Buying Fish and Seafood

When we walk close to a stall, the shopkeeper will usually ask what we want.

If we want to check whether an item is available, we can ask:

If the item is not available, we can ask for a recommendation.

If we want to know the price of an item, we can ask the following questions. We use the unit 両 loeng2 (‘tael’) for smaller fish and the unit 斤 gan1 (‘catty’) for bigger fish.

If we are not sure which unit to use, we can simply ask:

When we have decided which type of fish to buy, we can ask the shopkeeper to choose a good one for us. We use the classifier 條 tiu4 when buying whole fish and the classifier 舊 gau6 (‘piece’) when buying just a portion. To avoid repetition, we will only include 條 tiu4 in the following expressions. You can replace 條 tiu4 with 舊 gau6 when needed.

If we want to indicate the size we want, we can say:

If we don’t indicate the size we want, the shopkeeper may ask about it.

If we want to choose one on our own, we can say:

If we want a smaller one or a bigger one, we can say:

After we have chosen one to buy, the shopkeeper will usually ask if they need to cut and clean it for us.

If the shopkeeper doesn’t ask us about it, we can take the initiative and ask them to help.

The shopkeeper will often ask if we want anything else.

For some items, the shopkeeper will confirm the quantity with us.

Below are some other questions we can ask the shopkeeper.

If we don’t know a type of fish and want to know its name, we can ask:

For other seafood, we can ask:

If we want to check if a type of fish has many bones, we can ask:

If we want to check if a type of fish is saltwater fish or freshwater fish, we can ask:

If we are not sure which type of fish or seafood to buy, we can indicate what we want to make and ask for a recommendation.

If we want to know how to cook a type of fish or seafood, we can ask:

Here is an example of how to cook seafood:

If we can’t catch what the shopkeeper is saying, we can say 咩話 me1 waa2 to ask them to repeat.