As a long weekend break I would highly recommend Istanbul. If the stunning mosques and Ottoman architecture don't fascinate you, there is always the grand bazaar or spice markets. Ferries run up and down the Bospherous, constantly connecting the Dead Sea with the Sea of Marmara. The food is exceptional. Whether you'd like to try a real kebab at the top of Istekal where the stall sells over 10,000 per day, or sit in an outdoor restaurant overlooking the sea drinking very quaffable Turkish wine and eating freshly caught fish, the food will never disappoint. Turks love to dance, and the clubs rival anything in London. In the summer the parties move onto the roof terraces. Locals tend to be warm, friendly and helpful to the point of bending over backwards. I came out here for a weekend earlier last year and now I live here. You can't get a better recommendation than that!

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All the possible processes in fish trading can be seen in one place. The catch is landed from boats onto the shore, from where it goes straight to the auction section to be sold to wholesalers. From there it is a quick trip across the road, past the stalls selling shells and other fishy artefacts and to the retail section.

At the back the fish is fried in a haze of fire and smoke and ready for selling to the public.

On the shore and at the end of Ocean Drive where it turns into Kivukoni Front

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I have stayed several times with my in-laws in Essaouira so have learned some tricks on how to eat the best food cheaply (and stay well).

The best option is some form of self-catering to take advantage of the amazingly fresh fish, fruit and vegetables on sale in the local market in the medina. Shopping is a really fun, exciting experience and the locals will not rip you off.
The fishmongers will prepare the fish for a small fee.

Anything you cook from such brilliant ingredients, even if it is just salad and grilled fish, will taste brilliant.

The one and only off-license shuts at 8pm every day and is located just outside the medina at the north entrance.

For breakfast (if you don't mind the potential calories) everybody universally agrees the best is Patisserie Driss just at the rear corner of the main square. Get there before 11am for the best choice of French pastries, fresh orange juice and good coffee.

For snacks, the takeaway pizza stands near Driss are all good.

If you want a more elaborate, heavy, traditional Moroccan meal, visit one of the small restaurants in the 'dog leg' off the main square, near the carpet shops. All offer standard set menus with tagine, traditional Harira, etc. All are roughly the same standard and price (although I've recently heard bad things about Petit Pearl).

If you like fish don't miss the cafe at the back of the fish market. You buy your fish then pay them to cook it for you. If doesn't get fresher than that!

Avoid fish stalls around the port, well known to serve old manky fish to tourists and responsible for many a tummy upset.

Essaouira - medina

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One of the most trendy fish taverns in Hadjykyriakio. Try the Retsina wine, the shrimps and the best Greek salad made by Lazaros the owner.

Hatzikiriakou 126
HATZIKIRIAKIO
Tel: 210 4514226
www.athensguide.org/athens-restaurants.html

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Winner of the 2006 Manchester Food and Drink Festival for Best Food Outlet, Bolton Market will blow you away in what it has to offer. Whether it is fresh lobster, rabbit, organic veg, cheeses it is definitely worth a trip.

I go there for the fish. I have never seen so much choice and the quality is superb.

Forget your trendy expensive farmers' markets. I have found Bolton Market to be cheap, friendly, original and without doubt the best place for foodies in Greater Manchester.

Great Moor Street
Bolton

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Probably the best restaurant we visited in a three-week trip to NZ.

Fish restaurant - excellent choice of fish, beautifully cooked and served. A real star restaurant. Fish-themed decor and very relaxed atmosphere. 5 stars from me!

Dined here April 2007

7 Beach St Queenstown
Telephone (03)4426768
url: www.fishbonequeenstown.co.nz/

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Sample an outstandingly fresh selection of authentic and contemporary dishes, those borne out of a visit to a morning market stall in Hanoi right through to dishes found at Ho Chi Minh City’s swankiest restaurant: La Vong grilled fish from Hanoi’s finest, Hanoi Dumpling from the Imperial Capital and Camfire Sirloin Steak from Saigon’s busiest restaurant.

To accompany your food select from the amazing wines hand picked by wine critic Malcolm Gluck then sit back and enjoy an exquistite meal in a uniquely relaxed environment.

301 Old Street
Hoxton
London EC1V9LA
Tel: 020 7729 8662
Tube: Old Street

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Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay is a walkthrough aquarium where you get the chance to get up close and personal with a variety of fish and sea creatures including, of course, sharks.

You walk through various themed areas – Jungle, Temple and Shipwreck – guided by both your “passport”, which includes some handy photographs for identifying various species, and an extremely informative audio guide.

Along the way you will see some of what must be some of the most beautiful and bizarre creatures on the planet. Spots, stripes, bright reds, vivacious blues and poster paint yellow catch your eye, as does the range of shapes and sizes from dainty angelfish to huge tarpons and gracefully sleek stingrays. Try and look out for the lookdown, whose flat face makes it seems as if it has just run into a wall, and the magnificent lionfish, a blend of stripes, fans and tendrils that looks like it should be fantasy rather than reality.

Rays swim in a small pool where you're encouraged – under supervision – to touch them. It’s a strange sensation. I thought they would be soft and squashy but instead they felt rather hard and leathery. A nearby display of jellyfish again look like creations of an imagination run wild.
The culmination of the tour is the shipwreck where, in a huge tank, sharks and fish swim round, under and above you. The sharks are amazing creatures, inspiring an almost primeval sense of both fear and respect. Wait for one to swim over your head so you can see its rows of teeth and feel that slight tremor go up your spine.

Education and conservation are two of the aims of the aquarium - it has links to various organisations that promote research and conservation – and I liked the last page of the passport guide that gives some small tips about how people can try and help conserve the environment.

At the Mandalay Bay Hotel, 3950 S. Las Vegas Blvd.

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It's fish and chips for me from French's at Wells-on-Sea. Such a bore when the queues out the door, but well worth the wait. Open or wrapped? Eat in or take out? Cod, plaice or rock salmon?  Mine's always haddock. Divine crispy batter, lips greased by chips. Watching that waistline? What does it matter! (Closed Monday to go fishing.)

10 The Quay
Tel: 01328 710396
Web: www.frenchs.co.uk

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Great restaurant - better to go here and sit in the tiled dining room, with Iberian hams hanging up and lobsters and fish on ice, than to take your chances out on a terrace where you never really know what you're going to get. The fish soup was the best I have tasted, and the grilled fish was fresh and succulent.

Rua Primeiro de Dezembro 103/107

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A brilliant restaraunt specialising in fish cuisine. Once we had discovered it, we ate there every night on our last trip to Paris. Our friends (who are well travelled in France) reckoned it was the best Fruit de Mers they had eaten away from the coast. Sensibly priced too.

15 rue Lagrange
75005 Paris

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Midsummer is the longest day and I spent one of the most beautiful nights ever on a beach watching the light not fade. And, if you like seafood, chardonnay and vodka, the crayfish festival is the best way to round off the summer. I lived in Gothenburg for five years and to me it is the heart of Sweden. If you go to Sweden, go to Gothenburg.

The annual crayfish parties are held throughout Sweden on Midsummer's Eve in June.

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The best fish restaurant in London, owned and run by the family who also have the fishmongers next door. Completely unassuming in unfashionable Finsbury Park - if you don't know about it you'll never go there and that's part of what makes it so great.

101 Stroud Green Road, London, N4 3P;
tel: 020 7272 9719

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