We took Rick Stein to the Sydney Fish Market for what to buy and eat

If there’s one place Rick Stein can’t fly under the radar, it’s a fish market.

Within minutes of arriving at the newly opened Sydney Fish Market on Wednesday morning, the British celebrity chef is recognised. Shoppers stop to say hello. Others whip out their phones for a photograph.

He is just as familiar to the producers behind the stalls. Many have worked with him for years, supplying seafood to his New South Wales restaurants Rick Stein at Bannisters in Mollymook and Port Stephens and his new Sydney restaurant Rick Stein at Coogee Beach.

This is Stein’s first visit to the $836 million precinct which opened last week in Blackwattle Bay. After walking its aisles, he says he’s impressed.

“On a morning like this in Sydney, with the sun shining, it’s just a beautiful market,” he says.

He’s struck by the quality of the seafood on display, particularly the lobsters, prawns and coral trout. “And the sashimi – I’m really knocked out by that,” he says. “It’s a showcase of what is best in seafood. So for me, it’s a triumph.”

Here are Rick’s tips on what to buy and eat, and how to get the most of your next visit.

How to order oysters

The Sydney Fish Markets hose down the oysters to remove dirt, grit and broken shells, but this also washes away the precious oyster liquor. However, at places like Nicholas Seafood, which shucks oysters to order, you can ask for them to be dry shucked instead. “Don’t wash your oysters before eating them,” Stein says, “as you lose that natural briny taste of the liquid that surrounds the oyster meat.”

Choosing a crab

Live mud crabs are readily available across the market, including at Claudio’s, where they’re kept in blue crates for easy handling. “Their claws are very powerful,” Stein says. “But you don’t need to fear a mud crab as long as it’s tied”. He recommends picking them up by the back of the shell. “It should feel heavy for its size, and the limbs should be nice and active. If it’s drooping, then it’s close to death – and once it dies it will go soft and mushy very quickly.”

Stein is a fan of giant king crab legs – which are sold as long, spindly, orange limbs tied in a bundle. “There can be a lot of fiddliness getting the crab meat out of the claws and shell, not so with these. It’s so big it comes out in great, lovely chunks.”

Getting the freshest fish

Stein is impressed by the overall freshness of the seafood, calling out the glistening, ruby-red tuna at GetFish, as well as its Cloudy Bay clams, served raw with lemon to eat on the spot. When choosing fillets, the first thing you want to look for is the colour, says Stein.

“It should be bright and cheerful. Anything that looks dull will taste dull,” he says. Fillets should look moist, while whole fish should have a lustrous sheen. If in doubt, ask what’s fresh and what’s in season.

Prawns: fresh or frozen?

“Everyone loves the prawns at the fish markets,” Stein says. “When you come in and see the enormous display of delicious orange prawns, you think, I’ve got to have some of those.”

He points out the many different varieties on offer at Claudio’s. “Back home in the UK, people have no idea about the quality and variety of prawns you can get here. I could probably stand here for half an hour talking about how good these prawns are.”

As a general rule, Stein prefers fresh prawns over frozen. “But frozen doesn’t mean second-rate,” he says. “Indeed, if you’re buying uncooked prawns, they are probably better frozen, because fresh prawns and fresh lobster don’t last very long.”

What to eat

“It’s never too early to eat seafood,” says Stein, who considers sashimi the perfect breakfast food. While some places at the fish market will serve grab-and-go boxes, he likes that you can choose the fish you want from GetFish and have it sliced to order. He opts for kingfish, toothfish, tuna and scallop. “You’ve got to have a scallop in there – it just has this sweetness, and this flavour of the sea.”

Next, he knocks back a dry-shucked rock oyster from Nicholas Seafood. “I just love Merimbula oysters – they’re delicious,” he says. For the final stop, he visits Junda Khoo’s Malaysian restaurant, Tam Jiak, to try scallop cheong fun: wok-fried scallops with sliced rice paper roll in a rich buttery foie gras sauce. “You can really taste the flame in there,” he says. “It is heavenly.”