Variety Fish Cornor

We are right at the corner of Kalligambal Koil Street in Virugambakkam. It is easy to find because of the smell of fresh fish and the ice melting on the floor. At No. 1, we start early in the morning when the trucks arrive from the coast. Everything is usually wet and cold by 6 AM. We spend the first few hours just sorting through what came in that day. Some days we get a lot of mackerel, other days it is mostly prawns. It depends on the catch. The shop isn't very big, so things get a bit cramped when the local families come by after work. We have a couple of cutting blocks in the back where the guys clean the fish. It gets messy, but that is part of the job. We don’t have fancy displays, just crates and some ice. Most of our customers have been coming here for years. They know which days have the best selection. We usually run out of the popular stuff by late afternoon. The street outside can get noisy with the temple nearby. We just keep the water running and the knives sharp. It is hard work, standing on your feet all day in the damp, but we like the people in Virugambakkam. It’s just a simple fish stall doing what we do every day. We usually have to mop the floor three or four times a day because of the fish scales and water.