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

Eating around New Jersey

Image via Wikipedia

 
Food fuels vacation road trips, and we found good things to eat wherever we went in North and South Jersey.

The one special restaurant we wanted to visit -- Eno Terra in Kingston -- was closed for lunch on the Sunday we drove from Newton in Sussex County to Cape May. On Friday, when we drove 165 miles to reach home, we bought Italian-style hoagies for the trip to avoid having to eat fast food (they're called hero sandwiches in North Jersey and grinders in Connecticut).


The highlight of dining out near The Wooden Duck, our B&B off a country lane in Newton, was Salt, a gastro pub. I loved my appetizer portion of seafood risotto with mako shark, farmed salmon and mussels, plus sides of roasted asparagus and sauteed greens. (109 Route 206, Byram; 973-347-7258.)

The next evening, at Dominick's Pizza, I enjoyed a large portion of pleasantly bitter broccoli rabe and linguine with garlic and oil, but found the fried calamari monotonous. (210 E. Clinton St., Newton;  973-383-9330.)

Sumptuous breakfasts at The Wooden Duck included juice, fruit, eggs, French toast, and homemade peach cobbler and crumb cake.

On the drive to Cape May on July Fourth, we got lost and ended up on the Atlantic City Expressway, where service areas offer only fast food. A Starbucks did have a lone sandwich. but I didn't want to eat ham, so settled for a frozen, non-fat vanilla yogurt and black coffee, while my wife and son had a Burger King fish sandwich, milk shake and french fries. My wife hated the sandwich.


Dining improved a great deal in Cape May (Exit Zero on the Garden State Parkway), especially after we found a comfortable seaside hotel, The Marquis De Lafayette on Beach Avenue (I attended Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, and originally this was the Hotel Lafayette). 

Our first two nights were spent at The Chalfonte, a restored Victorian hotel with small, uncomfortable and very expensive rooms that are undergoing renovation. I referred to our room as "The Icebox," because the air-conditioning blasted, and could not be regulated. Even with doors open to the hallway and our balcony, we were freezing. The bathroom was so small, I could not open the heavy glass shower door without leaving the bathroom, and the window had no curtain or shade.


We ate the buffet breakfast at both The Chalfonte and the Lafayette. The former cost $10 a person, plus a gratuity tacked onto your bill without your knowledge; the latter was included in the rate, but we were asked to leave a gratuity. I basically ate lots of fruit, egg whites and hash browns, plus coffee and juice, at both hotels, but the Lafayette had an omelet maker who made me one with everything green: fresh spinach, broccoli, scallions and green pepper.


Our first dinner was at Freda's Cafe, where I fell on a big bowl of linguine with fresh sea scallops and shrimp in pesto sauce. (210 Ocean St., Cape May.) At Lucky Bones, I ordered a big arugula salad with roasted vegetables, focaccia and a glass of pinot noir. (1200 Route 109, Cape May.)


For lunch one day at Key West Tacos, my son and I had fish tacos (tasty grouper) and my wife ordered crab tacos, which disappointed her, because she couldn't taste any crab. A platter with two tacos, rice and corn chips cost $12, but the woman behind the counter refused to give me salad instead of corn chips. The tacos were made with two flour tortillas, but the fish was buried under a mound of chopped cabbage, rather than traditional onion and cilantro. (479 West Perry St., West Cape May; closed Wednesday.)


We ate a series of good but pricey seafood meals at The Lobster House, an incredibly popular restaurant, raw bar and fish market on Fisherman's Wharf, where a commercial fishing fleet ties up (I guess San Francisco can't claim to have the only Fisherman's Wharf). I saw boats named Mariner and Mekong H. You can't miss the restaurant's sign at the entrance to Cape May.

After a 40-minute wait, I had blackened red fish for dinner one night, while my son ordered a small lobster and my wife chose soft-shell crabs. At other meals, I had raw or steamed Jersey clams, meaty Chesapeake Bay oysters on the half shell and cream-based seafood soups ; my wife and son shared six large steamed crabs from Texas.

The best pizza of the trip was at Tony's, a restaurant that looks like a dump. I asked for fresh spinach and broccoli on a regular pie, baked well-done. The five jumbo shrimp that came with the linguine crunched nicely, but the pasta was in a bland, watery sauce, as if the cook forgot to drain it completely. (1208 Route 109, Cape May.)


We overdid it this past Friday morning, when we left for home, ordering nearly $39 worth of sandwiches and sides at Primo Hoagies (605 Lafayette St., Cape May; 609-884-1177).  I ate the last portion today.


Nonna's Veggie sounded better than it tasted: eggplant, broccoli rabe, sharp provolone and roasted red peppers on a long, sesame-seeded Italian loaf. The middle of three sizes is called primo ($7.99), but it was more than a foot long and I couldn't finish it. 

But the Pescara was terrific, especially heated up at home. Italian tuna straight from three cans was the main component, plus sharp provolone and roasted red peppers ($19.09, twice the size of the primo). Of the three side dshes we tried, the winner was a cheese tortellini salad with hot peppers and crunchy diced carrots.

We ate the sandwiches at a parkway service area, surrounded by other families attacking big plates of fast-food hamburgers, fried chicken and french fries.

(Photo: Cape May gingerbread.)

Blessing of the fishing fleet at Barnegat Light

The Fishery (2015).

On Sunday, we attended the blessing of the commercial and recreational fishing fleets at Barnegat Light, famed for its lighthouse and its fresh seafood, including bluefin tuna exported to Japan and monkfish sold in South Korea. 

You can also find fish and scallops from this old port on the ice at Whole Foods Market in Paramus.

The image of the shore town's lighthouse is found everywhere, from the paving stones in a resi

dent's driveway to the striking blue stained-glass windows of St. Peter's at the Light Episcopal Church, which had an Evensong service by the Valley Forge Choir of Men and Boys. 

Unfortunately, a thunderstorm blew in during the blessing of the fleet at the yacht basin, sending everyone scattering to their cars and cancelling the procession of boats through the inlet.

We did takeout from Viking Fresh Off the Hook, including the delicious sea scallops the port is known for, and ate our food at Minerva's, the B&B where we spent the night. 

On the way home Monday, we stopped at The Fishery on Route 35 in South Amboy for a lunch of lobster bisque, clam chowder, steamed Jersey clams and colossal wild shrimp (six to a pound).

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

Weekend at the sea

Image by WildVanilla (Rob) via Flickr
The lighthouse at Barnegat Light.

Our weekend at the sea was also a seafood weekend.


We drove down to Barnegat Light, a New Jersey fishing port at the northern end of Long Beach Island, and stayed at a B&B called Minerva's By The Sea. At the end of the street was Kubel's, which opened in 1927, and we had dinner there Friday and lunch Saturday. Unfortunately, Off the Hook, a takeout place for great prepared seafood, and many other places we have enjoyed in years past, had not opened for the season.


But fresh fish and shellfish is one of the reasons we return to the Jersey Shore year after year, and we weren't disappointed. Friday night, we had a great piece of halibut with small shrimp in a light tomato sauce, served on a bed of sauteed spinach; steamed clams and Alaskan king crab legs. We had flounder and crab cake sandwiches for lunch the next day, along with steamed clams and clams on the half shell.


In search of lobster Saturday night, we had dinner at the Engleside Inn in Beach Haven, one of the most popular towns on Long Beach Island. But the restaurant had no whole lobsters, only South African lobster tails. We ordered those, panko-covered scallops from Barnegat Light and a yellowtail tuna sushi roll. Only the too-thick lobster bisque was disappointing.


Our best seafood meal awaited us on the road back to North Jersey. A small building with some peeling paint on the exterior and the word "Fishery" on Route 35 in Sayreville (732-721-9100) had closed in the year or so since we had been there and had been reopened by a man from Greece about a month ago. He kept the menu, prices and recipes, adding distinctly Greek touches.


We started with small bowls of a light lobster bisque that tasted of sherry and Maine lobster, clam and corn chowder. Great. The steamed clams were outstanding, surpassing the ones we had at the shore. They came with a small cup of butter plus another cup with clam broth, garlic, herbs and white wine. Wow!


We also ordered the grilled whole bronzini from Greece on the specials list ($21.95). The fish, which we had seen nestled in ice in The Fishery's seafood display, came topped with a white wine sauce that contained whole garlic cloves, and was accompanied with rice and sauteed fresh spinach. It looked to be about 14 inches long. My son took the tail portion, my wife took the head and all of us shared the delicious white flesh in the middle. We only had room for a little of our second entree, perfectly fried whiting, which we took home.


There had been signs of an auspicious weekend. At the Whole Foods Market opening Thursday (see earlier post), I saw a whole monkfish with a sign that it had come from Barnegat Light, where Scandinavian fishermen settled in the 1920s. Then we learned that Minerva's, the B&B where we stayed, is in a building that once housed a fish wholesaler. The top-floor kitchen, where we had breakfast Saturday and Sunday, was where the wholesaler prepared fish for customers from Europe, Japan, China and elsewhere, said our host, Emma.