Jersey Shore Delicacies

Local Jersey Shore Delicacies

del-i-cacy - noun
plural: del-i-ca-cies 

1: something pleasing to eat that is considered rare or luxurious

2: the quality or state of being a: luxurious b: indulgent 

3: a: the quality or state of being fine b: dainty c: frail 

4: fineness or subtle experssoins of touch (as in painting or music) 

5: a: precise or refined perception b: discrimination c: extreme sensitivity d: precision 

6: refined sensibility in feeling or conduct; being squeamish 

7: the quality or state of requiring delicate handling 

You can’t get any better than here.

They say a delicacy is something pleasing to eat, yet rare, requiring delicate handling, and someone who appreciates such delicacies has precise and refined perception and discrimination.

While Russian caviar is usually the first thing someone mentions as a good example of a delicacy, every area of the globe has its own unique attributes and delicacies, including the Jersey Shore, which has many.

I was going to have a contest to see what people think but instead I made up my own list of the top 10 plus local delicacies you can get at the Jersey Shore, and I’ll tell you where you can get them.

The number one local delicacy is, without question, a fish – striped bass to be precise. Because it is regulated by law, and cannot be caught or sold commercially, the striper is hard to find except in the ocean, bays and sometimes up river. But if you catch one, or know someone who catches one (of legal size), then you are lucky enough to get a chance to try eating a filet – which is the filet mingnon of fish. It has a very distinct and unbelieveable taste, especially when cooked fresh, never frozen – grilled in butter is good enough for me. There are farm bred striper bass available but they pale in comparison to the real thing and don’t count.

To get a striper filet you have to fish for it, or hang out where the fishermen are – along the beaches – especially Island Beach State Park or any of the inlets, or the bait and tackle shops where they have scales to weight the fish in. Sometimes the fishermen will share their catch, and give away some filets that can be frozen and cooked later on. Or if you’re really lucky and are at the Tight End Club at Gregory’s when someone brings in a keeper striper, they sometimes cook it up right away and share it with whose ever at the bar. 

Top Ten Best Jersey Shore Delicacies & then Some

TOP TEN LOCAL SOUTH JERSEY SHORE DELACIES

1)      STRIPER BASS

2)      CRAB

3)      FLOUNDER

4)      SCALOPS

5)      CLAMS

6)      OYSTERS

7)      SNAPER SOUP

8)      TOMATOES

9)      CORN

10)  FROGS LEGS

11)  EELS

12)  WEAKFISH

13)  BLUEFISH

TOP TEN FAST & JUNK FOODS

1)      PIZZA

2)      CHEESESTEAKS

3)      HOAGIES

4)      STICKEY CINNEMON BUNS

5)      PORK ROLL

6)      SCRAPLE

7)      FUDGE

8)      SALT WATER TAFFY

1) Striped Bass

1) Striped Bass

The Wiki caption for this photo notes that this is a striped bass caught off the coast of New Jersey 

The number one local delicacy is, without question, a fish – striped bass to be precise.

Because striped bass is regulated by law, and cannot be caught or sold commercially, the striper is hard to find except in the ocean, bays and sometimes up river. But if you catch one, or know someone who catches one (of legal size), then you are lucky enough to get a chance to try eating a filet – which is the filet mingnon of fish. It has a very distinct and unbelieveable taste, especially when cooked fresh, never frozen – grilled in butter is good enough for me. There are farm bred striped bass available but they pale in comparison to the real thing and don’t count.

To get a striped bass filet you have to fish for it, or hang out where the fishermen are – along the beaches – especially Island Beach State Park or any of the inlets, or the bait and tackle shops where they have scales to weight the fish in. Sometimes the fishermen will share their catch, and give away some filets that can be frozen and cooked later on. Or if you’re really lucky and are at the Tight End Club at Gregory’s when someone brings in a keeper striper, they sometimes cook it up right away and share it with whose ever at the bar.


Striped bass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The striped bass(Morone saxatilis, also called Atlantic striped bass, stripers, linesiders, rock, pimpfish, or rockfish) is thestate fish ofMaryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater (marine) fish ofNew York, Virginia, and New Hampshire. They are also found in the Minas Basin and Gaspereau River in Nova Scotia Canada.

The striped bass (Morone saxatilis, also called Atlantic striped bass, stripers, linesiders, rock, pimpfish, or rockfish) is thestate fish ofMaryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater (marine) fish ofNew York, Virginia, and New Hampshire. They are also found in the Minas Basin and Gaspereau River in Nova Scotia Canada.

Striped bass
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Moronidae
Genus:	Morone
Species:	M. saxatilis
Binomial name
Morone saxatilis (Walbaum, 1792)

The striped bass is a typical member of the Moronidae family in shape, having a streamlined, silvery body marked with longitudinal dark stripes running from behind the gills to the base of the tail. Maximum size is 200 cm (6.6 ft) and maximum scientifically recorded weight 57 kg (125 US pounds). The average weight is 30 to 40 lbs. Striped bass are believed to live for up to 30 years. ^[1]

[edit]Morphology and lifespan

[edit]Distribution

[edit]Natural distribution

Striped bass are native to the Atlantic coastline of North America from the St. Lawrence River into the Gulf of Mexico to approximatelyLouisiana. They are anadromous fish that migrate between fresh and salt water. Spawning takes place in fresh water.

[edit]Introductions outside their natural range

Striped bass have been introduced to the Pacific Coast of North America and into many of the large reservoir impoundments across the United States by state game and fish commissions for the purposes of recreational fishing and as a predator to control populations of gizzard shad.^[2][3][4] These include: Elephant Butte Lake in New Mexico; Lake Ouachita, Lake Norfork, Beaver Lake (Arkansas) and Lake Hamilton in Arkansas; Lake Powell, Lake Pleasant, and Lake Havasu in Arizona; Castaic Lake, Lake George in Florida, Pyramid Lake, Silverwood Lake, Diamond Valley Lake, East Fork State Park Lake near Cincinnati[1], Lake Cumberland, andLake Murray in California; Lake Lanier in Georgia; Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee; and Lake Mead, Nevada; Lake Texoma, Lake Tawakoni,Lake Whitney, Possum Kingdom Lake, and Lake Buchanan in Texas;Raystown Lake in Pennsylvania; and in Virginia Smith Mountain Lake.^[5]

Striped bass have also been introduced into waters in Ecuador, Iran,Latvia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey primarily for sport fishing and aquaculture.^[1]

[edit]Environmental factors

The spawning success of striped bass has been studied in the San Francisco Bay-Delta water system, with a finding that high total dissolved solids (TDS) reduce spawning. At levels as low as 200 mg/L TDS there is an observable diminution of spawning productivity.^[6] They can be found in lakes, ponds, streams and wetlands.

Former President of the United States George W. Bush, in Executive Order 13449 of October 20, 2007, designated the Striped Bass as a protected game fish. Further, he directed executive agencies to use existing legal authorities, to the extent possible, to prohibit the sale of Striped Bass caught in Federal waters in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.^[7]

Life cycle

Striped bass spawn in freshwater and although they have been successfully adapted to freshwater habitat, they naturally spend their adult lives in saltwater (i.e., it isanadromous). Four important bodies of water with breeding stocks of striped bass are: Chesapeake Bay, Massachusetts Bay/Cape Cod,Hudson River and Delaware River. It is believed that many of the rivers and tributaries that emptied into the Atlantic, had at one time, breeding stock of striped bass. One of the largest breeding areas is the Chesapeake Bay, where populations from Chesapeake and Delaware bays have intermingled.^[8] There are very few successful spawning populations of freshwater striped bass, including Lake Texoma, the Colorado River and its reservoirs downstream from and including Lake Powell, and the Arkansas River as well as Lake Marion (South Carolina) that retained a landlocked breeding population when the dam was built; other freshwater fisheries must be restocked with hatchery-produced fish annually. Stocking of striped bass was discontinued at Lake Mead in 1973 once natural reproduction was verified.^[9]

Hybrids with other bass

Striped bass have also been hybridized with white bass to producehybrid striped bass also known as wiper. These hybrids have been stocked in many freshwater areas across the U.S.^[10][11]

[edit]Fishing for striped bass

Striped bass are of significant value assport fishing, and have been introduced to many waterways outside their natural range. A variety ofangling methods are used, including trolling and surfcasting top water lures are a good pick for surf casting. Striped bass will take a number of live and fresh baits including bunker, clams, sandworms, herring,bloodworms, mackerel with shad being the best bait for freshwater striper fishing. The largest striped bass ever caught by angling was a 35.6 kg (78.5 lb) specimen taken in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 21, 1982.^[12] The record-holder is Albert McReynolds, who fought the fish from the beach for an hour and twenty-minutes before landing it in the surf.^[13]

Recreational limits vary by state.

[edit]Land locked striped bass

Striped bass are an anadromous fish and their spawning ritual of traveling up rivers to spawn led some of them to become landlocked during lake dam constructions. It was once believed that the first area they became landlocked was in the Santee-Cooper river during the construction of the two dams that impounded Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, and because of this belief the state game fish of South Carolina is the striped bass.^[14]

Recently biologists believe that striped bass stayed in rivers for long periods of time, some not returning to sea unless temperature changes forced migration. Once fishermen and biologists caught on to rising striped bass populations, many state natural resources departments started stocking striped bass in local lakes. Striped bass still continue the natural spawn run in freshwater lakes, traveling up river and blocked at the next dam, which is why they are landlocked. Landlocked stripers have a hard time reproducing naturally, and one of the few and most successful rivers they have been documented reproducing successfully is the Coosa River in Alabama and Georgia.^[15]

[edit]Management

The Striped bass population declined to less than 5 million by 1982, but efforts by fishermen and management programs to rebuild the stock proved successful, and in 2007, there were nearly 56 million fish, including all ages. Recreational anglers and commercial fisherman caught an unprecedented 3.8 million fish in 2006. The management of the species includes size limits, commercial quotas, and biological reference points for the health of the species. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission states that Striped Bass are "Not overfished and overfishing is not occurring."^[16]

[edit]References

1. ^ ^a b Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2007)."Morone saxatilis" inFishBase. March 2007 version.
2. ^ Striped Bass Management Planretrieved on 10 June 2007.
3. ^ Pennysylvania State Fish & Boat Commission, Gallery of Pennsylvania Fishes, Chapter 21. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
4. ^ Indiana Fish and Wildlife, Evaluation of Striped Bass Stockings at Harden Reservoir. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
5. ^http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/waterbodies/display.asp?id=122
6. ^ Kaiser Engineers, California, Final Report to the State of California, San Francisco Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Program, State of California, Sacramento, CA (1969)
7. ^ "Executive Order 13449: Protection of Striped Bass and Red Drum Fish Populations". Office of the Federal Register. October 20, 2007. Retrieved October 24, 2007.
8. ^ Chesapeake Bay Program, Striped Bass
9. ^ Wilde, G. R. and L.J. Paulson. 1989. Food habits of subadult striped bass in Lake Mead Arizona-Nevada. The Southwestern Naturalist 34(1) 118-123.
10. ^ Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Status of the Striped Bass/Hybrid Bass Bass Fishery March 2006 retrieved 10 June 2007.
11. ^ Pennysylvania State Fish & Boat Commission, Gallery of Pennsylvania Fishes, Chapter 21. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
12. ^ New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife
13. ^ David DiBendetto, On The Run, An Angler's Journey Down the Striper Coast, page 195
14. ^ "History of Freshwater Striped Bass". Retrieved 2010-03-01.
15. ^ "Striped Bass in River Systems". Retrieved 2010-03-01.
16. ^ "Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: Striped Bass". Retrieved 2009-07-02.

2) Crab

2) Crabs 

Crabs come in many varieties and can be prepared many different ways, but the top of the line for most people is the softshell crab.

- Softshell Crabs. If you’re a crabber and your lucky you might get a soft shell that recently shedded its shell and are really tasty to eat. You don’t have to fight for the meat like you do when you tackle a real fresh crab in the shell. If you don’t like to tear a crab shell apart, you can get Crab Imperial, a popular local dish at the Crab Trap and Anchorage Taverns in Somers Point.

True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (Greek:βραχύς /brachys = short,^[2] οὐρά /οura = tail^[3]), or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax. Many other animals with similar names – such as hermit crabs, king crabs, porcelain crabs,horseshoe crabs and crab lice – are not true crabs.

Crabs are generally covered with a thickexoskeleton, and armed with a single pair ofchelae (claws). Crabs are found in all of the world's oceans, while many crabs live in fresh water and on land, particularly in tropical regions. Crabs vary in size from the pea crab, a few millimetres wide, to the Japanese spider crab, with a leg span of up to 4 metres (13 ft).^[4]

About 850 species of crab are freshwater, terrestrial or semi-terrestrial species;^[5] they are found throughout the world's tropical and semi-tropical regions. They were previously thought to be a monophyletic group, but are now believed to represent at least two distinct lineages, one in the Old Worldand one in the New World.^[6]

The earliest unambiguous crab fossils date from theJurassic,^[7] although Carboniferous Imocaris, known only from its carapace, may be a primitive crab.^[8] The radiation of crabs in the Cretaceous and afterward may be linked either to the break-up of Gondwana or to the concurrent radiation ofbony fish, crabs' main predators.^[9]

Crabs often show markedsexual dimorphism. Males often have largerclaws,^[10] a tendency which is particularly pronounced in the fiddler crabs of the genus Uca(Ocypodidae). In fiddler crabs, males have one claw which is greatly enlarged and which is used for communication, particularly for attracting a mate.^[11] Another conspicuous difference is the form of the pleon (abdomen); in most male crabs, this is narrow and triangular in form, while females have a broader, rounded abdomen.^[12] This is due to the fact that female crabs brood fertilised eggs on their

Crabs typically walk sideways^[13] (a behaviour which gives us the word crabwise). This is because of the articulation of the legs which makes a sidelong gait more efficient.^[14] However, some crabs walk forwards or backwards, including raninids,^[15] Libinia emarginata^[16] andMictyris platycheles.^[13] Some crabs, notably the Portunidaeand Matutidae, are also capable of swimming.^[17]

Crabs are mostly active animals with complex behaviour patterns. They can communicate by drumming or waving their pincers. Crabs tend to be aggressive towards one another and males often fight to gain access to females.^[18]On rocky seashores, where nearly all caves and crevices are occupied, crabs may also fight over hiding holes.^[19]

Crabs are omnivores, feeding primarily on algae,^[20] and taking any other food, including molluscs, worms, othercrustaceans, fungi, bacteria and detritus, depending on their availability and the crab species. For many crabs, a mixed diet of plant and animal matter results in the fastest growth and greatest fitness.^[21][22]

Crabs are known to work together to provide food and protection for their family, and during mating season to find a comfortable spot for the female to release her eggs.^[23

Crabs make up 20% of all marinecrustaceanscaught, farmed, and consumed worldwide, amounting to 1½ million tonnes annually. One species accounts for one fifth of that total: Portunus trituberculatus. Other commercially important taxa include Portunus pelagicus, several species in the genus Chionoecetes, theblue crab (Callinectes sapidus), Charybdis spp., Cancer pagurus, the Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) andScylla serrata, each of which yields more than 20,000 tonnes annually.^[24]

Crabs are prepared and eaten as a dish in several different ways all over the world. Some species are eaten whole, including the shell, such as soft-shell crab; with other species just the claws and/or legs are eaten. The latter is particularly common for larger crabs, such as the snow crab. Mostly inEast Asian cultures, the roe of the female crab is also eaten, which usually appears orange or yellow in color in fertile crabs.

In some regions spices improve the culinary experience. In Asia, masala crab and chilli crab are examples of heavily spiced dishes. In the Chesapeake Bay region, blue crab is often eaten with Old Bay Seasoning.

For the British dish Cromer crab, the crab meat is extracted and placed inside the hard shell. One American way to prepare crab meat is by extracting it and adding a flour mix, creating a crab cake.

Crabs are also used in bisque, a global dish of French origin.

Pain

Live crabs are often boiled. In 2005, Norwegian scientists concluded that lobsters cannot feel pain.^[25] However, later research suggests that crustaceans are indeed able to feel and remember pain.^[26][27]

The infraorder Brachyura contains 6,793 species in 93 families,^[17] as many as the remainder of theDecapoda.^[28] The evolution of crabs is characterised by an increasingly robust body, and a reduction in theabdomen. Although many other groups have undergone similar processes, carcinisation is most advanced in crabs. The telson is no longer functional in crabs, and the uropods are absent, having probably evolved into small devices for holding the reduced abdomen tight against the sternum.

In most decapods, the gonopores (sexual openings) are found on the legs. However, since crabs use the first two pairs of pleopods (abdominal appendages) for sperm transfer, this arrangement has changed. As the male abdomen evolved into a narrower shape, the gonopores have moved towards the midline, away from the legs, and onto the sternum.^[29] A similar change occurred, independently, with the female gonopores. The movement of the female gonopore to the sternum defines the clade Eubrachyura, and the later change in the position of the male gonopore defines the Thoracotremata. It is still a subject of debate whether those crabs where the female, but not male, gonopores are situated on the sternum, form a monophyletic group.^[28]

Both the constellation Cancer and the astrological sign Cancer are named after the crab, and depicted as a crab.John Bevis first observed the Crab Nebula and its resemblance to the animal in 1731. The Crab pulsar lies at the centre of the nebula.

The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature, especially the sea,^[31] and often depicted crabs in their art.^[32] In Greek mythology, Karkinos was a crab that came to the aid of the Lernaean Hydra as it battledHeracles.