Something Seems Fishy

When it comes to choosing fresh fish at a grocery store seafood counter, my eyes are W I D E open.

This focus on detail may seem out of character given last week’s story about using my hand mixer for cauliflower leek soup instead of an immersion blender but hey, we all have our priorities.

I start off checking out all the fish that’s in the running (salmon, tuna, branzino, trout, and a few others) and compare my options. I determine the most appetizing fillet(s) based on color, shine, cut, and so on, depending upon the type of fish it is.

Salmon is our go-to for 6 reasons: 1 – It’s always available; 2 – It looks appealing, even raw; 3 – It can be made in a variety of ways; 4 – We like it hot and cold; 5 – It’s reasonably priced; and 6 – It’s a very healthy omega-3 fatty acid-packed meal option.

My typical order sounds like this: “I want about 2 lbs., thick side please.”

It’s always under or over the 2 lb. mark, never spot on, and the person behind the counter might ask if that’s OK. I say yes, because I don’t want an additional nothing piece which would be a pain to cook as it would be way thinner than the larger fillet. Or, they’d cut off a piece, which seems quite wasteful given we will eat it if we have it.     

I never really thought about what was done with these discarded pieces that are left behind by other customers, until we entered the Covid world and food delivery.  

  

We ordered our usual 2 lbs. of salmon each week. The first few deliveries consisted of one fillet (perfect), later orders included one large and one small piece (OK) but then we got to an order of “ends” (not OK).

Ends as I define them are the thin/puny segments of a one-time larger fillet, often around the tail.

Talk about UNappetizing. These little suckers looked quite nasty.   

I know there are far more important concerns in life, and I debated with not saying anything at all, knowing I am lucky to be having salmon, having it delivered to my door AND having a husband who is going to make it, too.   

Plus, there’s no way I could realistically expect store personnel to scrutinize the fish like I would, with the overload of orders and stress these employees are experiencing.

At the same time, it didn’t seem right to let it go when were increasingly dissatisfied with our purchases. We also know this store strives to offer good customer service, which has kept us loyal customers. However, we didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, either.  

  

David decided to email the store, stating our appreciation for the hard work of their staff and for the market’s responsiveness to meeting the needs of the community. He also acknowledged that we know our feedback about the salmon isn’t their top priority. 

He received an apologetic reply with a comment about better training the employees and that a gift card was on its way.  

Wow! Great customer service!

We had fun trying to guess the gift card amount.  I guessed $25; $50 would be amazing (albeit unlikely).   

It came a few days later…boy was I way off…it was for $15. It covered the majority of the cost of the salmon, so I couldn’t really complain, even in jest to David, without sounding greedy. 

He was skeptical about ordering the salmon from them again, but I assured him that our account would probably be flagged in some way and it’s likely that we’d get a scrumptious fillet next time.

I couldn’t wait to open the package.

WOMP WOMP… awful!

This time the package consisted of 4 small pieces of contrasting thicknesses, 1 of which was mealy looking and another was dried out and had no skin. It’s not like they were uniform and sold as individual portions. They were definitely the scraps. 

David contacted the store again, and they reimbursed our credit card for the entire portion of fish.

We have a new order of salmon in the frig…any guesses?

Looks like you’ll have to tune in next week.