Smelly Cod

[taxlady]

Every time I hear about conch I'm reminded of a lady I worked with back in the 1970s. She was from Jamaica and told me that conch was considered poor people's food back in Jamaica. People would sneak out to the beach to get conch at night, when they thought the neighbours wouldn't see them. They wanted to avoid the social stigma.

 

[Linda0818]

Monkfish is commonly available here, typically around $7.00 / lb. While the texture is similar to lobster, the flavor isn't. Lobster is sweeter and more delicate in flavor I've grilled monkfish with a little EVOO and garlic. Not bad, but nowhere near as good as lobster.

Fresh dry scallops are usually in the $15 - $18 / lb. range. A supermarket had a special early this summer when they were about $10 - $12 / lb. (I can't remember the exact price), but that was for one week only. I've seen previously frozen scallops for $13 or so.

Nothing is as good as lobster, in my opinion

 

[GotGarlic]

Grouper, especially black and gag are excellent. I love to blacken it, either for a sandwich or with rice pilaf and green vege for a side. If you have had conch since around 1977, it was not from Florida. A 10 year ban was placed on harvesting Queen conch back then and it was made permanent in 1985.

Maybe it came from somewhere in the Caribbean. It was in the early-mid '90s. It didn't occur to me to ask where it came from.

This reminds me, though - my mom had a rental house on Summerland Key for years. We ate a lot of conch fritters, as well as fish, at Monte's Seafood there. The restaurant was built as an extension of the docks where they landed their catch. They also had a small market. Great memories.

 

[taxlady]

GG, maybe it was conch, but not Queen conch.

 

[Addie]

Addie, I'm going to guess those scallops were older stock that the seafood manager needed to move along. The best price I've seen for dry-pack, fresh scallops at either Market Basket or Price Chopper has been $12.99. This week they're $13.99. Still a better bargain than lobster by a long shot.


Grouper is Himself's favorite fish. We usually go to FL for a week each year. The first thing he tracks down is a grouper something - sandwich, dinner, nuggets. Loves his grouper!

The most I have ever seen for lobster is $7.99. That was the price last week when I went shopping at MB. I bought myself one. Yummy! But then I am just the Blue Line away from Hook Company on Northern Avenue. You can get a two pound chicken for even less than MB. Hook's has a huge salt water display just as you walk in the door. You can grab (or used to be able to) a long set of tongs and pick out the one you wanted. And the commercial fishermen that dock in Boston, sell their lobster to them. They consider lobsters a trash catch. You cannot store them below deck with the fish, they try to eat them. And those trawlers do not carry elastics or plugs for the claws. The cash they get is divided among the crew. It is called shack money. You don't need or even want to know why.

 

[JustJoel]

The most I have ever seen for lobster is $7.99. That was the price last week when I went shopping at MB. I bought myself one. Yummy! But then I am just the Blue Line away from Hook Company on Northern Avenue. You can get a two pound chicken for even less than MB. Hook's has a huge salt water display just as you walk in the door. You can grab (or used to be able to) a long set of tongs and pick out the one you wanted. And the commercial fishermen that dock in Boston, sell their lobster to them. They consider lobsters a trash catch. You cannot store them below deck with the fish, they try to eat them. And those trawlers do not carry elastics or plugs for the claws. The cash they get is divided among the crew. It is called shack money. You don't need or even want to know why.

Jeez, here in Vegas, $7.99 will get you one 4 ounce lobster tail!

 

[tenspeed]

The most I have ever seen for lobster is $7.99. That was the price last week when I went shopping at MB. I bought myself one. Yummy! But then I am just the Blue Line away from Hook Company on Northern Avenue. You can get a two pound chicken for even less than MB.

Chix weigh about a pound, certainly not more than 1-1/4 lb., when they are called quarters. A 2 lb. lobster is called a select. Lobsters normally go up in price (per lb.) as they get bigger. Hard shell lobsters are more expensive than soft shell, as they contain more meat.

Prices usually climb in the winter. I've seen prices over $10 / lb. at times.

I have not seen different sizes of lobster at Market Basket, and I don't think I have ever bought one there over 1-1/4 lb. (the cheapest size). I can buy larger lobsters at the local lobster pound. Halves (1-1/2 lb.) cost a dollar or two more per pound than chix.

https://www.tastelobster.ca/eng_home.php?lang=eng3&page=13

 

[Rascal]

Our blue cod we get here is the best ever fish IMHO. And is priced accordingly, around $45 kg. I deep fry in beer batter. It's a fave of my guests.

Jj, lobster seems cheap to me, here the equivalent is crayfish and a small one to fed one person would be around $30. In a restaurant $50.

Russ

 

[taxlady]

Chix weigh about a pound, certainly not more than 1-1/4 lb., when they are called quarters....https://www.tastelobster.ca/eng_home.php?lang=eng3&page=13

That sounds tiny to me. Around here, chickens are usually 1.5-2.5 kg. I'm pretty sure I have served Cornish hens that were over a pound each.

 

[JustJoel]

That sounds tiny to me. Around here, chickens are usually 1.5-2.5 kg. I'm pretty sure I have served Cornish hens that were over a pound each.

I do believe he was talking about lobsters, not fowl, TL. Female lobsters are called hens, and I would imagine, from the text, that either young lobsters or small female lobsters are called chicks.

Please correct me if I’m wrong

 

[taxlady]

I do believe he was talking about lobsters, not fowl, TL. Female lobsters are called hens, and I would imagine, from the text, that either young lobsters or small female lobsters are called chicks.

Please correct me if I’m wrong

That would explain it. I had never heard of female lobsters being called hens. I kind of expect some kind of bird for the word hen. I wouldn't have been thrown off as much if there hadn't been mention of chicken in the post that was quoted.

 

[RPCookin]

Wow! And again WOW!!! I would have a heart attack looking at those prices. Our scallop fleet is out of New Bedford in SE Mass. Emeril Lagasse home town. One of the delicacies they serve down there is Conch Salad. Stinks to high heaven. Conch is a huge crab type animal in the really large shells you find on the seashore. My second husband used to bring home those shells with the live animal in it. I kept a bucket of bleach outside and he would put the shell in it before I would allow it in the house. The Pirate would take the shell down to the Curio Shop and sell the shell for money for the movies.

As previously mentioned, conch is closely related to snails, and it certainly shouldn't stink. I became VERY familiar with conch salad during the 2 years I lived in the Bahamas. I ate it almost weekly, and I miss it here in the Land of no Conch. Our best friends on the Island own Max's Conch Bar. Gary started with a piece of plywood across 2 barrels on the side of the highway (he had been making salad informally for years for the crew when he worked as a fisherman). His original conch salad bar was such a hit that he made it his full time business.

The current restaurant is still in the same place, just on the opposite side of the Queen's Highway from his original stand. You can get conch salad, conch fritters, crack conch, along with various other fish and seafood preparations. Also chicken, and several pork and wild boar dishes, and curry mutton (goat) is often on the menu. Some of Liz's specialties like pumpkin funny and stuffed breadfruit were also on the menu often.

A link to Trip Advisor's entry on the Conch Bar: Max's Conch Bar (The woman sitting at the bar is also a friend from Little Rock Arkansas. We spent a bit of time with them last month when just happened to be visiting the Island at the same time, and staying at the same villas.)

 

[Cooking Goddess]

The most I have ever seen for lobster is $7.99...

But I was talking about the prices for scallops. Even at $12.99, a pound of scallops at that price are a better value than a $7.99 lobster. A one-pound lobster rarely yields even a half pound, so you're paying at least $15.98 for edible lobster. And with scallops, you don't have to work for the meat!

 

[CraigC]

No. The sign said "Dry Scallops". I know the difference between them. I never buy wet ones. I refuse to pay for water. I never asked my mother what my first solid food was. But I wouldn't be surprised if it was seafood. During WWII, if there were small kids in the family, you would always find them at the beach in the summer, digging clams for meatless days. And after a Nor'easter, it was lobsters also. That's probably why I ended up marrying a professional fisherman. Seafood is as much a part of my makeup as breathing.

As GG mentioned, wet scallops are chemically treated to retain water. The place we get the dry packed from also carry live diver scallops.

Every time I hear about conch I'm reminded of a lady I worked with back in the 1970s. She was from Jamaica and told me that conch was considered poor people's food back in Jamaica. People would sneak out to the beach to get conch at night, when they thought the neighbours wouldn't see them. They wanted to avoid the social stigma.

Back in the late 80's I was sent to Kingston to work on a lobster and conch companies high pressure compressors (5000 psi). One had to be rebuilt. They set me up under a lean-to, next to where they cooked the lobster catch for the Japanese market. I was totally appalled when they started cooking the lobsters as they took everything, including shorts and egg bearing females. At that time they were already working 40 miles off their coast because they had wiped out everything commercially viable in between.

GG, maybe it was conch, but not Queen conch.

It was Queen conch, most likely from the Bahamas. The Bahamians, unlike the Jamaicans, got smart and realized that their fisheries resources were not an unlimited supply. Other conch species, like horse conch, do not exist in quantities to support a commercially viable harvest. There is a tourist trap in Cape Coral, FL called the "Shell Factory". The Queen conch shells they offer come from the Caribbean.

 

[Addie]

But I was talking about the prices for scallops. Even at $12.99, a pound of scallops at that price are a better value than a $7.99 lobster. A one-pound lobster rarely yields even a half pound, so you're paying at least $15.98 for edible lobster. And with scallops, you don't have to work for the meat!

The cheapest I have ever seen scallops for recently was $9.99 and they were in the shell. I prefer my mollusk seafood in the shell. I also buy any clams in the shell.

The cost of lobster is well worth it to me. My ultimate shell fish.

 

[buckytom]

Lobsters generally run about $12 per pound here, more in the winter. They drop to around $6 a pound in early summer when they are soft shelled.

And I'm with you, Addie. Lobster is my ultimate seafood as well. I could eat it every week.

 

[Addie]

Lobsters generally run about $12 per pound here, more in the winter. They drop to around $6 a pound in early summer when they are soft shelled.

And I'm with you, Addie. Lobster is my ultimate seafood as well. I could eat it every week.

I found quite by accident, that during the summer months, if I buy a lobster alive instead of steamed and then let it sit for a day or two in the fridge, the shell tends to be a bit harder than when I bought it. Lobsters just love the cold. The colder the better. When I do that, I also will put it in the freezer about an hour prior to plunging it in boiling water. They have less kick before plunging it, when you do that.

Only every week? Lobster roll every other day, lobster pie for Sunday, and lobster dipped in melted butter for other days. Or even a lobster salad on special occasions.

I have also had the privilege of having scallops right out of the shell, (I hate shucking them along with quahogs) of course clams galore, clam chowder made with fresh clams, quahogs, stuffed and chopped for chowder, etc.

I just love living where I do. Right on the coast of the Atlantic.