Panama Fish Market - $25 for 10#s of tuna and a 3# crab

The Panama Fish Market, which is located on the way to Casco Viejo, is packed with people on Sunday morning buying fish, crabs, shrimp, langostinos (think of a big, flat shrimp with skinny, long, little pinchers), squid, and anything else pulled from the sea. The market is stocked by fisherman who pull up their 25 foot wooden boats that are in desperate need of paint to the peirs behind the covered Japanese government built fishmarket. The fifty or so stalls (of varying levels of sanitation) hold stacks and buckets of fresh seafood. The whole operation is supervised by a flock of pelicans, turkey vultures, and black vultures.

Today we bought a 10 pound tuna from the Pacific and a Centollo Crab from the Caribbean for $25. After 5 minutes in boiling water, the crab was tasty, but not as sweet a Maryland Blue Crab. Ideally, I want sushi quality tuna, but the tuna is not sushi quality. Why? 1) I don't believe the fishmonger when he said the tuna was caught in the small hours of today. 2) The tuna flesh was not high enough quality - probably because it was too young and hung out in warm waters; therefore, it did not have enough fat in the flesh.