Your Fishmonger's Top Picks for Fishes during Chinese New Year

Being in the line of selling fish for the past three decades, my parents and grandparents have always been approached by friends, relatives and customers on what fishes to get for Chinese New Year, and I realised that their answer always varies depending on three main factors: 1) affordability 2) how prosperous or symbolic the fishes are, and 3) taste! 

Therefore, today, we will list our top picks based on these factors!

For affordability, we list 5 of the most affordable and 5 of the most expensive fishes. The reasons for the prices remaining affordable amidst a festive season is due to our close collaboration with our suppliers at the port that gives us priority for selecting supply, no matter how many other fishmongers request for their supply. The reason for the price influxes of our expensive/premium fish is simply an extremely high demand throughout Asia. 

We rate them according to how affordable/expensive they are in comparison to their usual prices 

For prosperity/symbolism, the Chinese hold strong significance to the colour red, especially during Chinese New Year, as it is a symbol of good luck, happiness, wealth, prosperity, celebration and festivity. That is why you may find that many of the fishes they consume during Chinese New Year may have a red in their name, or hold other special meanings.

For taste, we base our judgment here on our friends and relatives that always insist on coming over for a seafood steamboat during Chinese New Year every year, their feedback and response to different types of fishes. Since they have no knowledge of the prices, we believe their opinions are less biased that way!

Now, we have customers that want us to base our picks off our own preferences. Here is a culmination of 5 of our opinions; if we had a choice to eat whatever we wanted regardless of price, prosperity and the taste buds of our loved ones!

We spent a good amount of time working on these lists, but there you have it! We hope it will be of good use to our dear customers that are having trouble picking their menu for their steamboats during the coming CNY!