The many Sea Breams

Going through my Fish Market album this weekend I have realised that a significant proportion of the photographs I have taken are of breams and grunts. Not surprising I guess when you consider there are over 155 species of true Sea Breams, and then many more who share the name. I don’t seem to have any photographs of the Dentex which is considered one of the best breams – not sure why, perhaps I didn’t notice them on the days I was taking photographs.

Striped Bream
Ray’s Bream
Two Banded Bream
Juvenile Red Bream
As well as the Red Bream, there is White Sea Bream and Red Mullet (Salmonete) here
Gilt Head Bream & some Hake too!
Common Sea Bream
Hake, Pandora, Two-banded Bream, and Grey Mullet
Bastard Grunt – related to the Rubber-Lip Grunt
Adult Red Bream and Angler Fish

Before I continue I thought I’d mention that the above is a gallery.  Simply click on one of the photographs to properly scroll through the gallery and to find my extra notes.  

In this part of the world breams favour the Mediterranean Sea but they will also be found off the Atlantic coast. It is a fish which can be farmed, and I suspect most of what we eat in England will be farmed fortunately though here in the Algarve it has all been brought in from the open sea. The fishmongers in the market are wonderful because they will clean and prepare the fish for you, and the speed and skill as they do this remarkable. Just compare next time you are in an English supermarket! I thought though you might find it helpful to see a video on what to do in case you forget to ask them to do this for you – it is from Giallo Zafferano.

If you enjoyed this post or the fish you have in front of you is not a Bream, then pop across to my other Fish Tale chapters.  More posts will be appearing there soon!

Author: BeckyB

It had been a good life walking, cooking, photographing, volunteering, blogging, and best of all spending time with MrB, family, & friends. Sadly it is no longer what it was, as suddenly and unexpectedly I became a widow.

4 thoughts

  1. I always request ‘sem cabeca’ in restaurants, Becky, so I doubt I’d be up for filleting. 🙂 Mick’s even worse! Quite happy to open a tin of tuna 🙁

  2. I think bream are quite good in curries but we don’t see much of them in Australian fish shops. Have you tried them in curry? Interested!

    1. Hi I’ve not used bream in a curry. Only cooked a couple of curries in Portugal and they were both vegetarian, and back here in England I nearly always use pollack because it’s cheap, and like you we don’t see much bream in the shops. I’ll try making a bream curry when we go back!

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