Fish from the Icelandic seas is the tastiest on the market - boost your immunity in a fun and tasty way
Miraculous omega-3 fatty acids
Although the traditional dish for the most festive dinner of the year - Christmas Eve - is fish, this type of meat has not otherwise taken much root in the Czech diet. The sea is sorely lacking in the Czech basin, but we are not impressed by fish from the numerous ponds, streams and rivers either. Yet fish meat is packed with health-giving content, has a delicious taste when processed properly and is quick to prepare.
Fish is rich in zinc, selenium, iron, vitamin B12, A, D and high quality protein. In addition, marine fish is a natural source of iodine and omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids, which are essential for the body and yet the body cannot produce them on its own. We must therefore take them in the diet. Omega-3s support brain function, heart function and good eyesight, and also contribute to reducing subcutaneous fat - a welcome effect at a time when the coronavirus is hitting overweight people particularly hard.
How much fish to put on your plate
While people in other European countries eat an average of 22kg of fish a year, in the Czech Republic consumption is a measly 5.7kg a year. How so? After all, fish meat is easy to digest and its cooking is quick and easy. Nothing you have to bake in the oven all morning. The most common reason people don't eat fish is simply that they don't know how to cook it. Another reason is price. A full 66% of Czechs consider fish to be expensive. But this is more of an excuse, because there are many types of fish available on the market in different finishes - from fresh to frozen to canned.
Nutritionists recommend eating 400 grams of fish meat a week, which is, for example, two nice fish fillets. Or one salmon steak and a salad with canned tuna. How far away from this amount are you?
You don't have to be afraid of fish
Recently, concerns have been raised about whether fish meat is even healthy anymore because of marine pollution. High levels of mercury have been cited, and there are concerns about farmed fish being fed genetically modified feed laced with antibiotics and growth promoters. With fish, as with other types of food, we really need to be careful about where it comes from and how it is farmed and caught. You know the difference - you can really tell the difference in the look, smell and taste of fish bought in the supermarket and in a specialist fish shop where you can trust the origin of the meat.
What matters is not only the waters from which the fish was taken, but also how it was handled. Given our location in the centre of Europe, it is almost impossible for truly fresh sea fish to reach us. Most often we buy it frozen or chilled in Czech shops, with the understanding that it has been thawed to this state. Fresh fish is either frozen directly on the boat, or immediately after arrival on land, or undergoes double freezing - but this is the least friendly to the quality of the meat.
Healthy fish from Iceland
Icelandic fish is one of the tastiest and healthiest fish on the market. It is now brought to Czech customers by the Boxxi.cz e-shop, whose founder Marek Jirovec fell in love with the taste of Icelandic fish during a working trip to Iceland and decided to bring it to people in the Czech Republic.
The charm of Icelandic fish is that their home is the clean, cold waters of the local fjords. From the open sea, fishermen mainly catch them with a long line and a hook. Those from farms come from organic farms where only pure feed is used without unwanted additives. The fish are processed by hand and frozen using the gentle IQF method at minus 60 °C. After thawing in the right way, they are comparable in taste and nutrition to freshly caught fish.
Fish with wine and recipe
A classic Czech fear is that we buy good quality fish and spoil it through ignorance by inappropriate pan cooking. Boxxi.cz takes this attitude into account and offers the fish with a recipe on how to prepare it and even the wine that best suits it. In addition to traditional species such as pollock, cod, Arctic salmon or tuna, it also offers lesser-known and very interesting in terms of taste such as redfish, monkfish or Arctic char. There are also delicacies in the form of smoked salmon or halibut.
If you were used to buying chilled fish in the supermarket, you will have been frustrated by the recent reduction in this type of range. It's just that even the offerings at the chilled fish counter were actually frozen first for the journey. Therefore, Boxxi.cz is an adequate substitute - in Prague you can order a shipment packed in a thermobox to your home, in other parts of the country you can pick them up in the so-called Boxxi Points, which are partner establishments for personal pick-up. Their network is gradually expanding.
