Fish Monger's Thursday At Groomer's in San Antonio...

On Thursday, we were up and out the door by 10:00 AM, headed to meet up with a couple of other friends. Once we hooked up with them, we all headed to Mama's Cafe, where we had great Mexcian food for lunch along with, of course, Margaritas. I wasn't quite awake, so I didn't remember to get any pictures. Oh well, it wasn't that exciting at Mama's, but it was very good.


The next item on our agenda was Fish. Yes, I said Fish. It took a while for us to find this place, but it is a wholesale fresh fish market called Groomer's Seafood. The actual address is 9801 Mc Cullough Ave. somewhere near the airport. We got lost several times before we finally located it.



Once we arrived at our destination, we went down a long hall, then turned down another long hall, then through the door at the end. I was beginning to wonder if we were going for an illegal abortion or to a seafood market.


When we walked through the last door, I felt as if I had just entered Mecca or Nirvana or Heaven. There is an area where customers wait and watch their fish come in and be cut up to your specified size. They have fresh seafood flown in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are something like 15 to 20 employees, most of whom are working hard cutting up at least a dozen or more kinds of fish, behind the windows you see in the pictures. This is where the best restaurants in San Antonio come to get their fish for the next few days.



You look at the list of what they have, then the owner calls your name and you begin telling him how much you want of what, while he writes it down. Being a wholesaler, you have to buy everything in increments of a pound (as if you would want any less than that) from them. Deciding what you want and how much is another thing I think I'd get better at with more time. I brought an ice chest with me, but they also pack up your order in ice, inside an insulated box. Luckily, it was the perfect size for fitting into my rolling ice chest. I stopped at an HEB next, and bought some dry ice, which lasted me until I got home.

The most exciting part was being able to watch the guy cut up the tuna that would provide me with my 6 two inch thick steaks. That was a first for me and I enjoyed every last minute. I also bought a pound of HUGE heads-on shrimp, a pound of the next size smaller cleaned shrimp, one pound of freshly shucked oysters, and a pound of fresh salmon filet. I told the owner I was going to blog about his place, but he didn't offer me any further discount than the others received. Oh well. I had to try, didn't I?

My friends bought an enormous bag of oysters that must have weighed in at 60 pounds, along with a flounder, some shrimp and some crawfish. They called a group of friends to come over that night for the oysters, so it was a party. They also bought some baby octopus (or is that octopi?) and made an octopus salad, which I wouldn't have touched with a 50 foot pole. Yes, that's right. I had to draw the line at the baby octopi. It looked disgusting and I knew I'd hurl if I even let them pass my lips. I knew it would be like chewing on a big fat rubber band with legs. Ewww. Again, Ewww.


Anyway, my friends did what they called "Pop The Oysters" on the outdoor grill, which I'd never before witnessed. As each batch was done, they were shucked & left in the half shell. Then, there were four different sauces that we used for toppings. There was a Rockefeller spinach topping, a drawn butter with garlic topping, a cream based topping, and the Octopus Salad topping (which I passed on). It was insane, but scrumpdillyicious. I had to fight my way into the kitchen to claim mine, as I wasn't about to miss out on this. I think there were around 60 oysters shucked in total. When we were done with that, we had boiled shrimp that was absolutely the most wonderful shrimp I've ever had, with drawn butter, cocktail sauce, or tartar sauce.

On Friday, we slept late then went to have a light lunch at a place called El Generales. We ordered their special Margaritas that have an extra shot of Patron tequila floating in a plastic tube. These are flat out the best Margs I've ever laid witness to and we each had several. Good thing it was close to their house. We got a bit looped and did not need to be driving.

Anyway, we ordered Nachos, then ate our choice of lunch entrees. It was delicioso and by the time we left, we were all as stuffed as Thanksgiving turkeys. However, we didn't leave before I got my pictures for the blog. Why are all of my friends beginning to tire of my blogging? I can't imagine...

Saturday morning I got up, said m farewells and made the long five hour trip home. I stopped by the outdoor Mexican Market just outside Boerne but didn't find anything I wanted this time. So, I'm once again back in the safety of my home....