A roasted barramundi that doesn't break the bank

Seafood for me is hearth and health: a nod to my seafaring ancestors, childhood memories, family traditions—and a reminder of cardiovascular glitches.

- SAMAR HALARNKAR

Roasted barramundi

(SAMAR HALARNAR)

I cook fish often at home, limited only by the soaring cost of family favourites like white pomfret and surmai or king-fish. When I eat out, I inevitably gravitate towards fish because it is healthy and its freshness is easy to discern, unlike other meats and even vegetables.

I spent the last week of 2025 in Mumbai, as I always do, and while in that heaving, smoggy city of dreams and nightmares, I ate all the fish I could. It would be a travesty not to, never mind the increasingly turbid and contaminated Arabian Sea.

I don’t worry too much about the toxicity of the fish we eat. There is so much that can sicken us in our cities. When I was editor of The Indian Express in Mumbai two decades ago, I remember getting fish and vegetables tested. The fish contained lead and other heavy metals. But so did spinach—enough to fry your brain.

Newer studies show that while these toxins show up in other leafy greens as well, spinach is especially good at absorbing them. There is no reason to single out fish.

Now that we've got that out of the way, onwards to my selections of the best fish I've eaten.

One of my favourite fish entrées is the red Thai seared