Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
there's no excuse not to have seafood in water-bound Florida. If it swims or crawls in the
ocean, you can bet some enterprising local has shelled or scaled it, battered it, dropped it in
a fryer and put it on a menu next to two plastic cups of tartar and cocktail sauce.
Grouper is far and away the most popular fish. Grouper sandwiches are to Florida what
the cheesesteak is to Philadelphia or pizza to Manhattan - a defining, iconic dish, and the
standard by which many places are measured. Hunting the perfect grilled or fried grouper
sandwich is an obsessive Floridian quest (by the way, the issue of fried versus grilled has
been known to provoke fights. Well, not really, but it could), as is finding the creamiest
bowl of chowder.
Of course, a huge range of other fish are offered. Other popular species include snapper
(with dozens of varieties), mahimahi (which is sometimes labeled as dolphin, to the hilari-
ous consternation of many a tourist) and catfish.
Florida really shines when it comes to crustaceans: try pink shrimp and rock shrimp,
and don't miss soft-shell blue crab - Florida is well known for her blue-crab hatcheries,
making them available fresh year-round. Locals will boil their crabs, as is common across
the American South, but a plethora of Northeastern transplants means crabs are also
steamed. Try them side by side and determine which method you like best.
Winter (October to April) is the season for Florida spiny lobster and stone crab (out of
season both will be frozen). Florida lobster is all tail, without the large claws of its Maine
cousin, and stone crab is heavenly sweet, served steamed with butter or the ubiquitous
mustard sauce. Usually, only the stone-crab claw is served; the arms are ripped off the
poor creatures and then they're tossed back into the water, where the arm is re-grown and
the whole process kicks off again the next year. We know this could be read as a sad meta-
phor for the futility of our mortal condition, but that claw meat really is good.
Finally, the Keys popularized conch (a giant sea snail); now fished out, most conch is
from the Bahamas. It has a slightly rubbery texture and a lovely, savory flavor. From July
to September, Steinhatchee is the place for fresh scallops, and in fall/winter, Apalachicola
Bay produces 90% of Florida's small but flavorful oysters.
