We began playing with New York food in earnest on April 11. The first order of business was shopping -
Makinajian Farms for soup chickens and eggs, then Stop and Shop for groceries. But the fish and seafood were among the highlights of our trip.
Our last stop Friday was
Northport Fish & Lobster, set in an old shack on Route 25A in Northport. I'd never been there, but my parents had heard good things and wanted to try them. Northport Fish is a locally owned full service fishmonger. No fewer than four locally sourced fishes were available that day, plus many seafood options. We picked up our Gefilte Fish bag, and couldn't resist buying some lunch items also. Mom had ordered 5# of ground fish (whitefish, pike and carp) with onion, plus the heads and skeletons. For our Gefilte Fish recipe, please look
here.
It all looked so good! Mom had requested that we get her one of their advertised $5 Lobster Rolls, but what else would make for a quick and easy lunch?
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| Fresh Montauk Flounder, Fried to Order |
This fish was so pristine it took my breath away. Delicious and perfectly cooked!
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| Lobster Roll |
Ok, I saw the kvetching on Yelp about this. There is real lobster in the mix. There is also a lot of mayo. There may be some filler fish. But for $5, it was plentiful and tasty so what's not to like? I'd probably pick something else, but I wouldn't complain, either.
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| Clam-Stuffed Garlic Bread |
I don't think I've ever nibbled such soft and tender clam meat as the morsels generously stuffed into this garlicky bread (same roll as the lobster was stuffed into). These are sold needing to be baked down for about 15 minutes at 350. The clams were so tender and fresh that they maintained deliciousness two days later after being re-heated as leftovers. It was a little too oily when hot, but oh-so-tasty!
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| Fish Mix - A Tad Under-ground |
I took this photo to document how gefilte fish mixture should
not look. It needed to either be passed through the grinder again or ground with a finer die (the onions were still in a dice, also). Fortunately, I'd brought my food processor, so it took only a few minutes to correct the texture.
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| Gefilte Fish |
And here's the final product, served up at our Seders Monday and Tuesday nights with garden horseradish. Absolutely delicious!
But there was more fish to savor! Our favorite local purveyor of smoked fish,
Bagel Boss would close for Passover early on Monday, so Dad made a fish and bialy run on Sunday to hold us until it was time to burn the Chometz (or otherwise get rid of the bread). There is nothing like Jewish Soul Food!
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Bialy with Bagel Boss Cream Cheese,
Belly Lox
Baked Salmon (Kippered Salmon) |
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| Baked (or Kippered) Salmon |
Loaded with the proper sustenance, we went to work on playing with food for the Seders!
