Southern fish fry

Wandering around Ocracoke was the source of a couple of food adventures. At the recommendation of friends on the mainland, we sought out a lunch of shrimps and grits. A bowl of grits is not all that much different than a bowl of hot cereal, except that it is different. Especially when spicy shrimp are served over top.

Lunch was enough to get us into the spirit of things, so we sought out a fish shack and bought some local goodies, including a couple of soft-shell crabs. My only regret of the day? That I didn't run out to where we were parked to grab my camera for a quick little video. It didn't take many seconds at all for our guy to clean the little crabs we bought from him. Snip, snip, and the heads were gone; a twist of the thumb and the innards were out.

He convinced us they had to be fried, so that's what I attempted. Only without flour or fine breadcrumbs on board, it was tricky. Best I could come up with was a packet of cornbread mix (an item I couldn't resist, I think it was 39 cents). I beat up an egg with some milk, then dipped the crabs into the mix to wet them. After that, they went into the cornmeal, then into the hot oil while I hoped for the best. Thankfully, the Dear Man also cooked up some grouper on the barbie. Green pepper and avocado with lemon juice made an odd but tasty (and surprisingly complementary) salad.

I don't think I would have convinced any Southerner with my results, but hey -- we were in the mode -- and camped right next to the dunes with the surf pounding hard, we weren't about to complain.