Cockles and Mussels Alive Alive Oh

OK, London isn't Dublin but Britain still has a lot of fish and shellfish, being surrounded as it is by water.

Starry Gazie Pie

Most restaurants in London have a fish dish on offer and if you don't know what it is, the Marine Conservation Society has put together a Good Fish Guide.  The Cornwall Good Seafood Guide is especially useful because it illustrates what is in season and it has traditional recipes like Starry Gazie Pie, which is probably an acquired taste and perhaps should be called "Scary Gazie Pie".  It's rather shocking to see those sardines standing straight up and looking you in the eye.  It's also called Stargazy Pie and is a Cornish specialty.  Fortunately we won't be visiting Cornwall.


Cockles and Mussels
Here's a dish I might be more willing to try:  cockle and mussel popcorn.  I ran across mention of it at Fish! in Borough Market where it is "table bait".   The recipes I've run across for it dredge the shelled cockles (which are a type of clam) and mussels in cornflour (I assume that is cornmeal) and deep fry them.  What's not to like?

Whelks, Winkles and Oysters
The Wright Brothers in South Kensington specializes in raw oysters but they also offer a shellfish platter which appears to contain all the shellfish in Britain.  On the left side of the platter are the small clams called cockles.  Below them are the spiral-shaped whelks and then on the right side of the platter are the small black snail-like winkles, also called periwinkles.  The Wright Brothers also offer a fixed price lunch menu of 2 or 3 courses for £17.50 or £19.75, available Monday-Friday from 12-5pm.  It's up near the Victoria and Albert Museum on Old Brompton Road.

Fish and Chips
Fish and chips are a standard menu item in all pubs and many restaurants but I think we should go to an establishment dedicated to the dish.  Maybe someplace like Fish Central, which is an 18 minute walk north of the Museum of London and recommended in the Pocket Rough Guide to London.  There you can get the fish of your choice: cod, haddock, plaice, skate or rock salmon (a type of shark); and you can have it deep fried, grilled or cooked in matzoh meal.  OR you can get Dover sole or Scotch salmon grilled.  OR you can get steak, lamb chops, liver and onion or Cumbrian sausage.  AND you can get chips with that and maybe a tomato and rocket salad.  AND you can get dessert with that although they aren't listed but I bet they have sticky toffee pudding.

Or there's the Golden Union in Soho,  one of TimeOut London's 14 favorite chippies, and this place also serves PIES with chips and gravy!  They offer cod, haddock, plaice, rock salmon but also coley (is that pollack?).  To understand how big a role fish and chips has played in the English diet, you can view this video on The History of Fish & Chips from SeaFishTheAuthority.

Black Roe Whole Lobster Mac n Cheese

Mac and Cheese
In the U.S. you can't escape macaroni and cheese these days, especially on the kids menu.  In London, you'll find it on the menu of American-style steakhouses.  Other London restaurants  doll it up a bit with fish and shellfish.  The Oystermen serves smoked mackerel macaroni cheese as a side (6.50£) ; Claw serves Crab Mac N Cheese (8£); 34 Mayfair serves lobster macaroni with black truffle (34£), and Black Roe Poke Bar & Grill serves Whole Lobster “Mac ‘N’ Cheese” (£38.00).

Eels
And we're back to slithery eels.  Saveur has an article from 2017 "Inside London's Disappearing Eel Shops" which is interesting if you can ignore all the ads on the pages and again informs us that Pie, Mash and Eel Shops are a dying fast food institution, being replaced by hamburger joints.  Only old people eat jellied eels now, although I imagine there would be a new market for them if they were grilled and called unagi.

Seafood on the Camino

The north of Spain has a lot of seafood, even in the towns in the mountainous interior -- except maybe in Leon where meat is king -- and they have a lot of local names for them, so I decided to create a glossary, with photos so I'll remember.  There's a post on The 12 Essential Galician Seafood Catches by a Texan living in Santiago which should help.

Vieiras or Zamburiñas
These are scallops which are the symbol of the Camino de Santiago so we should try to find them someplace, although I know we can get them at home without any problem aside from money.  Our good friend José Andrés has a PBS Made in Spain episode on Galicia in which he begins with a recipe for zamburiñas a la gallega which are served on the shell.  Our Texan in Santiago says vieiras are larger than zamburiñas.

Pulpo con cachelos (Pulpo á Feira / Pulpo a la Gallega)
This is boiled octopus with boiled potatoes and it's hard to get a simpler dish than that.  Our Texan in Santiago recommends the Bodegón Os Concheiros as his favorite pulperia.

Too bad they don't serve it with red peppers and a salad to give it some color.  They need more chefs like my high school art teacher, Mr. Brothers, who once asked me:  "Doesn't your mother choose her dinner menu by what looks good on the plate?"  As if that was the obvious way to come up with a well-rounded meal.

Percebes
These are goose-neck barnacles that Rick Steves had to pay $16/pound for in the Santiago market.  He could have gone out to the Asturian seashore and picked his own like José Andrés did in this Made in Spain episodes on PBS which I urge you to watch because there is no chef more entertaining that José.  Or you can follow this gastronomic driving tour of the Costa da Morte, which sounds lovely.  The restaurant that they recommend eating at in Santiago de Compostela is La Bodeguilla de San Roque which seems to serve more meat than fish.  Autalia also offers a Ruta gastronomica en coche por el norte de Galicia de Coruña a Ribadeo (the northern coast) and another western coast route: Ruta gastronómica en coche por As Rias Baixas de Muros a Baiona (south of the Costa da Morte), in case we ever find ourselves in Santiago with a car.

Nécoras
These are velvet crabs which are the favorite of our Texan in Santiago.  He says if you can try just one of the 12 seafoods, try these.  He also mentions the larger spider crab, centollo, but they are more expensive.

Gamba / Camarón
These are shrimp and the Texan says they tend to be tiny and a lot of work to shell.

Cigala
These are scampi or langostinas or jumbo shrimp with garden shears for hands.

Razor Clams

Almejas / Ameixas (in Gallego)
These are clams with concentric ridges.

Berberechos
These are cockles, like clams with radial ridges.

Navajas / Navallas
And these are razor clams.

Mejillones / Mexillóns
These are mussels and are very affordable, according to the Texan.

Now you'll notice this seafood is almost all shellfish without a real fish in sight.  I guess we'll have to wait till another post for those.  In the meantime, I'm going to read the Texan's post on "What to Eat in Galicia: 10 Dishes to Try" in which he says:

"I’m gonna go out on a limb here and argue that the region of Galicia in the northwest part of Spain churns out the best food in the entire country. Give me some Galician food any day over expensive Basque pintxos, snobby Catalan cuisine, or the famine food of the central meseta."

Stay tuned!!