Lobster Bisque / Key West 9

EATING DOWN HIGHWAY ONE

With Gene Morgan and his favorite traveling companion Nancy

I don’t think tourists ever stop on Stock Island. It is the last landfall before you cross over the Cow Key Channel into Key West. Compared to the resort areas all around, it s just a down right slum. It got it’s name because it was originally where they raised cows and pigs. If you get off highway one on the south side, it’s not long before you run into areas that might be good places to set mystery stories. As a matter of a fact, Key West mystery writer Tom Corcoran used Stock Island back roads in his books as a place to find headless bodies and burning motorcycles.

Hogfish Grill is impossible to find. We go there often and still have trouble locating it. You travel a maze of crisscrossing streets along the harbor area until you just accidentally run into it.

You might have noticed, we eat shrimp a lot. Coming from the Midwest eating fresh seafood is a rare pleasure. The shrimp in our area, even the stuff from fresh fish stores, comes from Thailand and was probably frozen and hasn’t seen seawater for a month or more. Fresh is pretty much a joke around here.

Fresh is the order of the day at Hog Fish Grill. Around the corner on the dock is where the shrimp boats unload their daily catch. From the ocean through the Hog Fish kitchen right to your table is all it travels. It don’t get any fresher than that, and the difference is in the taste. It is sweet and fragrant and oh so good. As I said we ate there a whole bunch of times. Nancy loved the bacon wrapped shrimp.

We almost always eat our shrimp grilled or broiled, but sometimes a little extra flavor from another meat or sauce gives a little extra kick to the meal. I like mine stuffed with crab meat. Fresh crab is even sweeter than shrimp. It adds a lot to the flavor. Man, writing this is making me hungry.

Oh, we almost forgot the lobster bisque is heavenly.

We had the bowl half gone before we remembered to take a picture. You just don’t think too good with a bowl of hot lobster bisque in front of you. Hey, Next stop, Key West.