Dining on Calabash-style seafood in the Carolinas

Wednesday, 27 February 2013. Ever since we arrived in this part of the Carolinas we've heard about "Calabash-style" seafood -- and the best place to find a decent seafood restaurant was in nearby Calabash, NC, just across the NC-SC state line from North Myrtle Beach.  So, we finally decided today was the day and drove the 20 minutes from our campground in Longs, SC, to the waterfront region of this little fishing town.

Calabash (pop. 1800) is located on the southeast coast of NC and is the southern most city in NC bordering SC.  It’s about 25 miles north of Myrtle Beach, SC and 50 miles south of Wilmington, NC. Calabash prides itself as the Seafood Capital of the World and boasts literally dozens of "Calabash-Style" seafood restaurants that offer a distinctive style of fried seafood. Calabash-style seafood is lightly breaded and then fried – and is invariably accompanied by the ever popular side dish of hushpuppies.  Corn meal is used instead of flour to give the seafood a light coating and the seafood is then fried in hot oil until it becomes golden brown.

After performing a fairly thorough internet search of local seafood restaurants in Calabash -- and reading numerous reviews -- we narrowed our selection down to two restaurants: Ella's of Calabash and the Dockside Seafood House that was located right at, yep, you guessed it, dockside of the town's fishing pier.  Opting for the Dockside, we arrived fairly early, around 4:30 (I was hungry for seafood and only had an orange for lunch), and asked for and got a window table overlooking the waterfront area and the estuary of the Little River Inlet.
  

Calabash waterfront

Waterfront area as viewed from the Dockside restaurant

Caught this pelican on a pier post just before he spread his huge wings and flew across the estuary

After ordering a bottle of St. Michelle Riesling and a cup New England clam chowder, we began to peruse the extensive menu. Lynette went with fried shrimp and deviled crab, while I opted for a combo platter of fried shrimp, fried scallops, and deviled crab. Pretty straight forward seafood preparation, except the deviled was a mixture of crab and (too much) stuffing that contained some type of seasoning we couldn't place.  The waitress had told us the breading had onion and green peppers, but there was still something else.  It was "Ok" but I've had better.  Guess we're spoiled on Maryland's famous crab cakes!  After ordering, the waitress brought the soup and a basket of absolutely delicious warm hushpuppies. Dipped in butter, they were WAY TOO GOOD since we ate far too many of them before our main meals arrived.  Needless-to-say, we both ate only a small part of our dinners and came back to the motorhome with enough shrimp and scallops for lunch tomorrow.  We topped off dinner by sharing a slice of key lime pie (can't pass that up) and coffee.

Looking at the far end of the pier dockside Calabash waterfront

All in all, a nice evening out for dinner at a previously un-visited location in this area for us.  I think I'd rate the whole experience a "6.5" (out of 10).  But once again, we've probably been spoiled by having grown up in Washington State (salmon, King Crab legs), living in Alaska (salmon, King Crab legs, and halibut), and enjoying Maryland's crab cakes for over 25 years -- and they're the best in the world!

Bonus Feature: The chef at one of the local seafood restaurants offers the following recipe for the breading that goes into Calabash-style seafood.  First, of course, always start with the freshest and best fish or seafood that you can find.

Calabash Breading

·           - - 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

·           --  Cup of bread crumbs

·          --  1/3 cup cornmeal

·           -- 1 egg

1.  Combine flour and cornmeal and place on a plate.  Place the breadcrumbs on another plate.

2.  Scramble the egg with a little water (about 2 teaspoons) to make the egg lighter.

3.  Rinse seafood and pat dry.

4.  Dip dried seafood in egg, then cornmeal mix, then egg mix, and lastly, bread crumbs.

5.  Fry for about three minutes on each side.

6.  Serve with cocktail or tartar sauce.