"All Bengalis love fish. And are die hard fans of Saurav Ganguly"
The second part of the above Mumbai urban legend applies to me. The first part doesn't. I guess I had too much fish while growing up to 'love' it. I don't mind fish but that's about it.
Buying fish is a completely different issue though. I enjoy buying fish! And I am talking of buying fish in smelly, wet local fish markets and not from sanitised freezers of modern malls.
Sounds hard to believe? Why would one go through an unpleasant, stinking experience for something one is not too fond of?
Well, as Freud says it all goes back to one's childhood. I used to help my Mom with her weekly shopping from my mid school days onwards. As I grew older she would occasionally entrust me with the responsibility of buying fish too. She pointed her regular fish guys to me. And gave me strict instructions to buy fish from them.
I then moved to Mumbai and fish shopping was a thing of the past as I lived as a paying guest in a vegetarian house. I went out in search of fish here only after I moved into a rented house and had my own kitchen.
I found out that the fish markets in Mumbai are a different kettle of fish (couldn't resist this) from those I was used to in Calcutta. You have men selling fish in Calcutta. Here women sell fish. In Calcutta fish is sold by the kilo with very little haggling. In Mumbai fish is normally sold by pieces or plate fulls and with some fairly wild haggling. And the key difference is that fresh water fish rules the markets of Calcutta while sea fish lords Mumbai. 
These were more than enough differences to unsettle the Bengali Bahdralok (gentleman) in me. Then I discovered a few guys at places like Pali Naka at Bandra and Mahim markets who stocked fresh water fish and sell it by the kilo. I began to feel at home and life was beautiful. Buying fish became a way of connecting with my roots which is very important for an immigrant. It didn't matter if I didn't like fish too much as my Parsi wife more than made up with her pisciphyllia (does such a word exist?)
Over the years I heard about ways of identifying good fish 'the skin should glisten', 'the fish should should spring back if you press the flesh', 'lift the ears and see if the blood looks fresh'. Let me assure you that none of these work. If the fish seller wants to take you for a ride, he will. I normally square with the fish seller and put myself in his hands. And have rarely got a rotten (pun intended) deal.
With time the Pali Naka guy moved away and Mahim wasn't really practical plus the fish there wasn't too good. That's when I discovered the fish market at Khar which is quite mammoth. While Khar was a typical Mumbai fish market, it did have a few ladies who sold fresh water fish and by the kilo! I tried out a few of them with mixed results.
Then I chanced upon Pushpa (barely visible behind a cutomer in the picture) and her mother (in the dark sari in the picture below) at one corner of the market. As they say, when it comes to fish it is all about finding the right woman. And I did! Pushpa and her mom sell some of the best fish that we have bought. The quality is consistent and has NEVER been bad. And their prices are reasonable and lower than what some of the ladies in the centre of the market ask for. I have bought some very good rui, eelish, paabda and parshe from there over the past few months and not once have I had cause to complain.
Are they good? Don't just go by words. My mother raved about their fish when she came from Calcutta. And she is quite picky about fish and holds my fish buying ability in low esteem. I have often sent fish from here to my in laws which are followed by text messages which say YUMMY! from them. And in my last visit, I met a gentleman called Buddhadev (in the picture above) who was buying fish there. He runs a Bengali restaurant called 'Taste of Calcutta' in far of Kandivli and comes all the way here to buy fish. That says something to me.
Here are some beauties from Pushpa and her mom's portfolio: 
Tiger prawns (Rs 350/kg) - chingri malai curry 
Rohu/ katla - Rs 150- 180 / kilo for cut pieces, Rs 80 - 100/ kilo for the whole fish - kaalia, fish fry, doi maach, jhol 
Parshe (known as boi amongst Parsis): Rs 80/ kilo, paabda Rs 160/ kilo - mustard curry, jhol
Fish head: mudi ghonto, maacher mudo diye daal
Notes: Pushpa's phone number is 9819611625. She and her mom sit in the corner of this fish market at Khar beside the egg sellers. Their timings are 9.30 - 1 PM and 6.30 - 8.30 PM and they don't sit on Sunday and Monday evenings. Khar market is close to Khar station and in between Bandra and Santa Cruz.
She knows me as 'Dada from Pali Naka'.
Kalyan blogs on food at finely chopped
