Unusual Sea Food Ideas

[fish-n-dive]

So, some of you know that I eat urchins etc........I was just wondering if anyone wanted to share other "non mainstream" sea food sources. Eg limpets, pippies, skates, rays, trepang etc.

I'm not really after the recipes to cook them just what you have personally eaten and enjoyed (or not enjoyed).........

[Dnepr_family]

I would like to eat a ray... OK, a part of a ray... but only because I've heard that they taste like the sea scallops you buy in the shop.

Is it true??? If so I can't imagine why everyone's not out targeting them.

[oldboot]

I believe some people even eat talapia, carp and other such stuff.

From what I hear those guys in the yeloow raincoats will eat just about anything with fur feathers or scales.

cheers

[Jimbo73]

I fished with a islander guy i use to work with and he use to eat Tilapia. But he would also suck the eyes and brains out of the fish skulls, put me off the fish he just cooked up for us for lunch. i think he would eat anything put in front of him.Cheers

[Leighton]

I would like to eat a ray... OK, a part of a ray... but only because I've heard that they taste like the sea scallops you buy in the shop.

Is it true??? If so I can't imagine why everyone's not out targeting them.

IMO Rays are better left doing there clean up of the ocean floor.
A mate of mine has eaten carp and liked it.
The Croations fish for Carp for the table at Marsden

[Joe-90]

I've eaten whale in Norway (not so great) and I'm partial to a raw prawn - fresh - butterflied and filled with raw garlic and shrimp paste.Sounds off but is really tasty!

[Joe-90]

Oh yeah pippies are great on the coals of a fire too. Just make sure you immerse them in freshwater for a while as this makes them spit out the sand.

[mattooty]

I would like to eat a ray... OK, a part of a ray... but only because I've heard that they taste like the sea scallops you buy in the shop.

Is it true??? If so I can't imagine why everyone's not out targeting them.

You will find that some shops actually sell "scallops without roe" that are actually just hole punched ray flaps. Same texture, same taste. I've cut up rays before when shark fishing and the flaps look alright if you could sking them without covering yourself in slime. I've heard that some islanders throw the flaps straight onto the coals to burn the slime and skin to make it easier to skin.

Have eaten raw prawns as well when we were on a sashimi escapade. For a few months there a few of my mates were taking wasabi and soy onto the rocks and eating fish straight up, fresh from the water, just bled and down the hatch. The only thing fresher is eating them while they're alive.
Eaten a sand yabby live for a bet once. Won myself 3 packets of squidgys my mate was using.

[fivefishes]

Mattooty,

Sorry to rain on your story, the line about the ray flaps is a myth. The scallops without roe you see in the shops are a Saucer Scallop, or Qld Scallop different to the Southern Australian Commercial Scallop. Their's has a grooved round shell and the Saucer Scallop from Qld has a flatter smooth shell. When you shuck (open) the Qld Scallop you find the roe is particularly small and difficult to remove intact with the meat, hence most Qld Scallops are sold as meat, roe off. If you want to check this find a good retail outlet and buy a handfull of these whole unopened, open them and see. 17 years in the Qld seafood industry backs up this comment.

BTW the big fat roe-on Scallops you often see in retail displays are from Japan, they are a farmed scallop and they look a lot different to the Qld Scallop meat.
Also ray flaps sell really well in places like Sydney as is often in excess of $10/kg, if you calculate the meat recovery and the likely cost to do something like that you'll find yourself turning wine into water and that it isn't economically viable anyway.
Any questions about this fire away, in summary it just doesn't happen.

Matt

[Scott nthQld]

I've eaten ray (ok, but not the best, a bit like flake), pippies are a favourite cooked in butter and white wine, I've tried whale while on holiday in Japan (scientific research my arse), very oily but still good, yabbies (the ones you use for whiting) shell and all, bit like a crunchy prawn, only tried them once, just to see what they taste like. The yabbies were also a drunken dare one night, split a rum can in half filled with saltwater straight from the river and boiled em up didn't mind the taste actually, but that was probably cos I was blind drunk.

i have heard of people eating tilapia and say they are really good on the plate, but haven't gone their myself. I've also had redfin perch (the noxious pest) very bland, not much flavour, wasn't really worth eating. Oh and eeltail catties from fresh water, thought they were very fatty, but not too bad in flavour.

[Martijnf]

tilapia is sold in most cheaper restaurants here in Europe and it's everywhere in stores and such since proper salt fish are just so bloody expensive nowadays. It's pretty decent.

Nothing wrong with ray imo, used to be a big hype here a few years back when you would get it in every fish restaurant. Not as much anymore but I've seen it on the menu even in michelin star restaurants so it confused me at first when I found out almost no one over these eats them.

Same with pippi's/cockles. The times when you could find them here on the beach are gone for about 50-odd years now. They use them a lot in Italian cuisine as well.

Properly smoked eel is one of the most beautiful things you can have, but not easy to get right.

I've had carp once, wasn't bad but not super special and a bugger to clean. As with most fresh water fish it really depends on where you get them from.

Don't know if you get many of the different sea snail type animals that we get here in the north sea and atlantic ocean but they are pretty good as well.

Actually if you get some nice fresh prawns, try adding some to your shashimi.. beautiful as well.

I guess you guys just have too many really good eating fish and seafoods there so you're spoiled a bit

[horseboy]

Pearl meat, Giant clam, mangrove worms, longbums, periwincles, sea urchin, crab mustard, cray mustard, seaweed and not the nori type that hairy green algae on pylons. I will try anything once and more if it is good.

Wade

[Noelm]

Matooty, the old Ray for Scallops is an "urban myth" there has been several substitutes over the years but Ray is not one of them, and indeed there is a Scallop that has little if any roe, as there is quite a few types of Scallop is the reason there is the thin ones, the really big ones, the ones with roe and so on.

[Noelm]

wooops, just read fivefishes post!

[Noelm]

the Scallop that used to be caught in places like Jervis Bay are also the deep (on one side only) ribbed shell with the big roe, when they used to dredge for them in Jervis Bay, there was dozens of Blue Ringed Octopus in every shot! made for interesting times for the sorters and the shuckers, I guess you haven't lived untill you have had a Blue Ring occy in your gumboot!