Read and Respond #2,

My Memories of My Favorite Seafood

Growing up my parents always treated any visiting relative to a wonderful seafood meal that my Dad caught and prepared for them. It was so awesome to our senses, and we could not wait to sit down with our North Carolina relatives to enjoy the sea's bounty.
       Dad would get up early a couple days in a row, while the relatives were visiting to collect the bounty. On the second evening he would start preparing the clams, oysters, salmon, smelt, and of course my favorite,crab.
        He would season the various waters to prepare for the shellfish to be boiled in, and then slather the salmon with softened real butter and his special blend of seasons.  The smelt was usually deep fried after it was put into egg and drug through flour. While he prepared the ocean food, my Mother would make cole slaw, and potato salad, and for the finishing touch she would make corn meal pancakes, which were made with corn meal brought to my Mother from North Carolina.
        We had been brought up on seafood, so we were use to the smell that comes along with the fantastic taste at the end of preparation. Our relatives nose would scrunch up because their noses could not handle the fishy smell.
         When the food was ready, Dad would cover the table with newspaper and put a roll of paper towels and all the tools we used to get meat out of the shells, in the middle of the table. With our paper plates in front of us, every one dug into the food.  I laughed until I cried when one of my cousins tried to bite into the shell of a crab.  He did not realize that there are special instruments for cracking the shell open. He crunched loudly and then spit the broken shell onto his plate. His face was priceless, and we all laughed at him. He was showed how to get to the good stuff, but he was not happy that he had to work hard to get to the yummy meat inside.
          The seafood was warm, aromatic, soft and tender with the flavor of butter thrown into the mixture that went over the tongue.  I can almost taste the crab's flavor that I love so much. I wish that everyone could enjoy the flavor of my Dad's seafood, I know we did.