So you're in the Asian Market....

[Jenise]

....and you were thinking about buying a lobster. And the live lobster are sharing a tank with some large fish, of which one is dead and floating upside down. Do you figure that's just life and buy anyway? FWIW, I didn't.

I would think, "There are other places to buy live seafood."

....and you were thinking about buying a lobster. And the live lobster are sharing a tank with some large fish, of which one is dead and floating upside down. Do you figure that's just life and buy anyway? FWIW, I didn't.

They were just feeding their lobsters?

[Jenise]

I've seen this time and time again in Asian markets, though, and I don't get it. Makes me think the Asians must shrug this off as no big deal and I'm just being a squeamish white lady.

I don't think there's any danger there, provided you don't buy, cook, and eat the dead fish. Especially there's no danger with lobsters. They are, after all, scavengers in the wild and in contact with dead fish and shellfish all the time. They caught the lobster in the first place using a trap baited with dead fish.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I don't think there's any danger there, provided you don't buy, cook, and eat the dead fish. Especially there's no danger with lobsters. They are, after all, scavengers in the wild and in contact with dead fish and shellfish all the time. They caught the lobster in the first place using a trap baited with dead fish.

-Paul W.

True, but that's in the Great Big Ocean; in a small tank I wonder and worry about what killed them. You wouldn't?

I've seen this time and time again in Asian markets, though, and I don't get it. Makes me think the Asians must shrug this off as no big deal and I'm just being a squeamish white lady.

I don't accept that being squeamish over what turned you off has anything to do with race or gener, as I'm equeally 'squeamish' about joints like this. We went into a 99 ranch market once, FYI for those who never heard of them, a smallish Taiwanese supermarket chain with some stores in Washington as a matter of fact, and that 'one' time was the last time we ever ventured as their live seafood tank was exactly as you described with a dead fish fish-belly up floating around and nobody paying the least bit of attention.
On top of which, what did it for Jan and me, was the "smell", fishy is not the word...LOL it stunk!
There is no question as it's an established fact that 'conventional' standards of cleanliness, hygiene, attitude to food etc., vary greatly country to country and even more so, continentally.
I prefer to buy seafood where it doesn't smell like a charnal house for our finny fishfood friends and so looking forward to remaining 'squeamish'.

I'm Asian and I'm squeamish. I think the fish in those tanks are barely alive at the best of times.

[Jenise]

I prefer to buy seafood where it doesn't smell like a charnal house for our finny fishfood friends and so looking forward to remaining 'squeamish'.

Shel, I used to shop in Little Saigon all the time when I lived in So Cal, and of all the stores available to me, none, NONE, smelled half so bad as the 99 Ranch market and because of that I didn't shop there. It was putrid, and that was the case the second you walked through the doors and not specific to the seafood department itself. There were several better options there on the Garden Grove/Westminster border that I liked to go to. By comparison, and in fact not even by comparison but by any set of standards, the 99 Ranch in North Irvine is pristeen, shiny, squeaky clean. Like Irvine itself. A dead fish, I dare say, would have been out of that tank in two seconds. Don't think I can draw any conclusion from that except to draw the comparison available in other types of markets of other in other places: when the price of real estate goes up, so do the standards or the locals simply won't go there.

[Jenise]

I've seen this time and time again in Asian markets, though, and I don't get it. Makes me think the Asians must shrug this off as no big deal and I'm just being a squeamish white lady. I don't accept that being squeamish over what turned you off has anything to do with race or gender, as I'm equally 'squeamish' about joints like this.

The only way in which race matters is--well, take Little Saigon. The Vietnamese community there--largest boat people community in America--has replicated conditions similar to what they knew back home, and on very little money but small business loans. By their standards these markets that are to me rather grim and run-down are possibly pretty grand. That's all I meant by calling myself a squeamish white lady.

I've seen this time and time again in Asian markets, though, and I don't get it. Makes me think the Asians must shrug this off as no big deal and I'm just being a squeamish white lady.

Oh, you're white?

[Jenise]

I've seen this time and time again in Asian markets, though, and I don't get it. Makes me think the Asians must shrug this off as no big deal and I'm just being a squeamish white lady.

Oh, you're white?

Yeah, and that's only significant because when in these markets, I'm typically the only one who is and therefore not their target consumer. And I accept that and don't expect them to change a thing for me. I'm merely surprised that I see as many floaters as I do.

I, on the other hand, am a Maltese-Terrier.

I've seen this time and time again in Asian markets, though, and I don't get it. Makes me think the Asians must shrug this off as no big deal and I'm just being a squeamish white lady.

Oh, you're white?

Yeah, and that's only significant because when in these markets, I'm typically the only one who is and therefore not their target consumer. And I accept that and don't expect them to change a thing for me. I'm merely surprised that I see as many floaters as I do.

There is a ranch 99 market just north of Berkeley in Albany on the way to San Francisco from Napa. My wife shops there every few weeks to obtain certain ingredients that are not available in regular markets. We usually pick up a couple of live Maine lobsters while we're there for dinner. Most of the crowd is oriental but numerous "round eyes" are also customers and can be seen shopping. Everybody who does any oriental cooking of consequence in the bay area shops in a Ranch 99 market. Their prices on the lobsters are just about half of we would have to pay in Napa. The dry roasted ducks are great. They usually have live Blue Claw crabs from Eastern waters. We love Ranch 99 but so does anyone who really likes to cook in the bay area. PS I've never seen a dead fish in the lobster or crab tank but they are scavengers in the wild like buzzards.

I, on the other hand, am a Maltese-Terrier.

Love it, Ce!

JB

I, on the other hand, am a Maltese-Terrier.

Love it, Ce!

JB

Only because you know it's true, Jules.

I don't think there's any danger there, provided you don't buy, cook, and eat the dead fish. Especially there's no danger with lobsters. They are, after all, scavengers in the wild and in contact with dead fish and shellfish all the time. They caught the lobster in the first place using a trap baited with dead fish.

-Paul W.

I think the danger factor depends on the temperature and salinity of the water as well as the filtration system. I spoke with my son who shops frequently for seafood in the local Asian Markets. He said that it should not really be a problem if the three factors cited are within proper boundaries. If they are not the lobsters would die. He also said that without being fed the lobsters would start metabolizing their own muscle.
Then you would find alot of shrinkage of the tail meat within the shell. His academic bvackground is in plant and animal sciences and his profession is water bacteriology.

True, but that's in the Great Big Ocean; in a small tank I wonder and worry about what killed them. You wouldn't?

I'm with you - I wonder what killed them, too, Jenise.

While the fish might make me squeamish, my guess is that the only difference in conditions for the lobsters is the presence of someone who bothers to pull the dead fish out. In other words, I think fish are dying all the time in the tanks, it's just at the "nice" places you and I don't see them.

Walt

Well I guess pretty much all that's been written here comes down to your BG. So saying, am reasonably sure if I'd been brought up in taiwan, seeing dead fish in a tank would be no big deal, which has nothing to do necessarily with hygiene and everything to do with local traditions.
But I didn't grow up there, so with many others here, find the smell and conditions at places like 99 Ranch Market, unacceptable.
It's nice to know we have other choices.

Well I guess pretty much all that's been written here comes down to your BG. So saying, am reasonably sure if I'd been brought up in taiwan, seeing dead fish in a tank would be no big deal, which has nothing to do necessarily with hygiene and everything to do with local traditions.
But I didn't grow up there, so with many others here, find the smell and conditions at places like 99 Ranch Market, unacceptable.
It's nice to know we have other choices.

That's a reasonable way of looking at it based on the individual, but to miss the street food in Singapore, Bangkok, etc, is to miss some of the great experiences foodwise in this world. Helps keeping the prices down.