noshing on sealife

Jogging along the corniche, basking in the Arabian heat and humidity listening to Fatboy Slim, the Rolling Stones, Donovan, Juanes etc on my iPod I spotted a family in the harbor collecting clams at low tide. Somehow out of place this seemed amidst the buzz of morning traffic and the rising heat of the volcanic crucible called Aden.

But Yemeni seafood is one treasure I'll definitely miss when I leave here. The other day I went again to the market bought some fish (derak=kingfish) and ran home to make sashimi a la Shohei. Not quite Niki's Tokyo Inn on Hildebrand and San Pedro in SA, but hey raw fish is raw fish and it was good enough for me. Domo arigato to my sashimi sensei Shohei the shutterbug from Tokyo I met in Mukalla.

Then the other day, I opted for a crab boil...I bought 1/2 a kilo o' crabs for $2 and googled for a recipe. It's quite easy. All you gotta do is boil some water with plenty of salt, throw in some chili powder, coriander, pepper or whatever spices you like and then toss in the crabs with shell and all. 10 minutes later your mouth is teleported to the docks of B-more as you voracioiusly crack these crustaceans into oblivion. They went rather well with a garlic butter dipping sauce I conjured up. ummm yummy.

and today...i'm doing ceviche....the fish was alive at 4am, caught at 5am, brought into Aden's fish market at 7...I bought it at 7:30, at 7:45 it was deboned and filleted. By 8:30 it was sittin in my fridge marinating in the ascorbic acidity of freshly squeezed lime juice. 6 hours from now, my mouth will teleport to veracruz and prompt me to belt out some son jarocho.

I'm also gonna make a crab dip. For seafood lovers and seafood cooks, aden is another playground. I wonder what I can do with clams...some kind of pasta clam dish comes to mind....linguini...hm, i gotta go google now. peace out