Scallops have always been my favorite since I was a little kid. There used to be a restaurant in West L.A. called A Bit of Scotland that served only cod, shrimp, or scallops (with superby homemade french fries and salad, and I always got a piece of shortbread for desserrt – even way back then I thought $.35 for a 5" square of it was a steal). We always got the fish battered and fried. And then I found out they’d pan fry any of them in butter. That’s the only way I’d eat my scallops there after that.
Another restaurant that has now closed in Suzanne’s in Ojai, and they made a crab salad that was soooooo good. That and a Pixie cosmo was all I’d need.
I love lobster, too. My BiL is from Maine, and he and my sister lived there for a while. When we went to visit, I only wanted to eat lobster or lobster rolls.
But I’ve always liked fish. Nearly any kind. But I had walleye once when I was in Michigan, and I really didn’t like it. I can’t remember the specifics of why, but I wont eat it again. I’m also not terribly fond of trout, either. Maybe, fresh water fish are at the bottom of my list.
I’m still chasing the monkfish I ate about 35 years ago. I think it was simply broiled with some butter. I haven’t seen it on a menu since. I’m sure I could order some from a fishmonger, but I have no luck cooking seafood.
I love crab. I love anything I can tear apart, like crawfish, crab, shrimp. Oysters on the half shell, mussels are fun to eat.
I had rock shrimp many moons ago, too, that were absolutely delicious.
My dad used to go smelt fishing off one of the Chicago piers. We’d go out after dark, throw out the net, wait a while and then pull it back in full of wriggling smelt. Over a few hours we’d have a bucket full of smelt. When we’d get home we’ll fill cut-down milk cartons with (IIRC) headless smelt which would be kept in the freezer, where they’d keep until it was time to eat them.
Years after I had my own place, Dad brought me a batch of frozen smelt. They were just as good as I remembered them.
I live in a great area for getting your own fresh seafood. Near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, near the bottom of the Columbia River where it dumps into the ocean, so I a a bit spoiled.
My wife’s father was a commercial fisherman and so she ate a lot of salmon when she was young and will no longer have it in our house because she considers it to be poverty food. However, right now is the beginining of the sport season for the most treasured salmon on the Columbia, the Springers or spring run of Chinook salmon. Springers are loaded with fat because these early fish are hoping to make it all the way to Idaho to spawn.
The tastiest crab are the Dungeness crab. In my opinion they far surpass even the Alaskan Kings for flavor. An annual shellfish license cost me $10 and I can keep 12 legal size crab, per day. And it is fun to catch them. I have not had the East coast crabs or the soft shells, but can’t imagine better.
The favorite clams are Pacific razor clams. I just go to the ocean beach at low tide and dig them. Funnest thing in the world, take your kids for a early morning adventure they will not forget. Allowed 15. Lightly breaded and quickly fried. The same $10 shellfish licence covers me for a year.
Even when I was a young girl, I adored fried oysters. Still do, but the best oysters I ever had were in the San Diego area on my honeymoon. They were small, raw and flavored in 6 different ways. Man, I wish I could have those right now. I love just about every type of seafood, but there’s a lot I’ve never had.
Crappie is a very sweet fish and it’s a real favorite for a fish fry. Lobster is yummy. Fried squid and calamari are also really good.
Costco had crab for a pretty good price a few weeks ago and I wanted to buy some so bad, but I have never prepared them and don’t know how, so I didn’t buy any. I should educate myself on that.
Now I want to try monkfish based on the description above.
Oooo, I was visiting a friend in San Rafael (heh, how do most people pronounce that name), and I went shopping in the City. I took the Larkspur ferry, since I didn’t need a car . On my way home, I browsed around the Ferry Building and came to a screeching halt when I found the Hog Island Oyster Bar. My happy place. A nice sancerre and wonderful oysters with mignonette. Yum. My friend was jealous when I told him.
I adore green lip mussels! I was weird about eating them, because my older sister once brought some home with her when we’d biked to the beach (she pulled them off the rocks). I think she was trying an “experiment,” but they just rotted and stunk, Put me off mussels for a long time. But they’re really really tasty.
Someone mentioned abalone in the other thread which reminded me of the outrageously delicious cream of abalone soup at The Sardine Factory in Monterey. Just checked their menu – it’s actually abalone bisque. Still delicious.
My favorite is salmon sashimi, the fattier the better. At most it should be accompanied by a small amount of thinly sliced green onions and some soy sauce. No need for any mayonnaise based sauces, sugar, or any of the other stuff that usually finds its way into sushi rolls. It should also be close to room temperature, not just barely defrosted with some ice crystals still hanging around in the flesh.
Dungeness is the best crab. East Coast crabs don’t come close. Best dungeness I’ve had was self caught, eaten shortly after.
I haven’t had king crab or snow crab in decades since moving to the Pacific Northwest. They are so disappointing in comparison.
I also like big diver scallops, including frozen ones, as long as there’s no preservative. That ruins them. Razor clams are amazing. I don’t care for much else in the way of bivalves.
Arctic char, black cod or sablefish - cooked or smoked, ray wing, ahi tuna. Pompano. Sometimes I like pickled herring. Any mild fish pan fried. Smoked: salmon, mackerel, whitefish. Caviar.
North sea shrimp, steamed on the vessel on the way back to dock. (I lived in Oslo - we had this regularly). This has ruined all other shrimp for me, except rock shrimp, which are also amazing.
I ate whale once when I was a child in Norway. All I remember is that the raw meat was almost purple. I don’t remember what it tasted like. I would never eat it again.
Calamari.
For sushi and sashimi: scallop - hotate, salmon toro, tuna (pretty much all kinds) unagi, abalone, ama ebi.
Calimari is absolutely amazing, at least if prepared right. The pity is that preparing it right is apparently very difficult, and if you get it wrong, it’s shoe-sole rubber. There’s never any in-between: Heavenly, or rubber, never “pretty good” or “OK” or whatever.
And no, don’t ask me how to prepare it right. I don’t know, either. I just know it when I taste it.
I seem to recall a claim (on QI) that sea-turtle was so tasty that it took many years before a living specimen was delivered to England, because appetite overrode zoological inquiry.
I’d probably say scallops are my favorite seafood, closely followed by fresh-caught snapper. I also really enjoy whitebait, but cost is prohibitive these days. Lobster and crab are up there, as well.
Halibut by far. I live for the times it shows up on the menus of my favorite restaurants. After that, probably Dungeness crab, sole (properly prepared) and whatever fish (cod, haddock, plaice, etc.) that shows up in my fish & chips order.
Fried calamari rings should be breaded well. You have to work the breading in well then let the rings sit for a few minutes and drop them in 325F oil. Pull them out and drain them as soon as they float.
For use in most other cooked dishes strips, rings or tubes can be parboiled by pouring boiling water over them in a strainer until they turn opaque then added to an nearly completed dish.
Thai and other styles may take a portion of as a tube and use a sharp knife to cut partially into the meat in a cross hatch . pattern.
I suppose it’s cheating to count unfertilized poultry gametes (i.e., eggs) as a product of live-harvesting poultry, in some sense? Same for mammalian lacteal fluid (i.e., milk), I guess.
Shed deer antlers can be eaten, either by dogs gnawing on them or by humans consuming products containing antler gelatin or hartshorn (ammonium carbonate). Does that count?
There are cultures that eat lizards. Some of those lizards have the ability to drop and regrow their tails. I suppose one could live-harvest a lizard’s tail instead of killing and eating the whole lizard, but I don’t know of any culture that does so.