Newspapers / The Shore Line (Pine … / April 1, 2011, edition 1 / Page 15
Part of The Shore Line (Pine Knoll Shores, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
OUT By Bea and Ben Sorrencified Here on the Crystal Coast, we have seen the number and kind of restau rants grow steadily during the past few decades. Our dining choices now rival those of many larger coastal and even inland areas. We can find close to a full range of dining options here, stretch ing from fast food to old-style coastal to gourmet and international cuisine. How fortunate we are to have sun, sand, sea—and great dining—on our coast. For many years, the Carolina coast has been characterized by informal “waterside” restaurants. They are typi cally located on or near the water, and their menus have sustained diners who are looking for traditionally prepared (normally fried) seafood, whether in the “calabash” mode or otherwise. In more recent years, however, the other wise has begun to take some surprising and dehcious turns. Specifically on the Crystal Coast, we can enjoy several modern renditions of the traditional waterside restaurant. One of the local classics in this category is the Crab’s Claw, located on the ocean in Atlantic Beach. Its bill of fare offers some very interesting variations on traditional seaside dining. The Crabs Claw menu showcases seafood in many forms. The lunch menu, for example, includes an inter esting list of seafood sandwiches—crab cake, grouper, flounder, salmon, shrimp or tuna. For landlubbers, the choices move to chicken breast and a half-pound burger, both served bar- beque style. Beyond this, you may opt for a Cuban sandwich made with ham, pork, and Swiss cheese. Each sandwich is accompanied by a choice of custom ary side dishes, like coleslaw, green salad, onion rings, potato salad, sweet potato or French fries. There is some thing to satisfy most tastes in seaside sandwiches and their accompaniments. If your lunch appetite goes more toward soup and salad, the Crabs Claw can satisfy you as well. The soups in clude a “southern style” clam chowder and, less traditionally, gazpacho (a cold soup originating in Spain that mixes summer vegetables and tomatoes), tor tilla soup (“loaded with chicken, corn and rice, with a burst of cilantro and lime”) and black bean soup with crab claws (garnished with yellow rice and ■. sour cream). The basic salad is a garden salad of baby greens, to which you may add grilled or blackened grouper, mahi-mahi, salmon or tuna. Even more interesting, whether for lunch or dinner, are the Crabs Claw’s entree salads. You may select among the tropical grilled shrimp salad (grilled jumbo shrimp on baby greens joined by tomato, cucumber and avocado encircled by pineapple-mango salsa), the “signature” blackberry chicken salad (chicken breast mari nated in blackberry jam on baby greens with candied pecans, Portobello mush rooms and gorgonzola cheese tossed in a blackberry vinaigrette dressing) and the “coastal” Cobb salad (crab claw meat, avocado, bacon, egg, onions and gorgonzola cheese on baby greens). The Crab’s Claw dinner menu is nothing short of a seafood lover’s delight. The appetizers offer many choices from the ocean, including specialty dips, bacon-wrapped scal lops, chilled blue crab claws, coconut fried shrimp, conch fritters, peel-and- eat shrimp and local Harker’s Island crabs. Among appetizers with a gour met touch, you can choose Caribbean curried shrimp or a green tomato and blackened shrimp dish. The dinner entrees are a veritable banquet of seafood delights. On the plain-and-simple side, you can order blue-crab claws, lobster meat, lump crab meat, or shrimp nicely panned in butter. If your taste leans toward seafood prepared in traditional New England style, you can select at market price one of the restaurant’s steamer pots, consisting of king crab, littleneck clams, shrimp and snow crab or the lobster pot for two, which includes two ten-ounce cold-water lobster tails, clams, shrimp and snow crab clusters. Both steamer pots include vegetables—carrots, celery, onions, red skin potatoes, and sweet corn “cobbettes.” They are served with house-prepared jalapeno cornbread. The lobster pot itself is accompanied by two green salads. Also available from the steam bar are a la carte se lections of local littleneck clams, king crab legs, snow crabs legs and wild blue mussels from Maine. But that’s not all. What may distin guish the Crab’s Claw from most of its seaside counterparts is its substantial list of chef’s entree specialties with a Caribbean accent. Seafood offered in more traditional forms is also prepared in innovative ways, as it might be in the Caribbean islands. Grouper, for exam ple, is rolled in an almond dredge, pan seared, topped with curried shrimp and served on a bed of baby greens. Salmon or mahi-mahi is presented over yellow rice with peas, accompanied with plantains sauteed in honey butter, topped with a sweet tropical sauce and garnished with a red curry sauce. For the increasing number of fresh tuna fans, the Caribbean specialties include blackened local tuna accompanied by pineapple-mango salsa and sauteed broccoli, then finished with a sweet roasted red pepper sauce and served over baby greens. Somewhat tamer specialties on the menu are traditional seafood paella served over yellow rice and peas and a house-made crab cake baked in a Portobello mushroom cap and presented over red crab primavera sauced penne pasta. Both are equally tempting. For landlubbers who may have (per haps reluctantly) accompanied seafood devotees to the Crab’s Claw, fear not. The restaurant offers pork and beef se lections “from the farm.” The landlub bers may choose a New York strip steak or a beef tenderloin filet or, if you pre fer, barbequed baby back ribs or pork tenderloin. If you venture to blend land and sea, you may add shrimp or king crab legs to a beef order. Dessert lovers will be glad to hear that dessert options vary from day to day, most if not all made in house. Of course, at the Crab’s Claw you can complement your food with beer or wine. There is a long list of domestic and imported beers. On the wine list is a good selection of reds and whites by the bottle, as well as some by the glass. The wines come from California, Down Under and Western Europe. And if neither beer nor wine is what you want, you can enjoy any number of specialties from martinis to mojitos, including interesting tropical drinks. The Crab’s Claw is located on the boardwalk in Atlantic Beach at 201 West Atlantic Blvd. It is open for business every day except on Wednesday from 11:30 a.m., but on Sunday opens “noon- ish.” Dinner is served beginning at 5:30 p.m. You can contact the restaurant at 726-8222 or at www.crabsclaw.com. TTie Food,The View, tAiiSiTosphere; All Priceless. Come Enjoy One of Our Nightly Specials! • Tuesday Night • ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT SHRIMP & RIBS $10.99 • Wednesday Night • SHRIMP ENTREES $11.95 • Thursday Night BO GO • BUY ONE GET ONE FREE FEATURED ENTREES OPEN FOR LUNCH SAT & SUN 11 AM-2:30PM NEW LUNCH MENU April 2011 I The Shoreline 15
The Shore Line (Pine Knoll Shores, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 1, 2011, edition 1
15
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75