There, I've said it.
Believe it or not, my love affair with seafood began with those nasty, frozen fish sticks on Friday nights on Stevens Avenue. Growing up, at our once a month night out at the The Village Cafe or the Sportsman's Grill (long gone), I always seemed to gravitate towards their fried clams. Let me be brutally honest here. Before The Village closed a few years back, I probably sampled their cuisine hundreds of times, and I can truly say that
their renowned fried clams in batter was the ONLY thing I ever ordered. Kinda sad too, because I heard that their Italian entrees were scrumptious. Friday's menu, in the dorm at college, always featured fish in multiple displays. I loved it. I sampled everything. These days clams, mussels, crabs, lobstah, scallops, shrimp, tuna haddock, salmon and I could go on and on are all welcomed on my plate. And I'm not partial to Fridays anymore. I'll dine on seafood 8 days a week. This boy is not proud. However I do, it's sad to say, monitor my 'fried' intake. I could do better... I'm trying.
Our 'go to take out' used to be the Clam Bake on Pine Point Road.
However, these days Ken's Place, just down the road aways, is where you'll find us.
We always 'hit' it in early May before the influx.
It's tradition!
"Make mine fried clams in batter, please"
I LOVE seafood.
Did I tell you that?
Footnote to life: Where did Elenka and I go on our first date?
If you said The Village, take a bow.
What did I have?
If you said fried clams in batter, take another.
I was never much for fish growing up, but then when I did my military service there was one evening out in the field, and I was so hungry, and the fish they served was the best meal I had ever eaten. These days I try to eat salmon once a week.
ReplyDeleteLove it too ! I have fabulous memories from childhood , sailig with my grandpa, fishing many kinds of things and sometimes eating them fresh , on board , only with some bread and lemon juice .. Yum!
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to seafood with those dreaded fish sticks too and as a kid I used to love them. I looked forward to fish stick night. Probably when I was around 12 or 13, my parents took me to a place called the Mississippi Grill and I had catfish for the first time. It tasted wonderful but oh, those bones. It wasn't until I was 19 years old that I tasted my first lobster. Well, that changed everything. I've loved all kinds of seafood ever since! Hmmm....maybe a little salmon for dinner tonight...
ReplyDeletei'm not much of a clam lover. or fish. or even scallops. now, shrimp or crab cakes... yum!
ReplyDeleteFish sticks are pretty much the only way I'll have seafood.
ReplyDeleteI could live on fish and vegetables as a steady diet. Have you ever heard of Fish Boils? It was a Friday night special in towns along the Lake Michigan shore. Now it's a tourist attraction in Door County, WI, but the best ones took place in my relatives' saloons when I was a kid. Friday night fish fries were also a staple. When I return for visits, I always make sure that I arrive in time for fish on Fridays.I share your passion for seafood of ALL kinds.
ReplyDeleteI love seafood too and I usually order salmon when in a restaurant!
ReplyDeleteI live in city by the sea, but seafood is not one of my passions...
ReplyDeleteWell, growing up in EAst Texas we had shrimp from the Gulf and my dad caught those huge catfish. To this day I still love fried catfish and shrimp any way you can cook it. We always had shrimp as our Saturday night dinner. Mom would cook a big batch of it in crab boil and make a big green salad and we sat at the dinner table peeling and eating shrimp with the juice dripping off our elbows. Wish I had some right now!
ReplyDeleteI grew up with fish sticks...yuck! But, I love seafood, and some fish, as an adult.
ReplyDeleteGreat memories!
ReplyDeleteI hated fish sticks.
ReplyDelete"Fresh seafood" is an oxymoron where I live. :-)
ReplyDeleteI grew up with fish sticks on Friday, too, but after I departed for the Midwest the seafood options weren't so good. Best fish I've ever had was halibut straight out of the ocean in Alaska. Well,maybe off-the-boat salmon in Seattle. Hard to say.
ReplyDeleteI love that shell sign.
ReplyDeletefried clams, yum!! i like quite a bit of seafood...could not get me to eat one of those nasty fish stix again though...ha, ewww!
ReplyDeleteLiving in an area where seafood is everywhere we love it too. Most everything that is.
ReplyDeleteI like it all!!
MB