Carolina Seafood Lunch

Note: We've been away from Belfast, traveling through North Carolina and visiting the Outer Banks.

Just as the New England shrimp season comes to a close I found myself at a fish market in Cape Hatteras, NC today surrounded by products strange and wonderful to me. There was no Maine shrimp, but there were Maine lobsters. A lethargic looking bunch of homarus americanus skulked in a counter top tank, waving an occasional, defiant claw at me. They were "on special" for $9.99, about twice what I'd expect to pay in Hannafords in Belfast. and a little more than what the The fish fish truck folks were getting a little less than Hannaford when I left for the sunny south last week. In addition to a case full of sea products and a couple of freezers, there was a small kitchen so that travelers like ourselves, with no way to prepare a seafood, could order up something. As well as the local shrimp, fin fish, oysters and clams the store stocked, there was an array of imported frozen shrimp and lot of other products from away.

I ordered up a red snapper sandwich ($9.99) served with coleslaw, chips and three sauces on the side ( tarter, cocktail, and horseradish mustard). I wish I could have tried the other options for the fish of the day sandwich because the snapper was really good and the fish of the day was really a choice of three; local flounder, grouper and the red snapper.

The Red Snapper, Fish of the Day







Window shopping through the fish case I saw that you could get Argentine scallops for $9.99 a pound or local scallops for $13.99 (on the sign) and $16.99 (in the case). I ended up once again marveling at how the local product is so much more expensive than the imported product. I went into this market expecting to sample some local seafood and I was successful with that, but I can see that here in North Carolina as in Maine a lot of seafood comes from far away.

The most interesting product I found in the store? That would have to be the smoked pork and crawfish sausage. I didn't know that such a thing existed, but it looked pretty good. I regretfully passed it up as I had no way to cook it, or keep it cool for a few days until I get home.