Off the boat on Tuesday, in your kitchen on Friday

The quay, the ice house, and the four hours in between

The boats we buy from land at Kalk Bay, Hout Bay and Saldanha. Whatever comes off the deck before nine is in our cold room on Paarden Eiland by one, and the plate freezer takes it to minus thirty inside four hours — which is the whole reason a fillet from us thaws firm instead of woolly. Vac-packing does not keep fish fresher; it keeps the air off it, so the fat cannot go rancid and the freezer cannot draw the moisture out. Nothing here has ever been thawed and refrozen, and if we cannot tell you which boat it came off, it does not go in the counter.