Beach cookery

Sadly my beach holiday is over. I did a very un-American thing this year and stayed two weeks instead of one. I am relaxed, tan, and … not exactly thrilled about having to go “home” to England. This trip was five weeks long, half work and half play, but that has been enough time for me to have reacquainted myself with modern conveniences such as showers and mixer taps. Not to mention American grocery stores and Target.

My favorite new snack is Pepper Jack Cheez-its. It seems to me that American cooking and certainly restaurants have all taken on a decidedly Tex-Mex flavor. There are jalapeños in everything! I had an amazing Caesar salad with a chipotle dressing.

But the one place I did not see much zesty fusion was the beach. There it is all about seafood, done in classic styles. The absolute tastiest experiences of the beach trip came at the hands of a local company that I found in the free restaurant guide, Steamers. They make up these tin cans full of yummy goodness that you take home and cook yourself, just by setting the can on the stove and turning the burner on high after adding a cup of liquid. I love the concept because it is such good engineering! There are potatoes in the bottom of the can, that essentially get boiled. On top of this is your choice of shellfish. I had lobster, crab legs and mussels at various points in the trip. On top of that is corn on the cob ears. You call them and say what fish you want and for how many people, and that’s it, instant dinner. The fish and corn get steamed by the liquid coming off the boiling potatoes, and there’s a hole in the top of the can for the steam to escape. I tried to take an action shot but it doesn’t do justice to how cool this was. And you KNOW I’m going to be trying to figure out a way to do this myself…