Enjoying my first Cherrystone Clams of the season on Sandy Hook Bay

Fresh and roasted Cherrystone Clams, above and below, were served at a buffet luncheon on Saturday at the New Jersey headquarters of the American Littoral Society.

At the annual Members Day, I filled a large paper plate with arugula and pasta salads, an inch-thick veggie burger and roasted clams, and washed down my lunch with cold beer.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Saturday, I enjoyed the sound of the waves breaking on shore and my first taste of fresh New Jersey clams washed down with cold beer.

This year, the American Littoral Society treated members to a big buffet lunch outside its headquarters in Highlands, N.J.

Besides fresh and roasted Cherrystone Clams, I loved an arugula salad with cherry tomatoes and a pasta salad with peas and sun-dried tomatoes.

Veggie burgers with all the fixings also were available for those who don't eat hamburgers and hot dogs. 

The lunch was the biggest ever served at a Members Day, so we didn't have room for our usual early dinner at The Fishery, a seafood restaurant on Route 35 in South Amboy.

Today, I found out The Fishery has closed. 

I ate my lunch on the porch of  America Littoral Society headquarters in Fort Hancock, overlooking Sandy Hook Bay.

I went back for seconds of the arugula salad, but they weren't available. 

Farfalle pasta with peas and sun-dried tomatoes.

The Sandy Hook Lighthouse.

Hospital Steward's Quarters at the old Fort Hancock, which was built in 1859 to defend New York Harbor.

Many of the old buildings housed officers.

An American Littoral Society pickup with shells that likely will be used in oyster restoration programs.

Day at the shore: Oystercatchers, fresh clams and a big seafood dinner

A highlight of Members Day at American Littoral Society headquarters in historic Fort Hancock are fresh clams -- shucked or grilled -- washed down with beer.

Editor's note: In 2016, The Fishery in South Amboy was out of business.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The only true antidote to staring at a sea of red brake lights year-round on New Jersey's congested streets and highways is a day at the shore.

Even in the hot sun on Saturday, I enjoyed watching American Oystercatchers using their long, red bills to hunt for food buried in the sand. 

A 90-minute nature walk with bird watching is a great way to whet your appetite for a lunch of fresh clams, sandwiches, salads and beer laid out on Members Day by the American Littoral Society, a non-profit group dedicated to coastal conservation.

I skipped the sandwiches, and had a couple of dozen fresh clams, some raw and others grilled and plucked out of their hot shells.
  
I washed them down with beer from a keg, and followed with salads, romaine lettuce and then fruit.

The oldest working lighthouse in the United States (opened in 1764) is on Sandy Hook, where the American Littoral Society, a coastal preservation non-profit, is headquartered.

The Broiled Seafood Combo at The Fishery Seafood Restaurant in South Amboy is served with a vegetable; potato, rice or french fries, and a cup of chowder.

At The Fishery in South Amboy

After our filling lunch on Sandy Hook, we stopped on the way home for an early dinner at The Fishery, a no-frills seafood restaurant and market in South Amboy that might remind you of Seafood Gourmet in Maywood.

After our initial visit in 2009 -- when were returning from a weekend in Barnegat Light, one of New Jersey's oldest fishing ports -- we've eaten at The Fishery at least once a year.

On Saturday, the board listing specials showed three farmed fish -- Scottish Salmon, Tilapia and Catfish -- and no live lobsters were available, so we ordered from the menu.

My wife started with Maryland Crab, Clam & Corn Chowder, topped with fresh crab meat, and I had Maine Lobster, Clam & Corn Chowder ($4.75 each), both cream-based soups.

Mine didn't have any lobster on top, but was good nonetheless.

Then, we shared a Sauteed Soft Shell Crab appetizer ($11.95), a House Salad with Garlic Toast ($4.95) and a Broiled Seafood Combo ($21.95).

The garlic-and-white-wine sauce with the soft shell crab was so good I was tempted to bring the plate to my lips to drink it all.

Our seafood combination plate included fresh flounder, shrimp, scallops, a stuffed clam, crab-stuffed jumbo shrimp, fresh spinach sauteed with garlic and a baked potato we didn't have room for.

My wife got the stuffed shrimp, and I found bacon in the clam stuffing that I don't eat. Nor was it mentioned on the menu.

We enjoyed our dinner, but I'll give the nod to Maywood's Seafood Gourmet, which is only a couple miles from our home.

The highlight of our meal at The Fishery was this appetizer of Sauteed Soft Shell Crab swimming in a garlicky white-wine sauce.

The House Salad is romaine lettuce in a wonderful balsamic vinaigrette made by the Greek owner and chef.

The Fishery has about 20 seats and a small selection of fresh seafood on ice.

Details

The Fishery Seafood Restaurant, 1812 Route 35 north, at Midland Avenue, South Amboy; 1-732-721-9100. 

Open 7 days for lunch and dinner, BYO, small parking lot next to busy highway.

On Facebook: The Fishery Seafood Restaurant

Clams, crabs, yams, salads and organic whole-wheat pasta

Hundreds of Cherrystone Clams were shucked under a tree on Saturday, the first day of summer, during Members' Day at American Littoral Society in Highlands, above and below.

The clams came from Virginia, because they were cheaper than New Jersey clams, one of the shuckers said.

The headquarters of the American Littoral Society, a coastal conservation group, is in a former lieutenant's house at Fort Hancock, part of the Sandy Hook national park, above and below.

The front porch overlooks Sandy Hook Bay.

Navesink Fishery, in a shopping center on Route 36 in Navesink, above and below, is a homier version of Seafood Gourmet, the fish market-restaurant in Maywood.

I had hoped to have another lunch of soft-shell crabs, like the one I enjoyed on Friday in Maywood, but Navesink Fishery doesn't serve lunch on Saturdays. (1-732-291-8017).

Are these yams or sweet potatoes? ShopRite in Paramus complicates the answer by selling them as "yams/sweet potatoes" for $1.29 a pound. I boiled them with peeled garlic, drained and mashed them with extra-virgin olive oil, salt, curry powder, cinnamon, red-pepper flakes, black pepper and other seasoning. Yams are starchier and probably have more calories.

A wedge of frittata (egg whites, cheese, fresh tomato, garlic and pesto) served with mashed yams/sweet potatoes and leftover Chinese takeout string beans.

A dinner salad from the cafe at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center includes tofu and mozzarella cheese.

Another dinner salad includes red- and green-leaf lettuce from our garden, smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon, organic beets, Campari tomatoes and reduced-fat Jarlsberg Lite Swiss Cheese, all dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, above and below. Most of the ingredients are from Costco Wholesale.

Non-organic whole wheat spaghetti, on sale last week at the ShopRite in Paramus, was no bargain, compared to the $1.39 Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market charges for 1 pound of the organic version. But ShopRite did have a sale on 1-pound packages of Luigi Vitelli-brand organic Whole Wheat Capellini from Italy with a cooking time of 3 minutes ($1.25), a whole-wheat shape I haven't seen anywhere else.