#nccatch

[carolinafishmarket]

We know fresh Carolina fish 🐟 extremely well. Your grocery store isn't catching fresh fish.. We are.. #fishmonger #fishmarket #seafoodmarket #seafood #carolinafishmarket #carolinafoodmarket #carolina #nc #nccatch #fishing #fisherman #boat #captainamerica #captain #fishingpole #ocean #atlanticocean #qc #nc #buzzcity #charlotte #charlotteseen #ballantyne #southerncharm #southcharlotte (at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center)

[carolinafishmarket]

Just in! Fresh North Carolina Yellowfin Tuna (sushi grade) is here. #yellowfin #yellowfintuna #yellowfinboats #cltnoms #cltchef #knifeskills #freshcut #local #fresh #tuna #carolinafishmarket #CarolinaFoodMarket #gottobenc #nccatch #charlotte #ballantyne #fish #fisherman #fishermen #fishmarket #seafood #seafoodporn #seafoodmarket (at The Carolina Fish & Food Market)

[carolinafishmarket]

Unloaded off the boat today, cleaned late this morning, at the @carolinafishmarket this afternoon, had for dinner tonight. No one in Charlotte, NC is doing this. #triggerfish #wow #ocean #dinner #fun #seafood #nccatch #local #carolinafishmarket #CarolinaFoodMarket #fish #fisherman #fishmarket #freshcut #knifeskills #cltchef #cltnoms #CLT (at The Carolina Fish & Food Market)

[carolinafishmarket]

We've been selected as the only seafood market from Charlotte to speak at this year's NC Catch Summit. We hope to bring back a ton of new knowledge and really fresh fish 🐟 #carolinafishmarket #CarolinaFoodMarket #nccatch #ncseafood #seafood #speaker #best #charlotte #carolina #nc #fishermen #restaurant #chef (at Nags Head, North Carolina)

[nourishandnestle]

If you're in the #Wilmington #topsail #surfcity area of #coastalnc and you haven't been to @thebistrotopsail. You need to put it on your list. Farm to table menu changes daily, but their signature Shrimp and Grits is always served. It's #signature for a reason. #food #delicious #foodie #instafood #dinner #tasty #fresh #gourmet #cuisine #dish #farmtotable #eatlocal #shrimpandgrits #freshcatch #nccatch

[tsgtrianglenorthcarolina]

New #fishy #menu @piedmontdurham is reminding me of #SeasonsoftheSea dinner on Wednesday, February 8th with guest #Chef @Justin_Burdett, of @localprovisionsasheville. Chefs John and Justin have worked with Locals Seafood to create a seven course menu that will highlight the best our #WinterSeas have to offer. Proceeds, as always, will benefit #NCCatch. More details on www.piedmontrestaurant.com #chefdinner #scouted #trianglescout (at Piedmont Restaurant)

[gourmen]

Senior Year Seafood Feast

Welcome back.

After a summer of testing new recipes apart, and a sad goodbye to one of our key contributors (miss you Asa), the Gourmen are back for our last year of documented good college eats.

And do (or rather, did) we have the seafood feast to kick it off for you.

To us, no food purchasing experience says “welcome back to UNC” more than a [*requisite] trip to Tom Robinson’s in Carrboro for a taste of the N.C. Coast. There, old-style seafood on ice [taken out wrapped in newspaper] is driven in on Thursday and sold by Sunday in a humid shack behind Acme restaurant.

This week got there early Friday, but normally we’re there first thing in the afternoon on Thursdays—that’s when you get the freshest and best deals. Our pickings: a 2.8 pound whole red snapper (this fish was the size of my torso) and two still-kicking soft-shell crabs for a grand total of $40. For seafood that arrived yesterday from the coast, that is a steal, in case you were wondering. And trust us, you’ll taste the difference from previously frozen and imported fish.

Our seafood feast was dual in nature. The soft shells we left to shine on their own, deep fried in cornmeal with just an accent of Old Bay seasoning. Snapper, though, has a clean, but more assertive flavor than most whitefish, but still can use some complementing. Given my tenure close to the fantastic Asian food in Southern California all summer, I looked to that inspiration for a marinade.

Three hours (split evenly for each side) in an aluminum serving tray that was  too small for the fish (it’s tail hung out the side) was all that a mixture of soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, sambal chili paste, minced garlic and green onions needed to perfume the snapper’s flesh with a hint of exoticism. Then, a dusting of flour and a bath in hot peanut oil turned it to a tasty reminder of my tastes of whole fried fish in both New York’s Chinatown and the suburbs of Southern California. The flesh literally fell off the snapper in steaming, flaky chunks as we tore it apart, family-style, from its perch on a tray-sized rice plate.

The soft-shells, tender and with a slight crunch, were sublime as well, but the snapper, topped with a second batch of its marinade after frying so that it could be re-introduced to the flavors, definitely stole the show. Smashed together with a slice of avocado and a clump of rice soaked in the marinade drippings, it created a sensational combination of fatty and acidic, rich and delicate, grain [land] and sea that made small symphonic melodies of flavor ring in each onigiri-like bite.

Though our feast fed just four people for $60 ($15 per head), between leftovers and our miserably full state after, I feel safe in asserting that this restaurant-level dish should cost about $10 per plate (serving 6) in reality. I usually pay $20 and up for similar dishes when eating out, and this was more than comparable to those marked-up plates. Plus, you get the warm fuzzies of buying local, and who can’t help but to savor that?

Needless to say, we’ll be having it again.

Try it out for yourself; we feel confident that you’ll follow in our path.

A UNC-food Feast

(Asian-inspired pan-fried snapper and cornmeal-crusted softshell crabs)

Serves 6

One whole and scaled white-fleshed fish, preferably snapper, weighing 2.5-3 pounds

Two soft-shell crabs

1 bunch of scallions, diced into ¼” thick pieces

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 c of rice vinegar

1 c of soy sauce

1/3 c Sambal chili paste

4 T honey

¼ c sesame oil

1 c of all-purpose flour

1 c corn meal

1 T plus 2 tsp. of Old Bay seasoning

3 c peanut oil

16 oz. of dry rice (white or brown)

1 avocado, halved, pitted and sliced into roughly 1/8” thin pieces

3 T sesame seeds

Three hours beforehand, combine scallions through sesame oil in a large bowl. Place fish in a tray where it can lay flat. Cover fish with half of the marinade. Let sit for 1.5 hours covered in the refrigerator, then turn it over.

While fish is marinating for the second half, heat two skillets with 1.5 cups of peanut oil (or enough for pan-frying depth) in each to medium-high heat. A dropped in dash of flour should sizzle, but not dramatically so. Also prepare the rice according to manufacturers instructions.

Mix cornmeal and all but 1 teaspoon of Old Bay on one plate, and put the flour on another. Dredge the soft shell crabs in the cornmeal mixture and drop into one pan. Dredge the marinated fish in flour and drop into the other. Cook crabs roughly 4-5 minutes on each side, and the fish, 5-6 minutes on each.

Plate the rice on a large tray and garnish with avocado slices and sesame seeds. Drain seafood on paper towels (and sprinkle remainder of Old Bay on crabs) before plating over top of the rice. Finish the dish with the remainder of the marinade.

Enjoy.

***Though the flesh will mostly flake away (and the skin is the best part), be careful of the small bones on the snapper. The crab, since it’s soft-shell, can be (and should be) eaten whole.