all the Restaurants with fish and they do a great job for the people.

How can you "beg to differ" from that statement. Joyfully was simply stating his/her experience. It wasn't a negative statement at all, just an expression of his/her experience.

My opinion .

Being the other half of Joyfully I can say we are certainly not criticizing the fish market in Marigot. But as my husband said, be forewarned, it can be very overwhelming if one is not familiar with exotic fish and how to prepare them. You can buy all the conch meat that you would ever want for example! But we don't know how to prepare it. When we returned to the market a second time we bought a red snapper and cooked it.

Thanks and conchs has to be pressured .

The fishmonger stalls I saw had charts and picture of the fish...to aid identification.
As to preparation, I think I would ask...or use the Internet. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />

I have purchased fish from the Marigot Market for years. The people there will assist you in how to prepare, what the fish is. Get there early because the resto's buy up all the good stuff. We have purchased mahi, snapper, trigger fish, even sardines and of course lobster...some we loved...some not so much. When we can't get to the market, we go to skipjacks market for good fresh fish to cook at home.

This may sound weird but there has been some great looking whole fish on ice at Carrefour. Today there was fresh snapper, local grouper and mahi. I am particular about my fish (from southern MA) and these fish looked fine.

Thanks again for the feed back-think we'll go to Skipjacks & Carrefour too.