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

Going in search of fresh local seafood along the New Jersey Shore

Image by mcamcamca via Flickr
A fishing boat.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Garden State is also the Fishing State, with several working ports -- from Belford on Raritan Bay all the way down to Barnegat Light on the Atlantic Ocean.

So, on Saturday, we set off in search of fresh local seafood for lunch, but met with only limited success.

Four of us had a big meal at The Fishery in South Amboy -- fried smelts, steamed Littleneck clams in a scrumptious broth, fried whiting, meaty broiled haddock, large crab cakes and even soft-shell crabs.

I'm not sure how much of it was brought in by New Jersey boats (In 2016, The Fishery was closed).

Pirate's Cove

We had hoped to eat at Pirate's Cove, a restaurant operated by the Belford Seafood Co-op on Raritan Bay, but it was closed for the winter, as I learned when I called the attached retail market.

Fishermen who belong to the co-op catch fluke, porgy and many other kinds of fish in the Atlantic Ocean, and sell much of it wholesale to the Fulton Fish Market and elsewhere along the East Coast.

After lunch, we drove down to the Belford Co-op Fish Market, which is in the same long, low shed as the restaurant, but when I walked in, no one was on duty at the counter. 

However, I could hear someone working in another part of the building.

I saw whole clams and oysters in the fish case along with three kinds of fish fillets, all unlabeled. Some of the fillets were in a metal tray with water (maybe melted ice), which I thought odd.

There was a fishy smell to the place, though it wasn't strong.

On a board on a wall, more than a dozen kinds of fish were listed at prices you don't see in North Jersey fish markets. Many were listed at $2 a pound. Fluke, a terrific fish often eaten raw as sashimi, was listed at $2 to $4 a pound.

I left without buying anything.

I found the history of fishing in Belford at the following link: History of Belford

Belford was officially established in 1891 when a rail station was built here, separating from Port Monmouth (Township of Middletown).

 A menhaden processing plant was built in Belford in the late 1800s, which operated until 1982 (Jones 2004); this was once the town’s largest employer (Township of Middletown).

The presence and stench of the menhaden plant helped maintain Belford as a relatively unchanged fishing port while the rest of the shore around it was subject to intense development and tourism.  Belford has notoriously been home to pirates, blockaders, rum runners, and even through the 1980s, fish poachers.

There is a long tradition among some Belford fishermen of not obeying fisheries regulations (Jones 2004).  Some consider Belford to be the longest continuously operating fishing village on the East Coast.

The Fishery

Earlier, at The Fishery, we ordered way too much and ran up the bill to $100 for four, not including the tip.

The restaurant is basically a seafood shack on a forlorn stretch of Route 35 littered with shuttered businesses. 

There's seating for under 20 people, plus a counter, seafood cases, walls covered with white tiles and a more-or-less open kitchen in back.

We parked behind the small building, near a 5-foot-high bush of rosemary. The energetic young woman behind the counter is the lone server. Basic silverware comes wrapped in small, paper napkins.  

For some reason, the friendly Greek owner charges more for broiled or sauteed fish than for fried, so my wife's two large crab cakes were $18.95 with two sides, compared to $15.95 fried. Still, she complained they tasted "greasy" or oily.

My son wanted soft-shell crabs, which I didn't think were in season, and he wanted them fried with french fries ($19.95). 

My mother-in-law's fried whiting platter had three fish for $12.95.

I saw haddock fillet on ice, so ordered simply broiled haddock with fresh, sauteed spinach and a naked baked potato, a balanced and filling meal for $15.95.

We loved one of our appetizers: a half-pound of headless, fried ocean smelts, which are smaller than sardines but larger than anchovies. We ate them whole, sprinkled with lemon juice or dipped in a spicy red sauce or tartar sauce.

A smelt dinner was listed on a blackboard for $12.95, but I'm not sure how much we were charged for a half pound.

Our other appetizer: a dozen Littleneck clams ($9.95), which came with garlic toast. I ate the pleasantly salty broth with fresh tomato as a soup course. 

Three of us also ordered cups of The Fishery's Manhattan Clam Chowder ($2.50) and Maine Lobster, Clam and Corn Chowder ($3.95).

The Fishery, 1812 Route 35 north, South Amboy; 
732-721-9100. BYO. Closed Mondays.

Belford Seafood Co-op, 901 Port Monmouth Road, Middletown; 732-787-6508 (retail market).