Here’s everything you need to know about where to find hut frisk or fresh fish in Marsaskala, Malta. Hope this is helpful!
One Wednesday morning, 6:45 am.
We got up early to go on a special mission. Rumor had it that there was fresh fish (or hut frisk in Maltese) to buy in the Marsaskala harbor at daybreak. Well, at least according to the bigilla vendors who pass our street every Tuesday evening.
So we though we might give it a shot.
Finding Hut Frisk
We walked down to the harbor to Salini Street (Triq Is-Salini) and were a little disappointed to see pretty much nobody: no fishermen, no fish vendors and no hut frisk at all. But we wouldn’t give up that easily. Then walked around the harbor towards Marina Street (Triq Ix-Xatt), enjoying the peaceful panorama with the picturesque boats at such an early hour.
If our hut frisk mission failed, we would at least have made a refreshing morning walk. We might even pick up a good espresso somewhere?
What a beautiful start of a day, no?
Hut Frisk in Marsaskala
We could see that our favorite fruits and veg stall at the roundabout a little further towards Zonqor Road (Triq Iz-Zonqor) was already in full operation offering colorful and tasty local produce for a fair price.
But apart from that our most hungry eye spotted yet another much smaller open white van hidden behind it with a handful of people flocked around it.
Now that’s a good sign right there!
Guess we might be lucky today…
And yep indeed, as soon as we got closer and I saw those sea bream tails peaking out of a styrofoam box, I declared our hut frisk mission: extremely accomplished! So the bigilla vendors we talked to the other day was absolutely right.
Found it!
We also gathered around and patiently awaited for our turn to order hut frisk.
This gave us ample time to inspect the goodies in front of us. The choice of hut frisk was limited but visibly of a superb quality: moist fish with fresh gills and glossy eyes.
That’s what we are looking for!
Hut frisk for sale: ray, sea bream, yellow snapper, squid and the most magnificent tuna steak I have ever seen. The zealous fishmonger lady told us she is at the Marsaskala harbor the moment the fishermen come back from their nightly fishing trip. Then she selects the freshly caught hut frisk herself which end up in the back of her fish van.
Early Morning
Watch out: she’s selling hut frisk on Wednesday and Friday morning only! And if you want to have the best choice of hut frisk, then you better be there between 6:30 am and 7:30 am.
No joke.
Fresh Tuna
So then it was our turn to choose our hut frisk.
We laid our hands on a couple of fatty yellow snappers and paid €3 for the lot. We were about to call it a day but our eyes kept going back to that superb 1-inch thick slab of dark red tuna steak.
How much a kilo, we asked her?
€15, she says.
Bargain
We didn’t even consider it or blink and the tuna was bagged and put on the scale: €6, she says. I can honestly tell you we easily pay double this price in our hometown for tuna that doesn’t even look half as fresh as this one.
So off we went with our hut frisk loot! Just stopped at our fruits and veg vendor next door to pick up some new potatoes, cauliflower and juicy strawberries.
Job well done.
Let’s bring our fresh hut frisk and other goodies home straight away.
No need to tell you that dinner was delicious!
More Hut Frisk
A week later we went back to this lady to find us some more hut frisk.
The ray looked stunning but we had bought some excellent ray in Marsaxlokk last Sunday so we decided on 2 beautiful sea breams, 1 lb (450 g) each and paid €6,50. While walking back home we spotted 2 other fishermen who weren’t there last time selling some of their catch straight from their boats.
I saw fresh squid, little sea breams, a mix of smaller fish such as scorpion fish (good for fish soups), a barracuda, fresh clams and moray eels.
I have the impression the bigger whoppers go straight to the restaurants in the neighborhood and the fishermen still try to earn a few bucks more by selling off the smaller buggers while cleaning their boats.
Something to remember next time!
Marina Street
So since we were staying in Marsaskala for a generous 4 weeks we went back to the harbor early one fine morning (guess it was a Monday) for a refreshing walk and a cup of coffee.
And yep bingo.
Along Marina Street we spotted yet another fisherman selling his fresh hut frisk catch: octopus, sea bream, snapper, scorpion fish… A bunch of older ladies were gathering around, discussing the weight and price, making agitated gestures.
Lovely.
But if you want a share of the catch, be quick.
Straight From the Boat
The group of ladies walked off with quite a few kilos of fresh fish in their bags. We bought 2 lovely breams and paid half the price our little lady charged.
Mindblowing! And absolutely fresh and delicious…
Are you looking for hut frisk in Marsaskala?
It won’t get any better than this! Don’t forget to check out the Sunday morning Fish Market in Marsaxlokk if you want even more variety…
