A Taste for Seafood

I really like seafood. Fish, shrimp, oysters, mussels, conchs, clams, lobsters, squid, octopus, abalone...almost everything from the sea, with a few notable exceptions (e.g., sea urchin...I haven't yet developed a taste for it). Unfortunately for me, I live quite a distance from sources of super-fresh seafood, so when I eat it, it's usually not as good as it could be if it were fresh.

Based solely on my own love of seafood, I think there is a place in the marketplace for a REAL seafood restaurant. Not a place that serves a few items, all fried or all baked, but a place that caters to virtually every seafood lover's tastes...a place diners could get exceptionally good sushi, fabulous fried oysters, wonderful clams, conch fritters, whole lobsters, cedar-grilled salmon, smoked halibut, squid salads, fried tilapia, calamari, mussels steamed in wine, fried catfish, shrimp and octopus cocktails...you get the idea. There is probably just such a place, but I have not been there. I've been to some pretty good places for seafood, but nothing that I would consider the ultimate seafood fantasy restaurant. The place I have in mind would be casual, would be restricted to adult diners over 25 years of age, and would encourage 2-3 hour lunches and 3-5 hour dinners. It would have a superior bar and and outstanding wine list, with everything priced under $20 per bottle...none of this 100% profit margin that most places get.

Naturally, this restaurant, whereever it is located, would be in constant receipt of fresh seafood from around the world. Anything from water more than 25 miles away would be shipped to the place live in containers equipped to mimic the appropriate natural environment...and would be custom-killed only when ordered. I want fresh stuff. (There are times I would like my sources of beef and lamb kept similarly 'ready for slaughter,' but I am developing a taste for dry-aged beef...)

Speaking of seafood, my wife and I are having tortilla encrusted baked tilapia tonight...frozen stuff that we bought from, of all places, Omaha Steaks. We've had it before and it's really very good. But it doesn't compare with the stuff that comes out of the seafood restaurant of my imagination.

Speaking of my imagination, my fried Gunnar came by yesterday...he had just returned from an abalone expedition off the coast of Chile and he was just loaded with abalone! He knew how much I loved it and that I had not had it since my wife's former brother-in-law had given us some he got diving off the California coast some twenty years ago. Well, Gunnar brought us almost 40 pounds of fresh abalone! I was stunned! Just as I was about to tell him I would gladly cover his roundtrip airfare to Santiago to show my appreciation, I realized that I do not know anyone named Gunnar and I cannot afford round-trip airfare to Santiago...my imagination had run away with me again!