Aquatic Addiction Development – 上引水产 – Taipei

上引水产, or Addiction Aquatic Development (its (weird) English name), is a sprawling high-end seafood-centric retail concept in Zhongshan District, Taipei. A selection of seafood (think brightly-colored fish and live crustaceans) in a room full of tanks drives home the point of hyper-freshness. Other pricey offerings adorn the refrigerated and grocery sections – French oysters, fancy salts, premium cuts of meat. There is above all a thorough polish to the space, with both cleanliness and order that are very much unexpected in a fish market, however expensive. I’m not sure if this sterilization of the market concept is my cup of tea (it felt in some ways more like an aquarium), but if the design and operations are done with an eye towards higher price points, the efforts felt quite successful. In the next section of the space, there was hot and cold prepared foods, mostly grilled fish, packaged sashimi, and other seafood dishes. We didn’t take any of these to go, since we wanted to have lunch in one of the adjoining restaurants. We chose the restaurant space serving seafood platters over the sushi bar, mainly because we wanted to have some of the crab. Just look at this motorboating striptease of a seafood bar. Of course we wanted some.As did others.The bonus was that we got a sashimi salad as part of the seafood platter, so we didn’t have to skip entirely on fresh fish. The toro was very sultry, and the fish eggs a nice shot of brine to the otherwise straightforward salad.Twas a nice spread. And I am particularly partial to raw spot prawns – such sweetness in the meat (and also the brain juice, but that’s clearly a participation-optional thing). The oysters were plump and juicy, although personally I like my oysters on the smaller side (i.e., Kumamotos). The bowl of seafood miso soup was a small meal in and of itself, with added complexity (and richness) from bone-in salmon, shrimp head, and a good bit of scallion. And voila! The ends justify the means.I realize that saying doesn’t apply here. Yes, we are monsters.