![]() You choose a flavor: Rajun Cajun, lemon pepper, garlic or a combo called The Whole Sha-Bang. You have a choice of seafood: shrimp, clams, oysters, mussels, king crab legs and snow crab legs are always available blue crab, Dungeness crab, lobster and crawfish are available in season. ![]() Gale Ave., Rowland Heights, 62 In case you’ve never been to The Boiling Crab - or to be more precise, never “experienced” The Boiling Crab, for it’s more an “experience” than anything else - this is an exercise in culinary chaos. Main St., Alhambra, 62 3514 Rosemead Blvd., Rosemead, 62 18922 E. And what am I to make of all those jarred items - pickled clams, smoked mussels, smoked scallops, smoked oysters, spicy albacore tuna dip, crab dip and more? The place is crazy making with tempting decisions. But then, how to resist the charred oysters with Tabasco butter, or with garlic butter. The kitchen will gladly create a sampler of the seven oysters, half a dozen, a dozen or whatever. There’s a sashimi sampler to help with that decision - but when it comes to the carpaccio, you’re on your own. Though the menu isn’t actually that long, it’s densely populated with tempting options.ĭo I get the soft shell crab roll, the soft shell crab slider, the truffled crab noodles, the jalapeño flavored crab dip, the steamed King crab legs or the steamed Dungeness crab? How about the options between New England clam chowder (white), Manhattan clam chowder (red) or Rhode Island clam chowder (clear)? All at the same time, it’s Japanese, Mexican, New England, French, Italian, Chinese and Middle American. Garfield Ave., Alhambra 62, As seafood restaurants go, Big Catch touches on an exceptional number of ethnic bases - this isn’t so much regional seafood, as it is global. Seafood very likely reached the height of its popularity in the Middle Ages, when the Catholic church added so many fast days to the basic 40 days of Lent that nearly half the days of the year were meatless.Ģ S. He also points out that fish from cold water are likely to taste better than the same species from warm water.įish were so popular in ancient Rome that Cato the Elder wondered, “If there could be any future for a country where a fish costs more than an ox.” Fish from swiftly moving streams are tastier than those from sluggish waters (Root compares the taste of the black bass with the catfish), and those from clear water taste better than those from muddy water (in this case, he compares the trout and the carp). Saltwater fish are, in general, tastier than freshwater fish. The Japanese are the world’s champion fish eaters, with a per capita consumption of 65 pounds per year. Among the many fascinating tales he shares in his encyclopedic work called simply, “Food,” Root dispenses these amazing piscine facts: Americans consume an average of 16 pounds of fish per person per year the British 19, the Danes 50. Hopefully it will work now.Īnd, I am grateful, as ever, to food historian and archivist Waverley Root for letting me in on several things I didn’t know about fish, which I’ve always wanted to know. Fish and veggies, veggies and fish, that’s the ticket. If anything, anxiety has increased it!)Īnd so, during the meal, I put down that one beef rib too many, stopped eating the brisket and pledged to go on one of my favorite regimens - the Shindler Pescatarian Diet. It hasn’t gone into COVID-19 hibernation. I’m blessed with a good appetite, a requirement for the job. (Frankly, my quarantine 15 comes closer to a quarantine 25. In a properly “socially distanced” celebration of my wife’s birthday, the issue came up about our almost universal “quarantine 15” - the weight so many of us have gained from investigating the long-forgotten snack food in the back of our cupboards and refrigerators, treats frozen and otherwise, that we’ve been obsessively devouring, like locusts sweeping over our own personal landscapes. In the meantime, I have another issue to deal with. I really long to dine out again, among the hungry denizens of our local eateries who know their soup dumplings from their bao, and their mole from their chipotle. But I am so tired of my only company being my wife, my daughter and George the dog. Not that there’s anything wrong with takeout. ![]() ![]() At least in terms of the great new trend of outdoor dining streets, which are popping up all over town.īut at the moment, I’m waiting to see if rather than opening up, we shut down again, with the return of a “safer at home” ruling - which means, of course, more weeks of takeout cuisine. I was hoping, by this point, to be doing upbeat, optimistic columns about the joys of returning to dining out in Southern California.
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