Poisson / fish

26 Mars 2008

Do you know what's the difference between :
"Je voudrais du poisson" & " je voudrais un poisson" ?

"du" means "some", "a part of" whereas "un" means "one" "a whole" and you can count how many you buy or eat.

So you can buy "du poisson" or "un poisson".
If you buy a fillet, it will "du poisson" (or "un filet" because you can count how many fillets you buy).
If you buy a truite (trout), it will be "un poisson".

Easy !

Most of the time, fish is fresh. If a shop sells fish that has benn frozen, it's written "poisson congelé" or "poisson décongelé". It's compulsory.
If nothing is written except which fish it is, then you can freeze it, it's fresh.

Most of the time you'll get "filet" (fish fillets) :

Or "pavé" :

A fish like "saumon" (salmon) might be sold in "filet", "pavé" or "darne" (steak).

Where to find some ?
In a supermarket : "rayon surgelés" only frozen fish. You'll find the most common kinds of fish : saumon (salmon), sole, ailes de raie (stingray), also noix de St Jacques (scallops) and "poisson pané" (breaded fish).
"rayon poissonnerie" or "rayon marée" : more choice even if in France we don't have so many kinds of fish but you'll find : saumon (salmon), sole, requin (shark), ailes de raie (stingray),sardine, congre (conger), maquereau (mackerel), truite (trout), carpe (carp), calamar (squid, when squid is sold sliced then it's "encornet"). Also coquillages et crustacés (seafood) : crevettes (prawns), moules (mussels), huitres (oysters), noix de St Jacques (scallops), hareng fumé (smoked herring).

In a supermarket you'll also find tuna and sardines in tin.

But you can also get your fish on an openmarket. In many of them there still is a "poissonnier". They might have a wider selection and good quality fish.

It also exists these small specialized shops "poissonnerie". In fact, the seller on an openmarket is most of time working in a small "poissonnerie" too. It's the same quality of fish. If you cannot find a certain kind of fish in a "poissonnerie" or an openmarket, then you will not find it in a supermarket.

If you like "anguille" (eel) for example, the only place you might find some is a "poissonnerie" not in a supermarket. Crabe (crab), oursin (urchin), poulpe (octopu), langouste (crayfish) and homard (lobster) too.

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