If you’re a dedicated angler there’s a good chance you like whipping up dinner with one of your favorite recipes for fresh-caught fish. And if you like eating fish, you may well also enjoy crustaceans, clams, and all sorts of other seafood. The crazy thing is, there’s a lot more out there than most folks realize. Have you ever tried filleting a cutlassfish and frying it up? Digging for clams and then steaming them yourself? If so, you’re already ahead of the game. But there’s a wider (if somewhat wacky) world of aquatic eats out there that few people have ever indulged in. Here are some of the fantastic if somewhat offbeat cool seafood items we’ve run across from the Bay and beyond, which everyone should try when the opportunity arises.
Don’t Flee the Sand Fleas
You know those little sand fleas (mole crabs) you used to dig up at the beach when you were a kid? Today, you likely dig ‘em up for bait when you go surf fishing. But the next time you catch some big quarter-sized mammoth moles, collect as many as you can, put them in the cooler, and keep them there until you get home. It may be hard to believe but these little critters taste great. Pop them into a pan with butter and Old Bay, pop the backshell off, and pop the remaining flea chunk into your mouth—it’s heavenly! They taste like a cross between shrimp and crabs, and the last time I tried this a couple of very skeptical family members went back for seconds… and then thirds.
Smokin’ Good Salmon
Salmon may not be a Bay thing, but smoking fish certainly is—and Chesapeake Smokehouse has it mastered. A friend treated me to a fillet of their salmon, smoked while still fresh, using a recipe of hand-selected applewood, fallen oak, and hickory. It. Is. Lucious. Hands-down the best smoked salmon I’ve ever personally tasted. On top of the taste the fillet was perfectly trimmed and sliced with a vertical, sashimi-style cut.
If you have some fresh rockfish or perch fillets you’re looking to whip up into something special, you’ll also want to check out Chesapeake Smokehouse’s smoked salt. There’s something magical about smoked salt, adding a hint of lip-smacking smokey flavor to any fish you cook. Order online at mdseafooddelivery.com and look for their smoked salmon at some area Groul’s Markets and Organic Butchers stores. Annapolitan red alert: Navel Bagel Edgewater and Annapolis puts it on their bagels!
All Puffed Up
Puffer fish may be strange looking, but this is one Bay-dweller that tastes a lot better than it looks. Filleting will be a bit of a challenge thanks to that rough, rubbery skin, but there’s a chunk of very firm, very sweet white meat on either side of the backbone and above the rib cage (or maybe in this case we should call it the RIB section). Give ‘em a quick sear in a pan of butter and Old Bay and the next time the blow toads are biting you’ll come ‘a running.
Soft Clam Not Soft Clam
Our completely foreign contestant for the crazy-coolest seafood around is the geoduck clam (pronounced “gooey-duck”). These West Coast critters don’t live within 1000 miles of our waters, but here’s the crazy part for a Chesapeake dweller: they’re exactly 100 percent just like our own soft clams. They have a similarly brittle shell, the long snout, and the luscious clam belly. They taste exactly like our soft clams, too. Except that instead of weighing an ounce or two, they weigh a pound or two. Geoducks can be ordered in from several shippers in Seattle at the approximate price of $110 to $120 per clam (inluding shipping). Yes, per clam. But before you get put off by the outrageous cost, note that a single clam feeds two.
If you decide to order one (I’ve found Taylor Shellfish to be the most reliable supply), be careful to opt for a whole clam, not the pre-cleaned pieces. Those wimpy weirdo West Coasters cut the belly out and throw it away—horrors!—because they don’t think that part is good to eat. We Chesapeakians, of course, know that the belly is the best part.