Gone fishing: Try the best Las Vegas markets

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2002 | 8:31 a.m.

Whenever a consumer buys fish, the product is obliged to conform to the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HCCP) standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That goes for fish whether it is alive or not.

When not buying live fish, one should always check for firm, springy flesh, brightness in the eyes and a fresh scent. That's just good sense.

But there is a small segment of the market in the Las Vegas Valley that caters to customers who insist on a premium of freshness, namely, live fish and seafood. For that it is necessary to visit a pair of Asian-owned markets in our city 99 Ranch or International Marketplace.

B.M. Pampanga's Best Oriental Market, at 6235 S. Pecos Road, is a Filipino market with an impressive variety of ethnic foods, and a hot steam table that sells cooked dishes and a few Filipino-style barbecued meats. This market sells a wide variety of fresh (but not live) fish unavailable elsewhere in the city, especially Filipino favorites such as bangus (milkfish) and lapu lapu (a small, bony fish).

Furthermore, this market will clean whole fish free of charge. But alas, these are not live fish. A new location, Gee's Oriental Seafood Market, is also about to open at 2810 Maryland Parkway. It is said this new market will carry live seafood as well. For the moment, however, only the aforementioned first two make up the live retail sector fish game in this town.

99 Ranch, located at the west end of the enormous China Town Plaza on Spring Mountain Road, is a modern American success story. The Taiwan-born owners have grown the company into a chain of 23 stores in locations ranging from Seattle to the East Coast.

Their live fish and seafood section, the largest in the city, is always crowded, with customers sometimes waiting three and four deep.

They will even fry the fish sold there free of charge (from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.). The best way to handle it is just pick a number and get in line.

They will not clean the fish for you, however. When cleaning a live fish, it is best to gut the fish as soon as possible, to rid it of the parts that are not going to be eaten; the intestines, liver, heart and gills. Scale a fish with a fish scaler, available in any kitchen store, and then the fish is ready for preparation.

Conditions have improved greatly at 99 Ranch of late. Some of the live fish, such as catfish, lobster, crab and tilapia, are kept in an unusual series of tanks stacked one on top of the other, each one with its own separate filtration system. As a result, there is no cross-contamination, no algae, and the tanks are crystal clear. Needless to say, this is an attractive feature.

The market gets these fish from all over the country, according to Hung Ngo, manager of the seafood section. Manila clams come from Seattle, not Manila, and the blue crabs come from either Texas or Louisiana.

There is both Pacific and Nova Scotia lobster, and the farm-raised tilapia come from California. All of the fish are from certified companies, and the sources are well documented.

Prices are very competitive. Oysters on the shell are 69 cents each, for instance, and fresh Dungeness crab is $3.99 per pound. Farm-raised catfish are $2.99 per pound, and the expensive live sea trout are only $14.99 per pound. Lobster is $9.99 per pound, and Manila clams are $3.99 per pound.

One is not limited to live fish, of course. The seafood section contains at least a dozen varieties of filleted fish, stocked in a glass case lined with crushed ice (all the fish here are well ensconced in that ice), and many types of shrimp in all counts and sizes.

These prices, it must be added, are considerably lower than those of live fish. Why? Because live fish have to be specially transported and cared for, once in the store. Some of the per pound prices are tilapia, $1.99; snapper, $2.99; sea bream, $5.99; and gold pompano, also $5.99. The shrimp get more expensive as they get larger in size.

Meanwhile, over at the gigantic International Marketplace at 5000 S. Decatur Blvd., the seafood section has been downsized temporarily. Why? According to owner Joyce Kwan, "Most people would rather pay $2.99 a pound for dead fish that $9.99 for a live one."

This store, which sells an amazing array of specialty food products from all over the world, does have plans in the works to remodel the seafood section. "We plan to stock more shellfish again soon," Kwan says, "and we may even put in a few live fish tanks again. We'll test the market and see."

For now, though, there are live Dungeness crabs from the Pacific Northwest, squiggling in their private tanks, and the seafood men here will crack them for customers upon request. There are also Canadian lobsters from Kwan's home province of Nova Scotia, which she sells for $8.99 per pound.

Some of these beauties can get quite large, up to 4 pounds. But Kwan says, that isn't always the best way to go. "Sometimes the larger lobsters are older, and have tougher meat," she counsels. "In my opinion, the best and sweetest lobster meat comes from bulls around 1 1/2 to two pounds."

Are you willing to pay the premium for live seafood? Try some and see.