Posted by Sarah Wolf, August 12, 2008 at 3:30 PM
The French seafood industry just can't get a break. First a violent herpes outbreak killed an estimated 80 percent of France's baby oysters, and now authorities fearing contamination by a poisonous microalgae have banned the sale and consumption of Arcachon Bay's oysters. Oyster producers, up in arms, are threatening to sue the government for permitting the bay to become polluted, reports the Independent. But after several French beaches were invaded by poisonous algae and jellyfish this summer, scientists have suggested that a rise in water temperature due to global warming may be the culprit.
The Independent suggests an easy test for raw oysters: "If an oyster is open, tap the shell. It should close right away. If it is unresponsive and the shell stays open, throw it away since it is most likely dead."
Related
Baby Oysters Dying Off in France
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 4, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Cinco de Mayo is a day of national pride for Mexicans around the world, commemorating Mexico’s victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. We join in the celebration with our favorite Mexican food and drink.
Photographs by blair christensen and Nick Kindelsperger
Posted by Jenn Sit, April 9, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Oahu's North Shore is known for its big waves, but I went there for its big shrimp. After spending the morning frolicking in a Lost filming location, we found just what were looking for at the legendary Giovanni's White Shrimp Truck: shrimp. Lots of it. Drowned in garlic and butter.
Continue reading »
Posted by Wan Yan Ling, April 7, 2008 at 10:30 AM
The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read her past market missions here.
I know it’s only April, but this may be my food find of the year. Tiny, freshwater crabs—each barely two inches across—are soused with water, sprinkled with Kosher salt, and stuck live in the fridge. Hours later, they’re skillfully pressed and prodded to extract a grainy, coral paste that Pinoys like to mix with freshly steamed white rice, its richness cut through with a generous squirt of calamansi juice—a poor (or busy) man’s paella, if you will.
The thing is, I’m not positive what the gorgeously creamy, salty, slightly tangy stuff is. My bottle says it's "crab fat," and the Tagalog label of "taba ng talangka" concurs—"taba" is "fat" and "talangka" is what those little crabs are called. Yet, I’ve found roughly the same number of sources that claim it as either "crab roe" or "crab fat," and some fence-straddlers that call it "fatty crab roe." Seizing on that, the researcher beau helpfully suggested that since crab roe can be fatty, but crab fat isn’t necessarily roe, the yummy (calorific, cholesterol-laden, highway-to-a-heart-attack) stuff we’ve been sneaking spoonfuls of all weekend must be the eggs.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, March 20, 2008 at 12:00 PM
The first time I spotted the enormous and bloated-looking phallic clam geoduck (pronounced "gooey duck") in a supermarket in Chinatown, I thought, "How the hell do people eat that thing?" After watching Mike Rowe on the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs prepare geoduck sashimi, I now know. And will have nightmares of the elongated skin being pulled off the meat.
Join the fun! After the jump!
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 27, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Above, plumes of sediment stirred up by bottom-trawling fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico—as seen from space. From MSNBC:
The technique, used all over the world, is a way to catch fish in deeper parts of the ocean with huge, deep nets, now that many near-shore fish populations have been virtually wiped out from over-fishing. Several studies have shown the significant impact that trawling has on ecosystems, killing corals, sponges, fish and other animals.
[via Neatorama]
Posted by Alaina Browne, January 25, 2008 at 1:30 PM
"No. Overall, the dangers of not eating fish [including tuna] outweigh the small possible dangers from mercury. The recommended amount for adults is to eat one or two servings of fish per week — but probably only 10% to 20% of the population in the U.S. eats sufficient fish. The real danger in this country, the real concern, is that we're not eating enough fish. That is very likely increasing our rates of death from heart disease."
Thanks goes to Time for its straightforward Q&A with Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, on the potential dangers of eating mercury-rich fish.
The National Fisheries Institute has also issued a rebuttal to the Times story. As an industry trade group its response had to be both swift and slanted, as the Newsweek science blog pointed out. This story just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
According to the New York Times' Marion Burros, a study by the international conservation group Oceana also found unacceptably high, potentially unhealthy levels of mercury in tuna samples taken from stores and restaurants around the country. Burros writes that "Oceana is asking the FDA to require warnings at seafood counters, to add fresh tuna to its 'do not eat' list and to increase the frequency of its testing of fish."
Posted by Ed Levine, January 24, 2008 at 3:00 PM
According to the New York Times, raw tuna lovers were undeterred by the news that some of their favorite sushi bars were serving tuna containing what some would construe as unhealthy levels of mercury.
As we pointed out yesterday, the story in yesterday's paper raised many more questions than answers. I think consumers are getting hip to the fact that virtually every food can be shown to be harmful if consumed in excess. Common sense will rule the day, I hope.
Apparently it did yesterday. I called the kitchen at Esca, which sells many different kinds of tuna in many forms, and I got this report:
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, January 20, 2008 at 11:00 AM
As we noted earlier on Serious Eats, a London chef is opening a fish and chips shop selling only sustainably caught seafood. A basket of fish and chips is going to cost about $20. This reminded me of the age-old question facing all of us: Are we willing to pay more for food that is sustainably grown, raised, or caught?
Food in the U.S. is still, relatively speaking, incredibly cheap, mostly because of a combination of government policy and the laws of supply and demand. Our food supply is created too efficiently. So people who can pay more should. And I don't think it's an either-or proposition. We produce enough food in this country to feed every man, woman, and child in it. That we don't is downright shameful.
Posted by Robyn Lee, January 16, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Cia B used the above Kona Kampachi, a mildly sweet fish packed with omega-3 oils, in an adapted recipe by Jean-Georges Vongerichten to make Kona Kampachi with coconut, apples, ginger, and basil. If you want to try Kona Kampachi but can't find it locally, you can buy it online from Kona Blue.
British restaurateur Tom Aikens is working on a sustainable fish and chips shop in London: "He has consulted half a dozen environmental groups to decide 'which fish I shouldn’t be using' and to make sure the rest are sustainably fished. He will get most of his fish from 30 British fishermen whose practices he has studied." A typical basket of fish and chips will cost £10 (about US$20).
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 14, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Posted by Robyn Lee, January 11, 2008 at 5:00 PM
While celebrating New Year's Eve in Japan, Amy of Blue Lotus ate kegani, literally "hairy crab." Cute? Hell no. Tasty? Hell yes!
Posted by Alaina Browne, October 4, 2007 at 6:30 PM
- Seafood now said OK for pregnant women: In a major break with current U.S. health advice, a coalition of top scientists from private groups and federal agencies plans to advise pregnant and breast-feeding women to consume at least 12 ounces of fish and seafood a week to ensure optimal brain development of their babies. Since 2001, these groups advised pregnant that women eat no more than 12 ounces a week. [Seattle Times]
- USDA took 18 days to recall meat: The U.S. Department of Agriculture waited 18 days after learning that millions of pounds of ground beef made by Topps Meat Co. could be contaminated with E. coli before it concluded that a recall was necessary, according to an email from an agency inspection official. [Chicago Tribune]
- Another day, another food recall: Some packages of Kraft's Baker's Premium White Chocolate may have salmonella contamination. "The company said the recalled product is in 6-ounce packages with UPC Code 0043000252200 and the following "best when used by" dates: 31 MAR 2008 XCZ, 01 APR 2008 XCZ, 02 APR 2008 XCZ, 03 APR 2008 XCZ." [Reuters]
- Farm gets grant to study which apple bakes best: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded the farm with a $9,800 grant to assess the baking, drying, browning and growing attributes of 40 apple varieties. 'Then the idea is to tell new organic farmers which trees they can plant,' said Lou Lego, who co-owns the Elderberry Pond farm and restaurant with his wife, Merby." [The Citizen, of Auburn, NY]
- Moscow eliminating food kiosks? Looks like the international war on street food (taco trucks in California, street fare in Toronto) has a new front—the capital city of Russia. [Moscow News Weekly]
- Amsterdam's "space cakes" go animal-friendly: Amsterdam's coffee shops have begun using free-range eggs in their hashish "space cakes." [Belfast Telegraph]
Posted by Ed Levine, September 4, 2007 at 9:43 AM
Photograph from OS2k on Flickr
Jane Black wrote a fine piece for the September issue of Boston magazine decoding the labels we all see at fish counters—"organic," "day boat," "wild" versus "farmed."
The first myth she debunks is whether it's worth paying extra for organic seafood. Black correctly points out that there are no USDA standards for farmed fish, "so the 'organic' designation can mean whatever the seller wants it to." Her hilarious conclusion: "A fish without an 'organic' label is like a fish without a bicycle." Hey, wasn't that a lyric in a U2 song?
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, August 28, 2007 at 2:00 PM
In her latest blog post, Ms. Adventures in Italy describes the process of catching and eating fresh sea urchins from the seaside in Puglia, Italy, accompanied by beautiful photos of the spiky creatures. Who wants sea urchin gonads now? I DO!
Posted by Robyn Lee, August 14, 2007 at 1:55 PM
After reading Bryan Waterman's definitive account of crabbing near the San Juan Islands in Washington I have a newfound interest in going crab hunting and eating the flesh of the freshly killed crustaceans. And by "going crab hunting" I mean "watching other people do the dirty work" since I have no proclivity towards handling live seafood and I'd probably get a finger pinched off after poking a crab in the wrong spot. But after all the catching and killing is done I bet the rewarding mountain of steamed crab tastes really good.
Posted by Ed Levine, July 31, 2007 at 3:00 PM
Has anyone else noticed that both the food and food media world have gone nuts for sushi? There are two serious books vying for our attention—Trevor Corson's The Zen of Fish and Sasha Issenberg's The Sushi Economy—and an exhaustively comprehensive, brilliant-but-nutty 50,000-word piece about sushi and its idiosyncratic, tradition-dominated culture by the insanely brilliant Nick Tosches in Vanity Fair.
From what I've read and heard, both sushi books are worth reading. Tosches's piece was so compelling and so enveloping that I closed my eyes and thought I had become one of the Harry Potter pod people who took the latest and last installment of the beloved series home with them last weekend and didn't come out until they knew what happened to everyone. In Tosches's sushi piece, all the fish die—and I don't think I'm ruining anything for anybody when I reveal that.
Tosches does give his elegantly gonzo take on the differences between bad, good, very good, and great sushi joints.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, July 16, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Just how porous is our imported-fish inspection process? Taras Grescoe says we should be very scared. Why? Because the FDA, which is responsible for fish inspections, physically inspects 1.34 percent of the imported fish containers that come into this country and tests just 0.59 percent. The European Union, on the other hand, inspects 20 percent of its imported fish containers.
How is our wonderfully protective federal government dealing with this problematic situation? By cutting the budget for FDA in-country foreign fish inspections to zero!
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, July 9, 2007 at 2:45 PM
This week's Cook the Book recipes are from The Young Man and the Sea, the cookbook I wrote with Dave Pasternack, the chef-partner of Esca, a southern Italian seafood restaurant in New York City.
Dave knows more about fish and fish cooking than anyone I've ever met. I even caught my first fish, a 20-pound striped bass, with Dave's help. What's great about Dave's recipes is how much passion he brings to his food and how simple the recipes are. All you'll need to cook from The Young Man and the Sea is a good fishmonger, a grill or a fry pan, and a cold beer or a glass of wine. The first of those recipes will be along shortly.
Thanks to the good folks at Artisan House, we are giving away ten (10) copies of the book. Just tell us what your favorite fish or shellfish preparation is here in the comments section and you'll be entered to win. Winners will be chosen at random, and commenting will close at 9 p.m. ET Friday. The usual Serious Eats contest rules apply.
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 2, 2007 at 4:00 PM
I spent last week at the Jersey Shore, mostly in the Wildwoods, but with a quick trip down to Cape May for half a day or so. As suggested by Serious Eater Mydree here, I tried The Lobster House for lunch. And, as Serious Eater GoodbyeOhio suggested, I did the take-out window and ate on the dock instead of doing sit-down service inside the restaurant.
I'd never had a fried soft-shell crab sandwich before, but this one hit the spot. It was light-seeming despite the frying and just meaty enough. Served on a squishy white hamburger bun with a cool lettuce leaf and a couple thinly sliced tomatoes, it was worth the cab ride from the bus station. And it was a nice antidote to the heavier boardwalk food I'd been eating in Wildwood.
Thanks for the tips, Eaters! And I'm sorry I didn't get to Uries, Maui's Dog House, Max's, Beach Creek, or the Windmill, which were also suggested. Next time!
The Lobster House
Address: Fisherman's Wharf, Cape May NJ 08204
Phone: 609-884-8296
Posted by Ed Levine, June 28, 2007 at 4:44 PM
Andrew Martin in the New York Times reports that "The Food and Drug Administration today issued an alert challenging imports of five major types of farm-raised seafood from China, including shrimp and catfish, because testing found recurrent contamination from carcinogens and antibiotics. The alert means that the fish will be allowed for sale in the United States only if testing proves that it is free of certain antibiotics and carcinogens found previously."
Here's the kicker: "In May, for instance the F.D.A. turned away 165 shipments from China, 49 of which were seafood. Monkfish was rejected for being filthy. Frozen catfish nuggets were turned away because they contained veterinary drugs. Tilapia fillets were contaminated with salmonella."
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 18, 2007 at 6:00 PM
When you spend Memorial Day through Labor Day sitting in an air-conditioned office, it's easy to forget that it's summer. But as I break out the Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirts for an upcoming trip to the Jersey Shore, I'm jolted into the reality of the season.
It's a season for clam-digging, lobster-steaming, fried boardwalk fare, and grilled corn—just a handful of the many shore foods covered in Jasper White's Summer Shack Cookbook. White is proprietor of The Summer Shack mini-chain of restaurants, which serve his version of comfort food—the simple and fresh fare he was raised on as a boy growing up on that same Jersey Shore I'll be visiting soon.
More than just recipes, the book offers how-tos for catching seafood at the source and the equipment and tips you'll need to cook it.
And, as is custom now on Serious Eats, we've got a number of copies to give away. Just leave a comment here telling us what your favorite shore food is and where you get it. Nine (9) winners will be chosen at random from the comments section at the end of the week. Commenting will be open until Friday (June 22) at 9 p.m. ET. The usual Serious Eats contest rules apply.
Posted by Robyn Lee, June 18, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Food writer Dorie Greenspan recently pointed out in her blog the difference in the availability of canned sardines between France and the U.S.; a Parisian supermarket may have an entire wall dedicated to cans of the small fatty fish while in the U.S., not so much.
There's no reason for you to care about the dwindling selection of canned sardines in America if you don't like canned sardines, but I have a weird soft spot for them—I often ate them when I was little and still love to eat them today, just plucked out of their oily baths—and I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who is saddened by the lack of canned sardines in the average American supermarket. Dorie's description of buying canned fish in Paris is spot on:
Even in the not-so-big Monoprix grocery near my apartment in Paris, the selection of canned fish is generous enough to keep you in that aisle for a while, reading labels and deciding among sardines with hot peppers, mustard, lemon or basil, smoked or not, whole or filleted. I always keep a stack of sardine cans in the pantry, they’re my rainy-day emergency munch, perfect for when I’m on deadline and glued to my computer. A squeeze of lemon, a couple of slices of tomato, a little salad and some bread and butter and all is right with the world.
Dear god, when I was in Paris I did the same thing! I didn't really read labels as much as take one of everything (such is the consequence of my gluttony), but the end result was the same; a lot of canned sardines entered my happy belly. Can anyone else attest to being a canned sardine lover?
Posted by Ed Levine, June 6, 2007 at 1:15 PM
The Washington Post's food section had a fun and informative interview with Trevor Corson, author of The Zen of Fish: The Story of Fish, from Samurai to Supermarket
. The piece offers some basic, useful-if-a-bit-obvious advice about eating and ordering sushi and a video that will make sushi purists cringe but might actually prove useful for folks trying to make sushi at home.
Photograph from Kanko* on Flickr
Posted by Alaina Browne, May 30, 2007 at 11:55 AM
June's Vanity Fair includes a great feature by Nick Tosches on Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market, its fish, and beyond to New York's most expensive restaurant, Masa. Tsukiji is the largest in the world fish market, moving more than 2,000 tons of seafood a day. New York's Fulton Fish Market, the second-largest fish market in the world, moves only 115 tons a year, an average of less than half a ton each working day. Worth reading all the way through, especially if you're a sushi lover.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, May 11, 2007 at 7:05 PM
Tien Mao visited Japan earlier this year and just posted photos from an early-morning trip to Tsukiji Fish Market, the world's largest wholesale seafood market, where millions of dollars and tons of fish pass through in the early morning six days a week. If you love food, it's definitely one of the places you have to see when you visit Tokyo. I don't know when I'll be there next, but I do know these red tentacles are making me really hungry.
Related: Rion Nakaya also has a lovely set from Tsukiji, taken two years ago. For more market scenes, check out her photographs from Bilbao's Riverside Meat Market and Fish Vendors.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 26, 2007 at 6:14 PM
Inspired by a LA-area chain called Killer Shrimp that serves nothing but the eponymous dish, Jaden of Steamy Kitchen shares her recipe for Killer Cajun Crawfish. I was planning on having just a grilled cheese sandwich and chorizo for dinner, but how can I now that I've got crawfish on the brain? Life is so hard.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 23, 2007 at 1:45 PM
Walter Nicholls in the Washington Post discovered three young guys interested in saving the aquatic world one fresh indoor-farmed shrimp at a time. The trio "thinks its technologically advanced system of producing a sustainable supply of fresh shrimp year-round in a non-polluting environment may represent the future source of America's favorite seafood."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 23, 2007 at 4:15 PM
Lori over at Dessert Comes First has a lovely photo essay from visiting her neighborhood wet market in the Philippines:
"Here, the fish are so fresh that they’re still jumping about, eagerly gulping their last breaths. The fishmongers are so adept at scaling the tilapia that their eyes are everywhere but on the fish. Clams are squirting seawater from their shells, and the market’s aisles are strewn with large containers of just-caught catch from the sea. This is as close to my food source as I can get here in the city. Some stalls over, seafood like squid and baby crabs are lined up attractively, waiting for the next lucky buyer."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 9, 2007 at 11:50 AM
In the NY Times, Melissa Clark realizes no one she knows actually knows what shrimp scampi is and so she figures it out for herself:
Scampi are in fact tiny, lobster-like crustaceans with pale pink shells (also called langoustines). One traditional way of preparing them in Italy, [Lidia] Bastianich writes, is to sauté them with olive oil, garlic, onion and white wine. Italian cooks in the United States swapped shrimp for scampi, but kept both names. Thus the dish was born, along with inevitable variations like adding tomatoes, breadcrumbs, or, as Ms. Bastianich does, tarragon.
As I saw it, this meant I was free to interpret shrimp scampi pretty much any way I wanted. And I wanted my scampi to be something buttery and rich, with pan drippings intense enough to act as a sauce for pasta, or to make a tasty bread sop reminiscent of the other dish I associate with melted butter and garlic: escargots à la bourguignonne. If I could come up with a scampi sauce as addictive as snail butter, I’d be one very happy.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 5, 2007 at 2:17 PM
"Consider the jellyfish salad or sesame jellyfish. It’s a cold dish. Very simple to prepare. You can get all of the ingredients to make it including the jellyfish at any well-supplied Chinese grocery store." Eddie Lin of Deep End Dining gives you a recipe for jellyfish salad, which sounds and looks weird but is delicious in a simultaneously sweet and salty, crunchy and slippery kind of way. Make the recipe but feel free to skip his sneaky final step—introducing it to the unwary by disguising it in a Peanut Butter and Jellyfish sandwich!
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 26, 2007 at 11:14 AM
"In 1962, Lou Groen was desperate to save his floundering hamburger restaurant, the first McDonald's in the Cincinnati area. His problem: His clientele was heavily Roman Catholic. In those days, most Catholics abstained from meat every Friday, as well as during Lent, the 40-day period of repentance that begins this week with Ash Wednesday. His solution: He created the Filet-O-Fish — a sandwich that saved his restaurant and eventually would be consumed at a rate of 300 million a year."
I've never really given much thought to the classic items on the McDonald's menu so it was a trip to discover that the Filet-O-Fish was invented by a franchise owner and not headquarters—the same is true of the Big Mac and the Egg McMuffin, as it turns out! And while it seems like a no brainer to me that Hawaii leads the US in weekly Filet-O-Fish consumption, I'm kind of surprised that Ohio comes in at number two, even if it is the Filet-O-Fish's home state!
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 23, 2007 at 2:07 PM
I love fish but I don't buy it to cook at home very often, mainly because I don't really know how to pick the freshest one out. CeCe Sullivan over at The Seattle Times interviewed a few experts and wrote a starter guide to picking fresh fish out and also what to do once you've gotten them home: "Once home, "all fish, whether fillets and steaks or whole fish, should be unwrapped and released from their packaging," said Dale Erickson, owner of University Seafood and Poultry Co. in the University District. "The foul air that collects can produce bacteria quickly." He suggests covering the fish with a wet tea towel or loose piece of plastic wrap, refrigerating it, and eating it within a day or two of purchase. "Quality seafood is not meant to be stored," said Erickson."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 22, 2007 at 1:21 PM
Exciting news: "New Zealand fishermen have caught what is expected to be a world-record-breaking colossal squid. Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said the squid, weighing an estimated 450kg (990lb),took two hours to land in Antarctic waters. Local news said the Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni was about 10m (33ft) long, and was the first adult colossal squid landed intact. One expert said calamari rings made from it would be like tractor tyres."
Wikipedia's Colossal Squid is fantastic, if you'd like to read more about the species. If you'd like to make dinner in honor of New Zealand's catch, Leite's Culinaria has Mario Batali's recipe for Stuffed Calamari on the Grill from his book Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 13, 2007 at 7:02 PM
On Fla. Menus, a Favorite Fish Experiences Identity Theft: "The alleged grouper at 17 of 24 area restaurants sampled by the investigators was actually another, less desirable species, according to a DNA analysis conducted for the state attorney general's office and released earlier this month. Asian catfish. Emperor. Painted sweetlips. And twice, types of fish that could not be identified." The Washington Post's Peter Whoriskey on how and why cheaper, less popular fishes are widely and routinely substituted for desirable, expensive ones like grouper and red snapper, and how it's hard to be sure what arrives at your table is what you actually ordered.
Posted by Alaina Browne, December 5, 2006 at 1:36 PM
Chubby Hubby's beautiful meal at Ming Kee Live Seafood.
Ming Kee Live Seafood is tucked among a busy row of restaurants and eateries on Macpherson Road. It's next to a famous fried intestines shop and a few doors down from Swa Garden, Ignatius Chan's favorite Teochew restaurant. 2We had a splendid meal, made even better through the edition of some amazing wines supplied by N, including some JJ Prum Rieslings and a 1996 Flor de Pingus. We began our feast with a perfectly roasted suckling pig. This was followed by the most beautifully tender mussels cooked in a lovely, umami, soy sauce based sauce. After this, we had equally delicious steamed scallops covered in young garlic. We then had some fried mee sua that was good but not great. The next course, steamed crayfish, on the other hand, were excellent.
Posted by Ed Levine, July 19, 2006 at 2:51 PM
Chocolate bars at Pierre Marcolini, a chocolatier from Belgium. I first had his chocolates at his shop in Paris. I always lean toward more bittersweet, not more than 70%, not waxy, i love the variety of beans that he uses.
Eating and drinking at the food bar at Bella Vitae: I love the fried lamb meatballs, puntarelle in season, radicchio wrapped in pancetta.
I love the mussels at Bar Jamon and the octopus. I especially love them when I can get one of the 12 seats in the joint.
Posted by Ed Levine, July 12, 2006 at 7:57 AM
In a move I wholeheartedly approve Boston Magazine sent writer Erin Byers to eat 20 lobster rolls in three weeks. I can do the math. That's just about a lobster roll a day.
The winners:
B&G Oysters 550 Tremont St., 617-423-0550. She calls it the "world's most perfect lobster roll." It's 8 ounces of lobster meat with a lemon-garlic mayo, chive and celery.
Neptune Oyster 63 Salem St., 617-742-3474. This is Byers' warm lobster roll of choice. She describes it as "warm butter-basted claw and tail meat with drawn butter and butter-soaked brioche." I sense a butter theme present in this particular sandwich.
Posted by Ed Levine, June 18, 2006 at 9:12 AM
I am as big a champion of sustainable agriculture and responsibly, ethically raised meat as most, but I have to say I'm baffled by Whole Foods' recent decision not to sell live lobsters and crabs in their stores because these crustaceans suffer unnecessarily in captivity and subsequent death.
I'm sure lobsters and crabs don't look forward to being put in tanks, killed and eaten, but if we can't eat lobsters and crabs with impunity, what's next? Whole Foods banning the sale of Bumble Bee (or even a fabulous fancy-pants brand like Ortiz) tuna because the tuna suffer horribly on their way to the can?
Talk about slippery slope.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 25, 2006 at 7:32 AM
Having just come from a thoroughly disappointing meat at NY's latest attempt at a clam shack, Ditch Plains, I began to ruminate on how much I love fried clams.
With Memorial Day, the official start of the fried clam eating season, just around the corner, here is my absolutely incomplete guide to eating fried clams in the NYC area, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, with a southern Maine spot thrown in for good measure.
The descriptions of the clams themselves will be minimal. As I discovered a couple of years ago when I went on a ten clamshack eating adventure with Dave Pastnernack, the chef of Esca, fried clams are either really good (sweet, nutty, crisp and greaselessly fried with no breading other than flour) or they're not. And even the best clam shacks don't put enough salt into the frying mixture. One more important note: I've found that if you ask that the clams be put on a plate instead of one of those impossibly cute cardboard clam boxes, the result is clams that stay crisp and crunchy. Those "cute" boxes are actually a dastardly form of fried clamicide, because the fried clams end up steamed and soggy when they're piled on top of each other. And no fried clam meal is complete without an ice cream or frozen custard for dessert. Even bad ice cream tastes great after eating fried clams.
NYC and vicinity:
- Mary's Fish Camp: Mary Redding is a highly trained serious chef, so it's no surprise that her fried clams are excellent, crunchy and clammy and delicious. Will somebody who's been to the Brooklyn location of MFC please let us know how it is? {246 W. 4th Street, New York, NY}. 646-486-2185.
- Pearl: They don't ordinarily have fried clams at Pearl, but the fried oysters are so good I keep hoping they'll get around to frying up some clams as well. Maybe if we all keep asking for them, Rebecca Charles will give in and put fried clams on the menu. {18 Cornelia St., New York, NY}. 212-691-8211
- Johnny's Famous Reef: The fried clams are good, but it's the amazingly vibrant, multi-cultural scene that is most alluring about Johnny's. Just make sure you go on a nice day. Beware of the extremely aggressive seagulls. They'll steal a clam right out of your hand (they don't even need a fork). {2 City Island Ave, City Island, NY}. 718-885-2086.
- Bigelow's: This quintessential Long Island clam shack is really just one horseshoe counter. Bigelow's is where big-time chefs like Alex Lee (former executive chef, Daniel) and Dave Pasternack go for their fried clam fix. The clams here are fabulous, and so is the french fry draining ritual. They take the french fries out of the fryer when they are done, put them in a white cloth napkin, and shake them all around like the hokey pokey. The fries themselves are standard frozen french fries, but with this kind of floor show it doesn't matter. {79 N. Long Beach Rd., Rockville Center, LI}. 516-678-3878.
Connecticut:
- Lenny's Indian Head Inn: The clams are superfine at this cool spot in Branford right on the water. Don't confuse it with the four Lenny and Joe's Fish Tales locations, which are more commercial endeavors and not as good. {205 South Montowese St., Branford CT}. 203-488-1500.
- Sea Swirl: This is our family stop on the way to the Cape. It's about a seven minute detour off I-95. The clams are delicious, the fries are skippable, and the onion rings are the side of choice. Excellent soft ice cream for dessert with intriguing dip flavors like capuccino. {30 Williams Ave., Mystic, CT}. 860-536-3452.
I have also had good fried clams in Connecticut at the Clam Castle, {1324 Boston Post Rd., Madison, CT}, 203-245-4911 and at Johnny Ad's, {910 Boston Post Rd., Old Saybrook, CT}. 860-388-4032.
Massachusetts:
- Christies: One of Dave Pasternack's fish suppliers turned us on to Christies. It's not much to look at, an old box of a place on a depressing street overlooking the water, but the fried clams are excellent, and for once, properly salted. The best thing about the place is its proximity to Logan Airport. If you don't get lost, as we did, you can get to the airport in twenty minutes. {17 Lynnway, Lynn, MA}. 617-397-9957.
- The Clam Box: Everyone rhapsodizes about the Clam Box, and though it's very good, I didn't see what distinguishes the place from all the other fried clam spots in and around Essex and Ipswich. Beware of long, long lines at the Clam Box. {246 High St., Ipswich, MA}. 978-336-9707.
- Woodman's: The claim at Woodman's is that on July 3, 1916, Lawrence Dexter "Chubby" Woodman was frying a batch of his homemade potato chips at his stand on the road from Ipswich to Gloucester when he either accidentally knocked a clam into the fryer or got an inspiration for a line extension. Ninety years later Woodman's has become the equivalent of a fried clam theme restaurant, complete with frozen drinks and a line of merchandise that includes t-shirts, umbrellas, mugs and visors. The clams are certainly good, but the reconstituted lemon juice you see all over the place is a real bummer. Skip the clam cakes, which are a sodden, heavy disaster. {121 Main St., Essex, MA}. 978-768-6057.
- J.T. Farnham's: Farnham's is an actual shack that overlooks the Essex Salt Marsh that many clams that end up in fryers are harvested from. Pleasant view, very fine fried clams. {88 Eastern Ave. Essex, MA}. 978-768-6643.
- Essex Seafood: You don't come for the view at Essex Seafood, which is of the parking lot. They fry the clams here a little longer, so they end up a lovely dark brown color, which is quite appealing. {143 Eastern Ave., Essex, MA}. 978-768-7233.
- Oxford Creamery: Our friends the Kaisers live right down the road from the Oxford Creamery, which serves an excellent fried clam roll and fine local ice cream. {98 County Rd., Mattapoisett, MA}. 508-758-3847.
- The Bite: I have probably had more fried clams at the Bite than any place else on this list. The clams are excellent (though they do come in the dreaded box) and the bite fries are delicious, irregularly shaped chunks of fried new potato. The only problem with the Bite is its location in Menemsha Harbor, which has become one of the tourist spots on the Vineyard. So there's always a long line at the Bite, and there's only two picnic tables to eat at. We often get our clams and take them to the beach right up the road from the Bite. Basin Road, Menemsha, MA. 508-645-9239.
- Sandy's Fish and Chips: Sandy's adjoins John's Fish Market. Again, there's really no place to eat the clams except for one picnic table in the parking lot., State Rd. Vineyard Haven, MA. 508-693-1220.
Maine:
- Bob's Clam Hut: Bob's is a legendary clam shack that is now surrounded by outlet malls. Not very romantic, but those shops sometimes come in really handy. 315 Route 1, Kittery, Maine. 207-439-4233.
The New York Times recommended four clam shacks recently, and I must admit I haven't been to one of them. I'm going to try and hit The Clam Shack in Falmouth, Harbor, this weekend.
I recently received a copy of New England's Favorite Seafood Shacks, by Elizabeth Bougerol. The book is a lot of fun, and it's filled with tons of information (it has every place mentioned here except Christies, but it does suffer a tad from the "everything is great" school of romantic, funky food writing. Sometimes we food lovers need a discouraging word in books like this so that we believe the author is discerning. That same affliction inhabited a similar book by Brooke Dojny that came out a couple of years ago.
I'm sure I missed a bunch of places. Please, ELE readers, fill in the gaps in this woefully incomplete list.
