All stories about "Seafood"

Fried with a side of fried. What could go wrong? Fish and chips (or, fish 'n' chips) are the ultimate drunkard's comfort food, capable of absorbing obscene quantities of flat English beer. You take bland white fish, which -- like everything else -- tastes great when submerged in a bath of boiling oil, and pair with fat, crisp-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside chips (what naive Americans call French fries). While offering no where near the deep-fried selection enjoyed by Londoners, New York has plenty of places for grease fanatics and visiting Englishmen to find, at very least, decent fish and chips. And here's a list of our favorites. As usual, additional recs welcome in the comments or tipline.

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Sushi chefs must undergo years of training and obtain a license in order to prepare fugu, the poisonous blowfish. One such fish contains enough neurotoxin to kill 30 people, and the delicacy requires careful preparation to keep the poison from being consumed by unsuspecting diners. This graphic video from Japan documents the care and precision that goes into cutting fugu. Speed is a key element of the process, and as this footage somewhat grotesquely shows, the blowfish must be gutted and skinned while it's still breathing. Sweet. (via)

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In most of the country, you must travel towards the ocean to find the best seafood. This being Los Angeles, we don't do things like the rest of the country, which is why we have two streets named Santa Monica Boulevard and why people looking for great seafood will actually travel inland to a magical place called the 626. It has places like San Gabriel and Monterey Park, where you'll find some of the best seafood in town (plus a wide range of Asian influences). Many people avoid this area east of Los Angeles because you must battle the 10 to get there, but the reward is worth it. Follow this list, and I promise you'll never regret seeing the words "market price" on a menu. If we've missed some of your favorites, feel free to let us know in the comments or tips.

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Saw Big Ben? Check. Supped a pint of warm ale in a pub? Check. Tasted bona fide fish and chips? You'll be lucky. Authentic London chippies are as rare as hens' teeth in the 'smoke these days. To make matters worse, dodgy fried chicken joints snare eager tourists with rank imitations, and ubiquitous chain pubs post identical faux hand-written boards on the street inviting customers to "try our famous fish in beer batter and chips." Note: it's not famous, it's frozen. To eat proper fish and chips is to taste the pride and defiance of a once proud nation. The taste of Churchill and chimney stacks. Of brown leather footballs kicked by blokes called Stanley. For what could be more admirable than rough-hewn slabs of crisp, fluffy-centered potato tumbled over a fresh fleshy fillet of cod, steamed to moist perfection inside a crunchy, golden suit of armor? Here are the best London shops still frying their fish suppers the traditional way.

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Oyster season is in full effect in Paris. The month leading up to Christmas finds the bivalves big, flavorful ,and spilling out of crates across the city. Parisians are crazy for les huîtres, whether as an elegant first course or eaten off the top of a parked car at le Baron Rouge. In fact, more oysters are eaten here -- more than 130,000 annually -- than in any other country in the world. For a little aphrodisiac action of your own, the following addresses are renowned for serving some of the best shells in town.

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Something mysterious and delightful happens in San Francisco and environs around the holidays. I am not speaking of jolly old elves in little hats and those $#^%& bell ringers out side of Safeway, I refer, of course, to the sweet, juicy, delicious bounty that is the winter Dungeness crab season. Nothing says Christmas or Kwanzaa like ornery little pink alien-looking foodstuffs. This winter kind of sucks because some yahoo went and crashed an oil tanker into the Bay Bridge, causing commercial crab season to be postponed and making the Baby Jesus cry. Because of this, you should call ahead to make sure there is crab available. But when the season officially starts, do what the natives do: stuff yourself silly on these succulent shellfish until you swear you'll never eat one ever again, ever. Until next November, of course.

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Being a tour of breaking one's oyster virginity in San Francisco, from the Mission to the Bay, five-star to dive, champagne to Chimay. There's no rules when it comes to our slippery friends, only that they be very cold, very shucked, and very presentable. With this array of oyster opportunities, you can spring for the fancy or turn up late and as wrecked as you want to be. They don't judge, and neither will the barkeeps. An accompanying adult beverage is almost mandatory for indulging; being overdone up, in SF anyway, is so not.

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Love it or hate it, seafood is a fundamental part of dining in the Harbour City, and there are a great many restaurants dedicated to providing the freshest seafood in the country. From every type of fish you can imagine, to crabs, prawns, scallops and the always-coveted lobster, Sydney's hard to beat for selection. While a hefty paycheck must often go hand in hand with this type of cuisine, there are still some places where you won't have to save for weeks to visit. Here are a few that haven't yet been associated with sore stomachs the day after.

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Ah, the problematic lobster roll. Mayo or butter? Lettuce or celery? Hot dog bun or brioche? Tarragon??? Mary's or Pearl's or, most recently, Ed's? Debates surrounding the tasty crustacean can be fierce in New York, but there is one point of agreement amidst all the back-and-forth opinions: Lobster rolls are delectable and heavenly, and worth the ambiguous "market price." Fortuitously, I broadened my seafood-eating horizons around the same time I first visited Maine, and I happened to be residing near the famed Red Eats, home of "Maine's #1 Lobster Roll." (Toasted bun, chunks of lobster meat, butter and mayo on the side. Simple.) But where to find the succulent bun-enveloped lobster in New York City? Choose among several fine mayonnaisey options, and drop your own pearls of wisdom should the spirit move you.

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I was raised as a diehard Yankees fan, so I generally don't speak of Boston unless the word "sucks" appears somewhere in the sentence. However, as much as I love to hate on Beantown, I must admit that Massachusetts has some damn good seafood. And when it comes to sushi, there's one place in The Hub that's head and shoulders above any of my favorite Japanese restaurants in New York. In fact, Ginza has the best sushi that I have ever eaten outside of Japan itself.

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Every Australian on the planet is sick of hearing some idiot ask them about throwing a shrimp on their barbie. Although we do love the barbie, we call them prawns and sometimes, well quite often really, we can't be arsed to go to the effort of cooking them ourselves. Given that Sydney is all about the beaches and the harbor, and being by the water, it all tends to make everybody lazy and desire fresh seafood, I dare say you'll find yourself in a similar predicament. So when you get a hankering for some fresh seafood, head to one of these locations.

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Among the world's great foodie meccas is Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market. Officially named the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, it's the largest wholesale fish market in the world. All in all, it employs roughly 60,000 people, features over 900 wholesale dealers and 1,677 stalls, and handles 2,000 metric tons of seafood daily. Most of it is also open to the public. The latest issue of Vanity Fair features a look at the market and its importance to the world of sushi. Although Tsukiji's legendary fish auctions (where golden brown dried sea slug caviar starts at a cool US$473/lb.) are not open to the public, nearly every other part of the market is. Mornings from 5 a.m. until 9 a.m. are the best times to visit; the market closes shortly after. Of course, there are numerous on-site restaurants.

If You Knew Sushi [Vanity Fair]

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The Hungry Cat made a brief appearance last year in our Burgerwatch: LA, but the blue cheese dripping, no way to look dignified while eating burgers are just a small part of this chicest of chic Southern California seafood destinations. The product of Los Angeles food overlords Suzanne Goin and David Lentz, the Hungry Cat is built as a Back East raw bar and seafood shack with a uniquely Hollywood ethos. That minimally requires at least the following, which the Hungry Cat happily delivers: exquisite food, exorbitant prices, The Beautiful People™, repeated mentions by our perennially unimpressed sisters at Defamer, esoteric mixed drinks, teeny tiny portions, and whiplash-inducing transitions from hip to oh-so-five-minutes-ago. It's currently back on the upswing, so you've got a small window of like 10 seconds to enjoy the raw bar without risking ostracism from your cooler Hollywood friends. No guarantees about the weekend.

The Hungry Cat [Official site]

-- Omri Ceren

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There is very little ill that can be written about Santa Monica's Enterprise Fish Co., but we'll do our best. Reviews and anecdotes consistently note that dining here is like going on a waitstaff safari, where you ohh and ahh at the bewildering variety of confused and apathetic servers living in their natural environment. There are math-impaired table-setters who miscount reservations by 50%, memory-impaired waitresses who need a couple extra tries to correctly distinguish white from red wine, and the always-popular "server who tries to pick fights with customers." But the rewards are plentiful for those who make it through the adventure. There's a huge patio with a dozen or so tables and plenty of room to mingle. Dishes arrive in a dizzying number of combinations, with plentiful portions at cheap-for-good-seafood prices -- $29 lobster Mondays are particularly solid. And let's be honest: if you're really concerned about the waitstaff, try looking at things from their point of view. It's hardly their fault you're not a producer.

Enterprise Fish Co. [Official site]

-- Omri Ceren

[Photo: netta p]

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Of several innaresting bits in Matt Gross's "Frugal Traveler" NYT column on San Juan, one standout is the Aguaviva restaurant in Old San Juan. A favorite of the Conde Nast Traveller set for a few years now, Aguaviva specializes in ultra-fresh seafood, including an oyster bar and a number of ceviches. Or perhaps you dare challenge the torre del mar espectacular -- a tower of 18 oysters, steamed mussels, shrimp, lobster claws, and a pair of ceviches ($98). Numerous elaborate fish dishes and specials are on offer as well.

Aguaviva [via NYT]

-- Chris Mohney

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This here beast is a snakehead, and it was delicious. Served in a spicy hot-and-sour sauce that was kept on top of a small burner surrounded by ice, the snakehead is one of the many good things you can get at Somboon (Surawong branch, 169/7-11 Surawongse Road), a chain of seafood-heavy Bangkok restaurants. Closer in spirit to a cafeteria than a stuffy hotel restaurant, Somboon has speedy, no-nonsense, friendly service -- a necessity for a place that's so popular and crowded. If your Thai's a little rusty or nonexistent, there's also a handy (albeit abbreviated) illustrated menu. All Roundeye needs to do is point to which conch, crab, fish, or other dish looks good, and you'll hit the ground running. All four branches are cash only, and they're open 4 to 11:30 p.m.

Somboon Seafood [Official site]

-- John Rambow

Previously: Bangkok's Best Fish and Chips, German Food in Bangkok, Bangkok's Most Extreme Rooftop Restaurant, Chatuchak Market: Nike Cock Pizza

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