Hours
Daily 10:00am–8:00pm
Bar None
Credit cards Visa, MC, AmEx
East Rock
892 State St.
New Haven, CT
(203) 776-2938
Why doesn’t this humble Asian market get any respect? Is it the strong fish smell that wafts out the door? Is it the cheap-looking sign, or the dingy-looking windows?
Well, now you’ve heard it from us: State Fish Farm Market isn’t just one of East Rock’s most reliable purveyors of Asian packaged foods, Chinese vegetables, and Korean goods like kimchi. It’s one of New Haven’s best places to buy fish. People often complain that there are no good fishmongers in New Haven proper, especially in East Rock, but these people clearly don’t know about this place.
We’ll admit: this place is smelly. Really smelly, sometimes. But the fish we’ve bought here has generally been of good quality. But don’t just sidle up and ask for a pound of halibut. It’s a good idea to squeeze around the counter and look at the whole fish spread across the table before deciding which fish you want.
Here are some hints when choosing: look for specimens with the bounciest flesh, the glossiest eyes, the least smell. Once you’ve chosen, they’ll clean and gut the fish, snip off the fins, and, if you like, they’ll usually fillet it. We’ve had particularly good luck with striped bass; once, we took it home whole and steamed it—in a bamboo steamer that we bought in this market, too. Delicious.
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eating pleasure is well worth the price.
Keep in mind too, though, that tracking types of fish and where they are caught has become necessary if you eat it often because of the warnings on contaminants.
Especially a concern -- and why I wanted to post a comment -- are farm raised fish and shrimp from overseas. You can't be too cautious about it. It has become a scandal that the USDA can barely get on top of. The government has stopped shipments and put out warnings, but doesn't have the resources to guarantee these farm-raised products. The shipments that were caught were not illegal shipments, but the product tested was a serious health hazard. An alarm went out. Would be good to heed it.
I have simply stopped buying shrimp from Asia and any seafood product from Asia that potentially is farm raised. It was the only way I could figure out a way to be safe.
A Halibut certainly is not a farm raised fish! (right?). It's one of my favorites, but being a big fish it's recommended to not eat it too often. Big fish absorb the most contaminants even in the wild.
I try to eat good fish as often as possible and wish it were easier.
Finding good fish at a fish monger may be a matter of eye-balling and knowing a lot about fish safety yourself, but finding a good fish monger, for me, means one who does all of that for you, who is preeminently aware of all that, educates the clientele about it and is transparent about its supplies.
I haven't found that in New Haven -- does this fish monger do that, or does anyone know one that does?
Except I don't even trust Star's assessment of farm raised fish - it depends totally on where the farm is.
Also, what is with Tilapia? What a lousy fish. I wouldn't spend money for a fis like that.