Seashore fare

When we go on vacation I generally try to buy local foods and cook daily to save money and to have something decent to eat; sometimes dining out gets old. This weekend we did a very quick getaway so we bought only snacks and breakfast items. My friend had recommended two must eats so that was our plan.

Saturday we went to On the Bay seafood for crabs (it was actually across the street from the bay). We spent $75 for my crab feast (I ate a dozen and a half), scallops, oysters, crabcakes, and sides. Everything was very good. The only problem was the selection of drinks - they had fruity malt cocktails and fountain soda; no sweet tea, no lemonade.  I guess that's what's available in a resort town.

Several hours later we were a little hungry so we decided to grab a pizza but this was no easy feat. There are pizza places all over town but there was no way to figure out which was going to have a decent sauce, crust, and cheese.  I looked through the guide and narrowed it down based on the menu selection (I wanted a pizza place not a place that had pizza on the menu) and how many inches they were passing off as a large pie (a real pizza place sells a 16" as a large). Then I went to Yelp for reviews and settled on Billy's which ended up being a good choice.

Sunday, after a full morning we needed breakfast and decided to go to Layton's because we thought you can't go wrong with a place that serves breakfast all day. When we arrived there was a crowd and we became apprehensive about the service so again I went to Yelp and subsequently ended up going to Brass Balls, a place I would've never visited because I assumed boardwalk food is subpar and the name is a bit seedy.  Everything was surprisingly good and it was nice to have a view of the beach. 

We ended our getaway with a visit to Shrimp on the Boat per my friend's recommendation. This was a disappointment. The carolina shrimp were fresh but over steamed. The gumbo was bland and the scallops were hood. We did buy 2 raw pounds (head on) and I cooked them today.

The one place I wish we had time to visit was The Shark, looking at their website, it seems that they might be the only place that takes food seriously in that town AND they source locally when they can. I found inspiration in their menu and whipped up a few tasty treats today.  I have embraced Old Bay.

I did a chesapeake inspired pasta dish - made a marinara from the local tomatoes I purchased on the way home, sauteed "bay" shrimp, and sauteed zucchini and served it over penne.  I also made a stock from the shells and heads (since I paid for them) - I added a few splashes and this added dimension to the sauce. 

I followed this up with a batch of banana cupcakes - we had some very over ripe bananas and I didn't want to make banana bread or banana muffins, so I made less dense cupcakes - they were very good and I ended up substituting barley for half of the wheat flour because I ran out so I'm going to postulate that they were a tad "healthy" despite the vanilla bean cream cheese icing. 

Later in the evening I realized there was nothing for dinner and our cupboards were looking a bit empty.  I boiled half a box of capellini, sauteed some onions and garlic, added half a bag of seafood mix and half a bag of chopped spinach, let that steam and then added butter, heavy cream, and the remnants of cheese I found in the fridge (romano, parm, provolone, and mozzerella).  The result was a nice pasta dish that my son said reminded him of quiche.