On 2/12/2016 at 1:38 PM, johnnyd said:
On occasion, I went diving for scallops here in Maine, and the rule was to shuck each scallop so that the boat ties up with only the mussel meat on board. Apparently, the corral is way more perishable than the meat, so it affects shelf life as a whole going to the consumer. The American taste for them never developed as it did in Europe, so there was no call to change things.
Being close to area chefs, we secreted a few whole shellfish unshucked for those who asked. There is an outfit somewhere in Mass.that ships them whole, so I guess the law is different there: http://www.farm-2-market.com/fish-seafood/scallops/fresh-sea-scallops-with-roe/
Some restaurants in Chinatown (Boston) serve broiled scallops on the shell in season, some of them come with the corral attached. The whole thing is covered with finely minced garlic and oil. So good...