Seafood Quotes

“As I got closer to the fence, I held my shirt over my nose to block the smell. One stallion waded through the muck and whinnied angrily at me. He bared his teeth, which were pointed like a bear's.
I tried to talk to him in my mind. I can do that with most horses.
Hi, I told him. I'm going to clean your stables. Won't that be great?
Yes! The horse said. Come inside! Eat you! Tasty half-blood!
But I'm Poseidon's son, I protested. He created horses.
Usually this gets me VIP treatment in the equestrian world, not this time.
Yes! The horse agreed enthusiastically. Poseidon can come in, too! We will eat you both! Seafood!
Seafood! The other horses chimed in as they waded through the field.”
― Rick Riordan, The Battle of the Labyrinth

“I have never seen a food writer mention this, but all shrimp imported into the United States must first be washed in chlorine bleach to kill bugs. What this does for the taste, I do not know, but I think we should be told.”
― Charles Clover, The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat

“Like a clown car, they excitedly filed into a single line and followed the server straight into the bustling lunch crowd at Crawfish & Beignets. It was the siblings' neutral zone, a place where no fighting was allowed.
Except this time felt more like the Last Supper.
Seafood boils were a staple of their childhood, reminding them of all the best parts of being Vietnamese American in the South, and none of the bad. Though unspoken, the migration of the Viet-Cajun boil always lingered over them, reminding them of its roots in Louisiana, from other Vietnamese folks who resettled in Houston after Hurricane Katrina, and the resiliency that came with it.”
― Carolyn Huynh, The Family Recipe

“It was as if every Asian in Houston was here now, with plastic gloves on, breaking apart crab legs, crawfish, mussels, and clams in quick succession. A volcanic eruption of gossip, laughter, parental lectures, and roasts and jabs at their children dominated the restaurant, while garlic noodle slurpers and the squeaky sound of mussels being eaten played in tandem all around them.”
― Carolyn Huynh, The Family Recipe

“The only thing I can do for the sea is walk gently along its shore.
I am too much a hypocrite to cleanse its soul, and too human to do more.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

“The dining room has been transformed into a fairy garden this evening. Flowers are strewn across the long table--- magnolias, anemones, and roses--- paired with hydrangea-and-peony centerpieces. Long taper candles flicker over the display, complemented by the remaining sunlight. A feast sprawls out from one end of the table to the other, a medley of some of my favorites--- crab cioppino with bright tomatoes and red wine, garlic bread flecked with parsley, linguine and clams swimming in broth, seared abalone presented in its opalescent shell, fresh oysters on a bed of ice.”
― Kiana Krystle, Dance of the Starlit Sea

“In the top left you have simmered Nagaoka bamboo shoots and wakame seaweed from Izumo, served in a Karatsu-ware bowl. Next to that, on the long Oribe dish, is grilled masu salmon seasoned with pepper tree leaves. The square Kutani bowl is dashi-simmered egg scrambled with green peas. The next row down is a series of five small Imari plates. Starting on the left: white miso clam gratin; salad of finely chopped cockles and Kujo green onion; tilefish sashimi with a ponzu, miso, and pepper-tree-leaf dressing; slow-cooked Tamba chicken in a salt koji marinade. At the end, on the right, is pickled sweetfish sushi, served whole. The round dish at the bottom is a selection of wild vegetables: butterbur buds, devil's-walking-stick, ostrich fern, momiji-gasa, bracken shoots, and smilax. Normally those would be served as tempura, but I've gone for something a little different and deep-fried them Western-style instead. Sprinkle them with matcha salt if you like, or they go very nicely with this green peppercorn-infused Worcestershire sauce." Nagare produced a bottle of white wine. "Now, will something like this do?"
"Hang on a moment," said Kana, reaching for her digital camera again.
"My friend in Tamba makes this," continued Nagare. "Hundred percent Chardonnay grapes, fermented in small French casks, apparently. Has an elegant flavor--- perfect for spring, I'd say.”
― Jesse Kirkwood, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

“First, the sashimi: soy-marinated tuna with a wasabi dressing, fresh slices of yuba, and thin-sliced sea bream smeared with sesame-seed paste. Dashi-maki omelet; miniature tilefish sushi; boiled hon-shimeji mushrooms and mizuna leaves in a bonito flake and soy sauce dressing; and pickled turnip cut into chrysanthemum flowers. These skewers are quail balls, steamed prawn, and salted smashed cucumber.”
― Jesse Kirkwood, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

“Shokado bento boxes were originally paint boxes, you know--- that's why they're divided up into squares like that. Anyway, in the top left are the appetizers. Wakasa winter mackerel, marinated in vinegar and served sashimi-style; Hinase oysters simmered in a sweet soy and mirin sauce; Kyoto-reared chicken, deep-fried in the Toji temple style using a yuba batter; vinegared Taiza crab; stewed Shishigatani pumpkin; and Omi beef, marinated and deep-fried Tatsuta-age style. All served bite-size. In the top right is what we call 'imobo'--- dried codfish stewed with ebi-imo taro. I've served it with grated yuzu from Mio. Should brighten up the flavor a little. Bottom right is a selection of sashimi: lightly salted Wakasa tilefish served on a bed of kelp, and Toyama winter yellowtail, sliced extra thin and wrapped in thin slices of lightly pickled Shogoin turnip. Try those with a bit of the shredded shio-kombu--- kelp simmered in soy sauce. And bottom left is the rice, cooked in soft-shelled turtle broth. It's a very delicate flavor, so you can eat it just like you would plain white rice. In that little sake cup is some squeezed ginger juice--- try drizzling that on the rice, if you like. It'll really bring out the flavor. The soup is white miso with chunks of millet cake. Take your time, and enjoy!”
― Jesse Kirkwood, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

“Everything on this platter is hamo eel or ayu sweetfish: two essential parts of Kyoto summer cuisine," explained Nagare. "Starting from the top left: miniature hamo sushi rolls. One teriyaki-style, and one shirayaki--- without any seasoning, that is. Next to that, in the small bowl, is shredded hamo eel skin, pickled and served with okra. On top of the bamboo grass leaf are two little ayu, caught in the Katsura River--- salted and grilled. In the glass sake cup is a delicacy known as uruka--- basically the salted entrails and roe of the ayu. Similar to shiokara, if you've had that. The deep-fried dish in the middle on the right is ayu fry. They're sprinkled with sansho pepper salt, so you can enjoy them as they are. Bottom right, on the perilla leaf, is hamo no otoshi: boiled slices of the eel, served with pickled plum paste and myoga ginger. Bottom left, meanwhile, is hamo no hasamiyaki, which is seasoned with white miso and fried between slices of Yamashina eggplant.”
― Jesse Kirkwood, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

“Here's the soup. Nothing new, but if you're going to have broth in summer, it has to be botan-hamo: lightly boiled hamo eel, named for the way it's cut into the shape of a peony to remove the bones. As for this ayu rice, the only ingredient is in the name. The fish are deboned, so all you need to do is sprinkle some of these chopped mitsuba leaves on top. The pickles on the side are eggplant and myoga ginger. Now, you tuck in, and I'll bring you a cup of hojicha.”
― Jesse Kirkwood, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

“Starting in the top left: fugu from Mikawa Bay, fried karaage style, and boiled Kano crab. To the right of that are grilled skewers of duck meatball and Kujo green onion, and tilefish tempura. Shogoin daikon and millet cake, baked in a miso glaze; Horikawa burdock and hamo fish cakes in broth. Below that are sake-steamed hamaguri clams, stewed Kintoki carrots and Kujo green onion, and the grilled fish is miso-marinated pomfret.”
― Jesse Kirkwood, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

“You quickly simmer the hamaguri clams in sake, mirin, and soy sauce, then serve them on the rice. At Fusa Sushi, the resulting leftover liquid was boiled down and used as a glaze for the conger eel and hamaguri clam sushi. But because Kazusa-meshi was so popular, there was still plenty of the stuff left over. Rather than waste it, the owner started taking it over to his brother next door--- who put it in his ten-don sauce. The owner of Fusa Sushi kindly told me the recipe."
"So that sauce I just ate was flavored with... hamaguri clams?" asked Keiko, gazing steadily at the photo.
"That's right. Now, the soup at Tenfusa was hamaguri broth. I made the fish ball the way he told me too, using a mix of hamaguri and white-fleshed fish. That's right--- the first time you visited, I happened to be serving a sake-simmered hamaguri stock for the soup. Of course, in that soup, the fish balls were made from sardines--- which your hometown of Ishinomaki is famous for. That, combined with the clam-flavored broth, explains why you found the flavor so nostalgic. You've quite the discerning palate, clearly!”
― Jesse Kirkwood, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

“He battered and fried catfish nuggets and made red rice with sausage. Finally, he started a she-crab chowder, and I knew he was showing off. Crab chowder was my favorite thing. I watched as he added the butter and flour for the roux and then expertly added the cream and milk and broth and other ingredients. The kitchen had been smelling good for hours, but once he added the crab roe and crab meat, it produced a heavenly fragrance.”
― Rhonda McKnight, Bitter and Sweet

“Purées of plum or dusky berries float on glass pots of yoghurt; scallops and oysters quiver on the half-shell and platters of sashimi sit on jagged crystals of crushed ice. Slices of boiled bacon with a mustard glaze are arranged in a soldierly line; poached white fish is wantonly sprinkled with spring onions; a mixture of aubergines and minced pork and another of hot and leafy mustard greens bask in chafing dishes next to stainless-steel cauldrons of miso soup. There are wicker baskets of dumplings steaming and a whole table of ingredients--- rice, eggs, greens and soy sauce--- with which to build your own bibimbap.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“After the interview and photo shoot, Cantu invited us to dinner at Moto, where we ate a poached scallop and "pearls" of squid ink sealed inside a polymerized shell made from a buttery saffron and seafood broth; beet-flavored cotton candy, sweet and earthy and fantastic; a menu printed on fully edible paper, with ink that tasted like a tangy aged Manchego cheese; and freeze-dried ice cream pellets with twenty-five-year-old balsamic vinegar, with the richness and complexity of a Sauternes.”
― Laurie Woolever, Care and Feeding: A Memoir

“We were still hungry, and decided to stop at a nondescript seaside restaurant, where we ate grilled sardines and planks of meaty, snow-white monkfish drizzled in olive oil and salt, with a few boiled potatoes and a carafe of rosé. The fish had been out of the sea for less than two hours, the waiter told us, and why would he lie? The sea was right there next to us. I'm not going to say that the fish and the potatoes and the wine were so much better than what we'd eaten at El Bulli, but it was all quite good, and a relief to sit in a chair, use a fork, see the charred skin, and pick out the bones.”
― Laurie Woolever, Care and Feeding: A Memoir

“And the only way you could taste the faraway ocean was through the jewels Mutyan fishermen harvested from its depths. Every shell cracked and fish gutted yielded the briny perfume of endless water.
I raised my eyes to catch the signal my boss made. He tugged on his left earlobe to confirm the plan to acquire the carp. A female carp yielded a small number of eggs, and this particular rare species created a buttery, nutty roe that was prized by the nobility.”
― Roselle Lim, Celestial Banquet

“A roar of relief and belts of glee united the siblings. They rushed past the other Trầns, gloating. Like a clown car, they excitedly filed into a single line and followed the server straight into the bustling lunch crowd at Crawfish & Beignets. It was the siblings' neutral zone, a place where no fighting was allowed.
Except this time felt more like the Last Supper.
Seafood boils were a staple of their childhood, reminding them of all the best parts of being Vietnamese American in the South, and none of the bad. Though unspoken, the migration of the Viet-Cajun boil always lingered over them, reminding them of its roots in Louisiana, from other Vietnamese folks who resettled in Houston after Hurricane Katrina, and the resiliency that came with it.”
― Carolyn Huynh, The Family Recipe

“She'd grown up on a sun-drenched island called Eano, where you were in far more danger of sunburn than frostbite. She used to walk barefoot through the sand and feel it tickle her toes on her way to her cousins' house, and she'd swim every sunset in the sun-warmed water before her parents called her in for dinner. At the height of summer, you could cook mussels and clams by leaving them out on the rocks, and you had to drink fruit juice to stay hydrated or you'd risk the wrath of the cluster of grandfathers who'd hand out pitchers of guava and watery sweet-berry juice at every street corner. Remembering, Terlu could almost taste the hint of sweet-berry. It was the flavor of the summer solstice, when the whole island would be decked out in flowers and smell like chocolate and cinnamon and citrus as every baker and aspiring baker would compete to create the most delectable pastries for the Summer Feast...”
― Sarah Beth Durst, The Enchanted Greenhouse

“A sea urchin in its spiky shell. Saffron-orange flesh cupped in a shell of black spines, served on a bed of green conifer leaves.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“Snow-white crab meat in an individual bamboo steamer. I lift the lid and inhale the sea.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“On our own hibachi, my friend Takahiro and I grill whole tiny fish at the counter and dip them into saucers of soy whilst the chef slices scallops for us to eat raw.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts

“A new sake was served, this one white and creamy--- an unfiltered nigori sake that tasted of jasmine, orange blossom, and vanilla.
King salmon with smoked soy sauce was followed by a bite of sea bass topped with a dollop of lime foam and sea salt. Fatty tuna was followed by an even fattier tuna, each delightfully buoyant and yet like velvet on her tongue. And then a mysterious dark yellow paste arrived, wrapped in a column of seaweed.
"Uni!" gasped Ruby.
"What in the world is uni?"
"Sea urchin--- it's a delicacy." Ruby swiftly ate the bite and moaned shamelessly, her eyes closed.
Cassie hesitantly popped the food into her mouth--- it was strangely creamy and coated her tongue with the tropical flavor of mango, in stark contrast to the crunchy, salty seaweed. It was, without a doubt, simply delightful.”
― Emily Arden Wells, Eat Post Like

“I'll get the oysters. You get the sturgeon to start, and then one of us should order the ricotta gnudi and the other, the roast chicken. And we must order the chocolate tart with cardamom."
"Fire away," confirmed Ruby, smiling with pride.
Each dish was more beautiful than the last. The oysters arrived on the half shell and served with vibrant, almost sour kumquat mignonette, the combination of which was bright and briny and almost candy-like. Click. The sturgeon was smoked and came on a bed of gem lettuce covered in a thin layer of creamy sliced avocado, which balanced the flavors of the smoky fish. Click. The ricotta gnudi were pillows of ricotta covered in flour, boiled and served over baked summer squash and drizzled with a miso sauce. Click. The roasted half chicken came spatchcocked alongside blackened peppers and hen of the woods mushrooms that were lightly baked until soft. Click. They finished the meal with the chocolate tart, creamy and decadent, with the unexpected spice of green cardamom. Click.”
― Emily Arden Wells, Eat Post Like

“The next dish arrived: seaweed, scampi, and squid, sautéed in garlic and butter, served with a simple broth, followed by a modest bowl of tortellini topped with minced herbs. Before taking a bite, Cassie photographed the plate and examined it closely.
"I've read about this dish," she said, suddenly remembering an entry in James's journal. "It's like Italian xiaolongbao. This is the chef's signature dish."
"Well, let's give it a go."
Cassie scooped up one of the glistening pieces of pasta in a gilded spoon, so that she could examine it at eye level. The pasta was so thin that it was almost sheer, barely containing the liquid inside. She put it into her mouth and pushed her tongue to the roof of her palate, releasing the warm and unctuous carbonara sauce in a quick explosion of cream and salty pork.”
― Emily Arden Wells, Eat Post Like

“Waiters carried trays of Campari spritz cocktails that looked like glowing red orbs, served with slices of fresh orange, and guests nibbled on canapés as they visited the different tables covered in decadent displays: seafood towers filled with shrimp, snow crab, oysters, clams, and freshly boiled langoustine tails, six large copper pots filled with different kinds of risotto simmering at a low temperature, intricate, multicolored stained-glass raviolis stuffed with smoked salmon and cream cheese, and a bread display that looked like an abstract sculpture.”
― Emily Arden Wells, Eat Post Like

“A steaming bowl of conpoy and mustard-green congee revived my senses. Pungent cilantro leaves and golden-fried minced garlic accented the surface of the rice porridge. I dipped my wide ceramic spoon into it and tested the consistency. The rice grains had popped enough to form a silky, creamy texture. The hint of white pepper created a perfectly balanced song on my tongue.”
― Roselle Lim, Celestial Banquet

“The plate features seared sea serpent with poached meadow flower breams."
The acidic bath method had worked. The flesh of the sea serpent had transformed yet again and changed to a very iron-rich deep red. The taste was reminiscent of fatty tuna, with a stronger metallic edge. I'd set the filets in shallow clay bowls and bathed them in a marinade made of coriander, minced ginger, chilies, kalamansi, and my signature soy sauce.
I'd toasted black sesame seeds and combined them with crushed pink peppercorns as a rub--- the crust to create a contrast for the tender, almost jellied meat underneath. On the side, I added the poached filets of meadow flower breams in a rich golden sauce with singing carp caviar.”
― Roselle Lim, Celestial Banquet

“They ordered a parade of tapas and shared everything: petal-pink yellowfin tuna with bright orange habanada peppers drizzled in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt crystals the size of snowflakes; melt-in-your-mouth clams drenched in butter, white wine, and a confetti of parsley, and when the clams had been eaten, Gabe read her mind and ordered extra bread to sop up the sauce; a small bouquet of crispy shrimp heads--- at first glance Iris recoiled at their black eyes unseeing beneath a heavy dusting of red spice, but Gale dug right in, crunching as carelessly as a lion. Iris stalled and hesitated over trying one, laughing as Gabe cheered her on, yelping when the whiskery antennae tickled her nose, until she finally gave one a hasty chomp. Gabe was right, it was delicious--- a riot of different textures and tastes such that she savored her next bites--- even if she did leave the eyes uneaten. And finally the piri piri half chicken, the aroma alone evoked a future longing before the first bite was taken.”
― Francesca Serritella, Full Bloom