SEAFOOD MARKET OPEN IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
Central Seafood Market open in time for Christmas
JUST in time for Christmas, Central Seafood Market has opened to offer residents more live, fresh and cooked seafood.
The new store in Grand Central’s Market Room is aiming to be Toowoomba’s premier one-stop seafood destination.
When it comes to seafood, owner Mal Hunkin, a chef by trade, knows what he is talking about. He has been in the industry for 27 years, had a seafood truck for 18 years and owned Seafood on Mary for the past five years. He was head chef at Weis prior to joining the seafood industry.
Mr Hunkin said they had “upped the ante” in terms of technology which included things like self-cleaning display cabinets. There are live tanks with live oysters and mud crabs.
“It is all open rather than closed so people can have a good look at the product,” Mr Hunkin said.
“All of our cooking, there is no menu as such, it’s all
❝All of our cooking, there is no menu as such, it’s all picked out of the display and then they can get it cooked here fresh. — Mal Hunkin
picked out of the display and then they can get it cooked here fresh. That way they can see what they are actually having.”
Mr Hunkin said he decided to open second store to give residents a greater choice when it came to seafood, making it the third store in Toowoomba.
The store’s fresh product is all A-grade wild caught from Australia. It uses farmed product when it is a necessity and carries only a couple of imported lines that are not available in Australia.
They also make “shortcut” products like garlic prawns and kebabs as well as lunch items like salmon pasta or classic fish, chips and salad.
Along with the stress of opening a new store, Mr Hunkin is now preparing both stores for Christmas and the huge amount of seafood they will sell.
“Probably the two shops we are going to be looking around about six, maybe seven tonnes of prawns for the two shops,” he said.
“All the other product you are probably going to be another two or three tonnes on top of that with your lobsters and bugs and muddies and sandies and marron and all that kind of stuff as well.”