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The Feast of Seven Fishes


Dr. Teeth

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A friend of mine ( the second half of the WHPS )

 

went to a 7 Fishes dinner , at Woods Hole restaurant , Water Street kitchen   sorry , some fuzziness w his pictures 

 

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Menu

 

I tried to place the pics in the order of the Menu ,, as they were not labeled.

 

no pic , Vodka & Salmon , as far s I can tell

 

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probably , by elimination , the Fried Oyster Caesar

 

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the Soup

 

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the ravioli

 

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the doughnut.

 

no pic :  the tempura.

 

he said it was excellent.

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We went out this year. Bittersweet because my father is currently in the hospital (although he'll be transferred to acute rehab today or tomorrow). He'll be ok, and he insisted we keep our reservations at an Italian near my parents. Apparently I'm the only one who didn't take pictures of their food! But a lobster/crab cake to start, salad, and then halibut crusted with panko over a spinach/lobster risotto. Cheesecake for dessert. It was really good. 

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Joanna G. Hurley

"Civilization means food and literature all round." -Aldous Huxley

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  • 11 months later...

Seven Fishes time again.   Literally my favorite food day of the year.   
 

Basic format for me is cold apps, hot apps and then a seated dinner, usually just pasta and a salad.   Goal is for folks to be about 60% full before they sit down.   I used to do a baked fish course after pasta, but folks were usually just full (We do a lot of apps)
 

Plan for this year:

Smoked Oysters (every year)

Seafood Salad w/ shrimp, squid, scungilli (every year)

Cocktail Shrimp (every year)

Some sort of smoked fish on bread thing (wife makes, I stay out of the way)

 

hot apps:

Baked stuffed clams ( every year)

Grilled Octopus (guests are bringing)

Elusive second hot app.   
 

ceasar salad

stuffed squid (oldest sons pasta choice)

 

Looking for help with the second hot app.   I’ve tried a fair number of things over the years.   Crab dip, mushroom caps stuffed with crab, salt cod brandade.   Nothing has really felt right.   We have a couple of picky eaters among our guests, but they will both eat anything with crab in it and I feel the need to have everyone get enough to eat.  Ideal would be both having seafood and being recognizable as Italian, but I can be flexible to an extent.   If possible, I’d rather not fry anything ( too last minute and messy) 

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2 hours ago, Dr. Teeth said:

Seven Fishes time again.   Literally my favorite food day of the year.   

Looking for help with the second hot app.   I’ve tried a fair number of things over the years.   Crab dip, mushroom caps stuffed with crab, salt cod brandade.   Nothing has really felt right.   We have a couple of picky eaters among our guests, but they will both eat anything with crab in it and I feel the need to have everyone get enough to eat.  Ideal would be both having seafood and being recognizable as Italian, but I can be flexible to an extent.   If possible, I’d rather not fry anything ( too last minute and messy) 

 

What about something with the bay scallops that are in season this time of year?  They are pricy but you do not need a lot.  One year I did a scallop served in a scallop shell with a mornay style sauce on it.   It looked very pretty.  Or, this might be too messy, but you could look at Mario Batali's recipe for calamari "Sicilian lifeguard style."  It's really easy to make, you can do the sauce in advance, and it's delicious.  You could serve it in a shooter cup.  You could also swap in shrimp or scallops for the squid if you wanted.

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@Dr. Teeth How many diners?

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

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Only 10 diners.   But traditions being what they are, it would be nice to be able to easily scale it up and down.

 

ive done some things with a Mornay sauce before, including crab pizza.   Got tired of struggling with the pizza oven on the back porch in December.   Legal used to do a seafood casserole in a jack Mornay with sherry.   Theirs usually had scallops, but I liked the idea of being flexible on the seafood.   Bought some ceramic crab shells (which are a thing in Maryland or were in the 60’s) but they were a bit small for what I was thinking.   I think they were usually for crab imperial

 

edit: spellchecker 

Edited by Dr. Teeth (log)
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@Dr. Teeth  and @donk79 :

 

Ive made crab ravioli , home made pasta etc .  a white wine // light cream sauce 

 

it was excellent .  and , of course , no cheese .  the cream in the sauce was pre-cheese .

 

acceptable w pasta + seafood .

 

and @Dr. Teeth  you are correct :  its lobster up here , no crab.

 

Crab is from CA , the Bay Area , where I grew up .  no lobster there .

 

but there used to be Abalone .

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32 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

All the people I know who do a seven fishes dinner say you MUST have eel! Maybe just an old nonna's tale?


Yeah, there are some seafood choices that are more traditional depending on who you talk to: must have eel, or squid, or salt cod.   I don’t really have a reliable source for eel, so I don’t worry about it

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A simple white sauce (with cheese) crab mornay with lots of crab meat, baked in the oven. (not quite Italian but add some cherry tomatoes and Italian parsley 😀)

Scalable from 2 to many.

Be kind first.

Be nice.

(If you don't know the difference then you need to do some research)

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7 hours ago, Bernie said:

A simple white sauce (with cheese) crab mornay with lots of crab meat, baked in the oven. (not quite Italian but add some cherry tomatoes and Italian parsley 😀)

Scalable from 2 to many.

Bernie's suggestion is the way I would go with good Blue Crab.  Some sort of crab imperial.  Or, alternatively, a cream of crab soup.  Just make certain not to overwhelm the crab!

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On 12/2/2024 at 11:37 AM, Dr. Teeth said:

Only 10 diners.   But traditions being what they are, it would be nice to be able to easily scale it up and down.

 

ive done some things with a Mornay sauce before, including crab pizza.   Got tired of struggling with the pizza oven on the back porch in December.   Legal used to do a seafood casserole in a jack Mornay with sherry.   Theirs usually had scallops, but I liked the idea of being flexible on the seafood.   Bought some ceramic crab shells (which are a thing in Maryland or were in the 60’s) but they were a bit small for what I was thinking.   I think they were usually for crab imperial

 

edit: spellchecker 

 

I have both the old and the new Legal cookbooks, and the recipe for the casserole is in it.  Do you want it?  

Legal used to be such a reliable place for good seafood, simply prepared.  I probably have not eaten there in a decade.  It's terrible now.

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