The World of Fish Markets

Seattle's open-air Pike Place Fish Market (86 Pike Street, Seattle), established in 1930, is one of the oldest public fish markets in the United States. Vendors there specialize in Pacific seafood, including Alaskan spot prawns, sweet Dungeness crab, wild-caught king salmon, and other whole fish, which they famously toss to each other across the aisles. In Australia, the Sydney Fish Market (Bank Street, Pyrmont, NSW, Australia; pictured above) sells more than a hundred local, sustainable species, including white, flaky-fleshed barramundi and greenlip abalone, a briny delicacy named for its distinctive emerald-rimmed foot. London's Billingsgate Fish Market (Trafalgar Way, Poplar) is a sprawling 13-acre facility packed with fresh seafood, including Dover sole and Cornish crab. Finally, while Tokyo's Tsukiji Market (5-2-1, Tsukiji, Chuo-ku) is most famous for the pricey bluefin tuna auction that takes place each day at dawn, we love it as much for its scrum of restaurants, which offer the freshest, most pristine raw fish imaginable served over warm rice at all hours of the day.