Dinner, Finally!
So I haven’t eaten yet today, so naturally I’m a bit excited for dinner. I’ve cooked up something called shellfish soup. The recipe is:
2 conch
A half dozen mussels
1 spider crab, 1 rock crab
A bundle of Irish moss:
Dandelions
Sea Lettuce
Here it is cooking away. Only an Italian could think of this set-up:
As a kid I remember my grandmother cooking conch in her house. Actually what I remember is the smell of it. Every nook and cranny every door, wall, floor, room, and article of clothing were permeated with the foulest odor imaginable. No joke it was so bad that when she would make it for my grandfather I used to walk around the house with a mask and snorkel on. This was just me being an over-dramatic child though right?
I have video of me eating conch which I’m hoping to get up tomorrow. Let’s just say it didn’t go too well. It’s like biting into a giant rubber band. Likely I didn’t cook it enough, only an hour and a half instead of the required 50. I couldn’t finish it, which shows where my mind is at. I’m not hungry enough yet. I’ll try again tomorrow though.
The crabs on the other hand were quite good. I don’t like shellfish, but they were sweet and tasty, even the foul looking spider crab. A welcome change from rubber or my previous meal of nothing at all.
I did however do this while trying to tear them apart, shows you how often I eat crab:
Yes, very ouch.
The mussels were grainy, but they worked and the Irish Moss was a bit tough, but edible. I have pine needle to steep in water for tea to start my morning tomorrow (courtesy of Bear Grylls), so that should be a welcome change from plain water.
Well the sun is going down and the bugs are starting to come out which means I need to duck into my tent before they chew me up alive. It appears I’m a part of the ecosystem now, rather than just being a visitor. I look forward to a good night’s sleep as I’m quite beat, but I have a feeling the raccoons are going to keep me up all night picking over my leftovers. Hopefully in my sleepy daze I remember they aren’t bobcats, yetis, or any other form of mythological creature.
I do want to leave you with one last picture before I head off, its of my new favorite cooking utensil.
I call it, “The Basher.” Needless to say its an all-purpose tool.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Dude, you are made in the shade. As a vegetarian, the only kind of carnivore I respect is one who is willing to kill and eat his or her own food. That said, Xcept the seaweed which I eat nearly every day in Tokyo, your meal makes me mildly nauseated. But, good luck.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Barbarian For your first day you did better than I thought. I hope you find other things to add to your seafood diet. If you decide to end this foolishness a good meal will be waiting for you!!! xoxoxox Grandma
June 10th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
It just started storming like a beast and my first (okay, maybe fourth) thought was “GALBO!!!” Hope you didn’t blow away
June 11th, 2008 at 12:08 am
So, the nice part of the post: gotta say that i am impressed at how you did today, not bad for yourself.
and now, to compare dinners taht we had: I was at Fenway, sitting in the State Street Pavilion eating chicken fingers and fries, a pretzel, water, beer, and topped it off with some soft serve ice cream in one of those mini helmet cups. the red sox did lose, which will make you happy
June 11th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Sam is so mean!
I just wanted to let you know that tbj was enough worried about you to text me and tell me it was POURING in NY. And then I had to be worried too!
Nice job getting through your first day!
June 11th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I’m impressed with the meal you came up with! Maybe you’ll be on food network after this adventure showing the world how to survive on food from the earth… and ps, if you’re not around to eat your grandnother’s food, I’m going to go there to eat it!