When you think of Australian seafood the first thing that comes to mind is salmon from Tasmania, but you can also get other fresh seafood like raw oysters, shrimps, tuna, trevally, and skipjack, as well as salmon. Still, Australia has a meat-eating culture, so fresh seafood isn’t readily available at supermarkets, except for Christmas and Easter, and they don’t offer many different kinds of seafood. So, when I want to eat fresh oysters or fish, I go to a shop that sells only seafood. In this blog I’m going to tell you about a popular seafood shop that has a wide selection of seafood, even for the Gold Coast. They have high turnover, so you can get seafood that’s really fresh. On the day I went, I bought raw oysters and crab. The supermarkets don’t have either of those, although I occasionally see raw oysters there, but from the look of them, many don’t seem to be all that fresh, and the supermarkets don't beat the seafood shops for freshness. The shop I go to offers a wide variety of seafood, and sells almost all of it by weight. It says where the seafood is from at the bottom of the price tag. Some seafood comes from Asia, including Vietnam and Indonesia, but 60 to 70 percent seems to be Australian.


One of the items on my list: Raw Tasmanian oysters. I just want to squeeze some lemon on and eat them up!


They also sell Australian lobsters. An amazing $120 per kilogram!



This is a type of Australian crab called mud crab, which they catch in rivers and mangroves. It’s really delicious and ranks as luxury food even in Australia.


　
This is a type of Australian crab called mud crab, which they catch in rivers and mangroves.
It’s really delicious and ranks as luxury food even in Australia.



This was also on my list: Raw crab. Crabs are usually sold already boiled, but most times they’re all slightly overcooked, dried out, and the umami has gone out of them, but with raw crab, you can boil them less to suit your taste. They were quite small, so I had a hard time eating them, but when I made some into crab soup, they gave off some nice crab juices, which tasted great.



Australian octopus. While most octopuses are from Indonesia, they do sell fresh Australian octopus. They said one octopus weighed about two kilograms.



You can get fresh squid too. This squid is so fresh you can also make shiokara (salted fermented guts).



Most mussels are from the neighboring country, New Zealand. Mussels are also available at supermarkets and the prices are reasonable too. You can get fresh ones cheap.



Whole Tasmanian salmon. You can get relatively fresh salmon fillets at supermarkets, so I eat them often.



The fresh fish section. The “kingfish” in the foreground is hiramasa (yellowtail amberjack). This is also a product of Australia.



The fresh fish section. The “kingfish” in the foreground is hiramasa (yellowtail amberjack). This is also a product of Australia.



The shop is on the shore of an inlet, so the view from inside is great.



There are benches and tables next to the Charis Seafoods shop, featured in this blog, so you can have your meal there.




It’s nice to order some delicious seafood at the restaurant, but I recommend buying a variety of seafood from the shop and having a picnic outdoors to enjoy it.