Sydneys Seafood Varieties

Octopus(octopus tetricus)

Octopods are among the smartest seafaring creatures in the big blue. They can solve simple problems and understand consequences (they’ve been known to sneak out of their enclosure and steal fish from neighbouring tanks for late night snacks before sneaking back in their own tank and carefully replacing the lid). They’re not just escape artists either, but nature’s greatest contortionists (they’ve been found squeezed through the rim of longneck beer bottles). Oh, did we mention they’re delicious? Originally considered a pesky by-catch of lobster fishing, European cooking sensibilities have now made octopods popular table fare nationwide. Line caught around Tassie, South Australia and New South Wales. You’ll see them regularly down at the market, but make sure you’re buying Australian – we import a lot of frozen stuff from Asia too.

Where to eat it Bodega do an excellent dish of rounds of kipfler potato with little pieces of octopus on top. Surry Hills

Lobster (panulirus cygnus)

Lobster is about as luxurious as you get when it comes to eating seafood. With its sweet-yet firm and yielding flesh it goes astonishingly well with just about any other protein (Spanish ham, especially). Aussie lobsters differ from the European variety in that they don’t have a pair of front claws. Caught all up and down the Australian coast sporadically from Tassie to Perth, they enjoy living on reefs and sea ledges. There’s not a lot of yield on these guys either, with only 35% of the total weight being edible. You can, however, use the rest (shell, legs) to make soups and stocks. Highly sought after, and revered by both chefs and gourmands, lobster demands a high prices upwards of $100 in some restaurants. You often see imported lobster around the traps but look for the correct labeling which will tell you where it was caught.

Where to eat it Astral do a lobster burger (how louche yet luxe is that?) Better yet, it comes with thick cut chunky fries. Pyrmont 

Scampi (Metanephrops challengeri)

First the good news. Scampi are a deep water crustacean very much like a super-sized prawn but with big nippers and even more flesh which, when split in half and barbequed with salt and lemon, is heaven. Now the bad news. Scampi are rare as eyelids on a fish. You can’t get these bad boys live in Australia. Instead, 1000 tonnes a year are fished out of New Zealand waters and shipped in. Why? Because Scampi is one of the most stunningly sweet fleshed shellfish around, all the more so because the beast starts to rot as soon as it’s pulled out of the water. This means it has to be snap frozen and packed at sea. In France scampi is billed as “langoustine”. In Ireland it’s a “Dublin Bay prawn”. In some fine diners throughout Europe, scampi is so revered some chefs transport them in individual cooling tubes to get them live to the restaurant. Alas, that’s impossible to do in Australia as they have to travel a lot further.

Where to eat it Sapporo– a very cool Japanese restaurant that not only televises live sumo wrestling when it’s on but serves scampi sashimi style with white ginger, soy and wasabi. Crows Nest

Scallop (pecten fumatus)

A plump little pillow of goodness, scallops go particularly well with pork and beef. They grow pretty much all over Australia but are mainly caught off the coast of Queensland. The roe, which is the little orange beard attached to the main white disc, is generally thought to be pretty irksome but there are plenty of people who dig it – you can always get your fishmonger to take the roe off for you. Always ask for your scallops dry when buying them, as they are sometimes sold waterlogged which not only ups the weight but also means they’re woolly and soggy in the pan. Great barbecued or pan fried over a high heat, they can also be served raw (sashimi grade) or in soups, braises or stir-fries.

Where to eat it Rockpool (fish) cooks their scallops with pappardelle (long, wide ribbons of pasta) and XO sauce (a Chinese seafood based sauce), which totally (uh) rocks. The Rocks

Bay prawn (metapenaeus bennettae)

Ask most Sydneysiders their favourite type of seafood and they’ll answer “prawns”. Quintessentially Aussie (even though they’re caught and cooked around the world), the sweet, firm flesh of the prawn means they lend themselves to just about any type of cooking, though are especially nice simply plunged in boiling salted water and served with soy on the side. Divine. Yet prawns are basically nature’s garbage collectors – as bottom feeders, they filter all the muck other fish leave about and keep the sea clean. The Bay prawns beauties here are caught around NSW, but you can find them around the Northern Territory, too. When buying prawns, look for ones that don’t have any black markings around the head or tail as this signifies an old prawn (it’s where the blood is coagulating).

Where to eat it Fisherman’s Wharf– the new diner at the Sydney Fish Market – has a massive million dollar fish tank filled with live seafood, including bay prawns. Order these simply with shallots and soy on the side. Pyrmont

Sydney rock oyster (saccostrea glomerata)

You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em – it’s a cold hard fact of life. And at the moment, considering how many oyster plots have been destroyed because of the storms, loving to eat them is much harder to do. Too often we see oysters covered in cheese and toasted (no wonder they’ve got a bad name) but the best way to eat an oyster is au naturel – straight out of the shell. Sydney rocks are specifically farmed in NSW and can have a very minerally taste. The best part of an oyster is the brine which is why it’s advisable to buy oysters alive and unshucked so you can make the most of them.

Where to eat it Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay is the Mecca of oyster emporiums in Sydney – they usually have around 12–13 varieties but right now have only half that because of crook weather. Glebe

Flathead (platycephalus arenarius)

Dun coloured, spiky as hell and ugly as a hatful of mullet bums, flatties used to be the fish even amateur anglers would throw back. But while flatties were once plentiful, these days they go for around $39 a kilo and have become quite the boutique sea beast. More than 40 flathead species are found in Aussie waters. Flathead are a salt water fish but can also be found in freshwater inlets near the sea. Either way their long yellowish-white, flaky fi llets prove immensely popular for fish and chips as it fries well for melt-in-the-mouth results.

Where to eat it Fish on Fire– our vote for the best fish and chips in Glebe – serves theirs with thick cut, beer battered chips. Glebe

Hook yourself up To learn all there is to know about fish, you can’t beat an early morning tour of Sydney Fish Market’s auction floor. Tours cost $20 per person and begin at 6.55am sharp. There’s only space for 20 people so book ahead. If cooking is more your thing, why not try one of the excellent Sydney Seafood School classes ($75-$135 per person) where you can rustle up anything from seafood barbecue to sushi? Book well in advance.

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