Sure they’re bugs, but boy are they tasty!

On one of our outings to the San Francisco Exploratorium‘s monthly After Dark evenings we dined at Nettie’s Crab Shack. Nettie’s describes themselves like this “We would fill it with big, chunky picnic tables simply covered with butcher paper and beautifully weathered furniture you’d find in an old seaside joint.” I grew up and lived for many years on the east coast of Canada where there are plenty of “old seaside joints,” like this one in Hall’s Harbour, Nova Scotia.

Nettie’s delightfully captures the essence of places like this. All that’s missing is the spray from the breakers against the wharf and the tang of salt and seaweed in the air.

We stared off by splitting a rather nice salad (~ $7).

I love crab, especially crabcakes, so that’s what I opted for: The crab cakes, shoestrings, lemony mayo ($11). These were very nicely done, each topped with a dollop of lemon mayo. As an added bonus, the presentation was reminiscent of a pair of boobs. You have to love food that reminds you of boobs.

Ironically, while I grew up in prime lobster country, I have never really developed a love of lobster. Maybe that’s because we never had it when I was a kid. Suzanne, however, loves it and chose warm maine lobster roll ($35). Sure it was Maine Lobster, and not Nova Scotia lobster, but it was still tasty. Lost of meat heaped into a large roll that had been well toasted.

Both our entrées came wit Nettie’s rosemary shoestring fries. Yummy.

To finish off the meal, we split a sweet cherry pie ($8). This was nice, with a flakey crust. It was so good, that we almost forgot to snap a pic before finishing it off.

I’d really like to get back to Nettie’s sometime before we move. I strongly recommend it if you like seafood in a casual setting.

I first tried making this meal after consulting with Chef Billy Krupp at Google a couple years ago. I wanted to do a seared tuna steak and was casting about for ideas of sides. Rice or potatoes, a vegetable, that sort of thing. Chef Krupp made the suggestion of doing wasabi mashers. He also suggested asparagus with red thai chili peppers (which I did at the time, but it was asparagus season then).

When I made it this time I used swiss chard as the side, as we had some from our produce delivery.

Chard

• Wash, trim, and chop into thin ribbons (the stems into small chunks).
• Quickly sauté until just tender
• season with sesame oil

Tuna

• Coat the steaks in sesame seeds: white, black, or a mix.
• Quickly sear each side in a bit of oil in a hot pan. A cast iron (plain or enameled) pan works great for this.
• Be careful not to overcook, it should still be pink/raw in the middle.

Potatoes

• Make mashed potatoes.
• Mix in wasabi paste. If you’re mixed the paste from powder, you probably want to make more than you think you might need. It takes quite a bit to give these a nice kick.

That’s all there is to it. And here it is plated and ready to eat.