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Sydney Seafood

By Melora Koepke

The Australian seafood industry remains one of the world's cleanest and most sustainable, and Sydney is an excellent base to sample the bounty. Here are five of the best spots in town for your crustacean vacation:

1. To get myself in an aquatic frame of mind, I start by heading to the venerable Sydney Fish Market, the city's source for all things fishy since 1945. It's also the largest fish market in the southern hemisphere and the second largest in the world (after Tokyo's Tsukiji). The hustle and bustle involved in moving 13,000 tonnes of seafood annually is evident in the weekday wholesale auction (open to the public on Mondays and Thursdays). An average of 100 species – from blue mussels from Victoria province to Tasmanian salmon fillets – are sold every day to the city's merchants and restaurants.

At the market's Sydney Seafood School, courses range from Seafood BBQ (a.k.a. how to expertly "toss a shrimp on the barbie") to intensive weekend sessions with local celebrity chefs, such as Matthew Moran of Circular Quay's Aria. All classes include a chance to sample the meals you've painstakingly prepared and a complimentary wine tasting.

2. At Guillaume at Bennelong (the Sydney Opera House's flagship restaurant), my eyes drift from one kind of art (the soaring beams of the building's cathedral ceilings) to another (the wedge of roasted hiramasa kingfish with sage beurre noisette sitting on my plate). A very satisfying pre-theatre prix fixe menu allows me to enjoy the sunset on the harbour, but I could have languished a little longer with the eight-course tasting menu, which includes local delicacies like huge flavour-packed Mooloolaba prawns and Australia's most popular food fish, the mighty and delicious barramundi.

3. On a recent stay in the Rocks, one of Sydney's oldest neighbourhoods, an innkeeper scorned my plan to sample the wares at one trendy eatery. "You pay too much, you eat too little, you wait too long and that's where all the tourists go," he said firmly before drawing me a map of the neighbourhood. I followed his directions under a highway overpass and down a steep cobblestone laneway, turned left twice and ate one of the best fish meals of my life at Fish at the Rocks. At this lively, warm, honest little place, local variety is not the gimmick; it's the raison d'être. Fresh-shucked Pacific oysters are served three ways at once, and they plate their baby barramundi whole, baked and stuffed with a prawn curry mousse, Southeast Asian–style.

4. There are so many varieties of crustaceans scuttling their butts along the ocean floor of Australia's eastern coast that it's hard to know where to start. My suggestion? Definitely crack into a couple of Moreton Bay bugs if your wallet can manage it. Scientifically called Thenus orientalis, Moreton Bay bugs are like North American lobsters, only clawless and in the shape of slippers. Even to locals, they're reserved for special occasions. (They're advertised at seafood shops as a special Easter treat.) And, if you like to follow your seafood to the source, Moreton Bay, located a few kilometres north of Brisbane, is a popular outdoor adventure vacation destination for Australians and features a large and lovely sand island perfect for camping and 4 x 4-ing.

5. Doyle's, a fifth-generation family restaurant open since 1885, is considered by many Sydneysiders to be the last word in seafood. Their original recipe of fish and chips has been expanded to a full menu, sometimes serving rare varieties of ocean life, such as luderick, mulloway, abalone and pippies. Doyle's operates from several prime Sydney locations – including the Fish Market and Circular Quay – but a visit to its original location in Watson's Bay is a must. The 25-minute ride by public ferry offers a chance to see a vast part of Sydney Harbour from the water. Once in Watson's Bay, you can eat on-site overlooking the beach or do as I did: order takeout and picnic on Shark Island, a three-acre public park right in the middle of the harbour. Rest assured, you can dangle a foot in the water off Shark Island; it's named after its shark-like shape rather than an overabundance of toothy neighbours.

(Melora Koepke is the cinema editor of Montreal's alt-weekly Hour magazine, as well as a freelance travel journalist specializing in food, horses, eco-travel and underwater adventure.)

CHILD: C. POULOS / TOURISM AUSTRALIA