BEST FRESH SEAFOOD

BEST FRESH SEAFOODCasablanca Seafood Market404 NW North River Drive

Miami

305-371-4107 To get the freshest seafood, you've got to go to the source. No, not the local commercial fishing boats, they'll just shoo you away like the pelicans. We mean Casablanca Seafood Market, which is among the first stops for those boats. Once you're inside the store, grab a number, grab a plastic bus tub, and then walk up the line of fresh fish piled shiny upon glistening crushed ice: grouper, snapper, salmon, jumbo shrimp, live lobsters, soft-shell crabs -- all pristine and far less expensive than supermarket prices. Let's say you choose yellowtail snapper (recently at $4.99 a pound). You put the whole fish (gently) into your tub, and at the cash register they weigh, you pay, and one in a long lineup of fishmongers will fillet. Most days this is a quick process, but watch out on weekends -- the place gets mobbed and the wait is decidedly longer. That's all right; you can hang outside with all the others, purchase little plastic containers of conch ceviche or shrimp cocktail, and enjoy the fresh air along the river.