Old, Older, Oldest Bay
The classic crab seasoning is in everyone’s spice cabinet, but how long has it been there?
Some people have asked me about our last week at the shore. Did the seafood feast continue? Oh yes! It ramped up.
Without the kids, whom we missed immediately after drop-off, we were free to do things on our own schedule—or lack thereof. It was a hot week, so our beach time was early, and we got off the beach by 9. We even turned on the air conditioner at Loretta’s Cozy Beach House for the first time in over 20 years.
Rather than stay in the house with endless Phillies highlights, I went to the library, where the internet signal was very strong, and wrote my last post there in cool comfort. While there, I learned about a cooking class on Wednesday afternoon and signed up for it on the spot. That was another way to stay cool in the afternoon.
On Tuesday, we visited a friend in Wildwood, and afterwards, I showed John the marina I had discovered near Wildwood Crest during my sister Mary's and my seafood hunt for local black sea bass. It was the Port Marina, and the sign at the edge of the parking lot drew us in. We spent an hour enjoying $1 oysters and a $10 glass of Prosecco in the afternoon, sitting outdoors but in a breezy spot. When I texted my Wyoming friend, Paula, a photo of where we were, she said her second cousin, JP, works there. Small world!
We drove down to Cape May, and John took a swim there while I explored the closed environmental center, which was formerly the summer home of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Since we were near the Lobster House in Cape May, we stopped at their seafood market and got some Oysters Rockefeller to take home and cook. At $1.50 each, these may be the best bargain in South Jersey. We also picked up some crab cakes that were good but not great. But dinner was easy and quick, accompanied by some delicious corn on the cob that I inherited from my sister when they left.
The cooking class at the library on Wednesday was well-attended, and the chef was a showwoman. Chef Lisa created a salad featuring raw corn, quick-pickled red cabbage, and garbanzo beans, reserving the aquafaba (the liquid from the garbanzo beans) for the dressing. Her dressing consisted of two cans of creamed corn, processed until smooth with aquafaba, and then tossed into a large bowl with chopped green cabbage, fresh corn, and shredded carrots. The dressing can also be made with fresh corn, said the Chef, simply grating it off the cob, reserving as much of the sweet corn juice as possible, and blending it with the aquafaba. Thanks to a sharpshooter with her cell phone in the front row, Mitra Alfieri, I have great photos, as I had forgotten my phone that day.
After the class, we took a drive to Ocean City to see what we could see. It was a very different beach scene from Stone Harbor. Crowded! But we sat in a shady pavilion on the boardwalk and enjoyed the people watching.
Our next stop was Smitty’s Clam Bar in Somers Point, where we sat outside at the counter and decimated a dozen steamed clams and a half dozen crab balls in record time. And then headed back to Stone Harbor, picking up mussels on the way, that we kept on ice while we went to another $1 an oyster Happy Hour at Quahogs. We had Machomenos, which were very tasty drinks but too sweet to accompany the briny oysters properly. We had to slurp down the bivalves and have the drink as a Happy Hour dessert.
The next day, we met up with a grade school friend, Tommy Murphy, and his wife Emelie, at the Deauville Inn in Strathmere. The food there was delicious, and there was a great view of the Ocean City bridge, which pours traffic into tiny Strathmere.
We had no dinner plan for our last night. Instead, we were enjoying a Teeny Martini on the deck when our next-door neighbor, Phil the Fisherman, flagged us over. His fishing buddy had just dropped off a mighty slab of fresh Big Eye tuna that he caught off the Cape May coast in the Wilmington Canyon, and he shared some steaks with us.
That was our last dinner. But our last lunch the next day was a Lee’s hoagie, the food of our youth. Lee’s started in 1953 at 19th and Cheltenham, our neighborhood, and was locally famous for great hoagies. We split an Italian and it was a perfect ending.
But it wasn’t really The End! Because we stopped at Bayside Seafood Market on the way out of Stone Harbor and stocked up on 100 clams and two dozen oysters to go. And then stopped at Bailey’s in Dennisville for fresh tuna to give to lovely Paula, who minded our outdoor herb plants while we were away. John could not resist getting eight live hard-shell crabs and two soft-shell crabs there.
It was a lot! And we didn’t get back until late on Friday night, had a Memorial Service on Saturday, and were feeling braindead on Sunday. John prepared a midday seafood lunch for his buddy on Saturday, and had some of the clams, oysters, and the softshells, but we needed a crowd to help us consume it all.
So we called on our Covid pod of 9 party-ready folks who like seafood to help us out. And they agreed to come, and bring side dishes to share. The big seafood throwdown was about to explode when I reached into our cupboard and pulled out the tin of Old Bay and smelled it. It had a faint aroma of celery seed dust. John sent out a text to the list asking for someone to bring some newer Old Bay. What followed afterwards had us laughing.
We ended up with five tins of Old Bay, but ours was the oldest of all with an expiration date of 2005. Twenty years old? Is there a food museum that wants it? Another one came in with a 2019 exp date, one was 2021, and two were not labeled and in more modern plastic packaging—so we used one of those to steam the crabs.
Which all turned out fine, though it was a lot of work for John to open the raw oysters, which were very close-shelled this time. They were not our regular variety, the Cape May Salts, which open pretty easily. All the ones he couldn't crack were opened when roasted in the oven at a high heat.
The clams steamed easily, and several tasty salads appeared: Nina’s Lemon Tortellini, Joann’s pasta dish with kale and peas, Kim’s crunchy bi-color slaw, ripe cantaloupe wrapped with Speck, and a fresh mozzarella, basil, and cherry tomato salad, a spin on a Caprese. Jeanne brought her famous Deviled Eggs. Kim sautéed up a giant skillet full of fresh peas, and we munched happily, smashing crabs, slurping oysters, and dipping bread into the tasty clam broth after we obliterated the clams themselves.
We sang “it’s so groovy now, that people are finally getting together,” We drank wine and laughed, and ended the evening with blueberry muffins baked by Sam the Muffin Man with vanilla ice cream that magically appeared—in duplicate.
The night ended with a massive thunderstorm. A fitting ending, with Lightening Strikes for added drama.
We are done with seafood (breathe a sigh of relief, Joe Torrell, my loyal reader, but big seafood hater) for at least a week.
Yes--that was my big mistake. Wah! Now I need to get another one.
Did you put mayo on an Italian hoagie? That is a big mistake in my book.