Fresh seafood

I am yet to speak of local cuisine, but for now I just want to share what I cooked today, which was not local by the way... Portuguese style clams, yammy! Aren't their shells just a piece of art, each?

Fresh seafood is plentiful at local wetmarkets. It also gives the markets that peculiar sea water and fish smell, which I would not call particulalrly pleasant, but it is certainly worth while tolerating for a few minutes to get some fresh clams...

I first faced fresh seafood in Jakarta... My hosting colleague picked a live lobster by showing it to the restaurant attendant, who grabbed it from the auquarium and dropped on the floor, promptly turning away to look for the next victim. The poor thing started clawing away only to be grabbed again and thrown onto a scale. For a moment, I hesistated if I want to eat it, but caught myself thinking it would be impolite to back out at that stage. When the plate of garlic & lemon steamed lobster arrived at our table, the only thing I thought of was how yammy it was. It was such a confusing feeling... Does it really matter whether what we eat comes from the freezer or fresh from water? Doesn't it get killed first before getting into my freezer? How hypocritical is it to be standing by the aquarium and feeling bad for the poor fish after you'd just had a meal of shrimp for lunch? That said, I still have not arrived at being able to buy live jumping shrimp...