Catfish Hunting At Cho Saigon Market In Arlington's International District

Yes, those are Catfish in the picture. No, that is not a picture of Catfish that I took while on a Catfishing expedition.

I don't know if Catfish is the State Fish of Texas. But I suspect it may be.

The Catfish in the picture are in the live fish tanks at Cho Saigon Market in Arlington's Chinatown. Well, probably more accurately, it should be called Arlington's Vietnamtown.

Or maybe just call it what Seattle renamed its Chinatown to, long ago, and say Cho Saigon Market is in Arlington's International District. That makes sense. Just across the street is another market, with that one specializing in Middle Eastern products.

There is a lot of live seafood available at the Cho Saigon Market. Including Dungeness Crab. $9.99 a pound for Dungeness Crab. I used to get Dungeness Crab for free by driving a few miles west and sticking a crabpot into Puget Sound. Paying $9.99 a pound for such a thing just seems wrong to me, like when I see blackberries for $1.99 for a teeny container.

A suspected Self-Anointed Catfish Expert (SACE) told me that the Cho Saigon Catfish were Mud Cats. As opposed to Channel Cats. Something to do with the long whiskers indicating they had been bottom feeders. This came up when I speculated that these Cho Saigon Catfish might not have that disgusting mud taste that permeates a lot of Catfish.

I chose not to buy a Cho Saigon Catfish, even though Cho Saigon makes it very convenient. They'll give you the fish in at any of 6 stages you prefer. I think Step 1 is hand it to you live, then the Steps go through various stages of butchering the fish, with Step 6 being they'll fry what they've butchered for you.