Sho Nuff Seafood definitely gives mo nuff deep fried
San Francisco is surrounded by water on three sides. Including the whole gigantic Pacific just right there. With so much ocean and bay, you’d think reasonable seafood would be in vast supply. Well, there is seafood, but outside of some decent cod fish and chips places, the seafood you find is going to be pricey. And sure there is a bunch of crab, when in season, but, ugh, it is just so much work for so little meat. I like crab and tons of butter (duh!) but the effort and price always put me off. Yes, lazy and cheap, I’ll own it.
Fast forward to North Carolina, which sits on the Atlantic Ocean and seems they have a bit more of a robust fishing trawler brigade bringing in flounder, shrimp, scallops and various other edible ocean faring snackables. Even when you move inland to the Piedmont area of the state, it seems there is still plenty to be had, or at least found. Imagine my surprise when one random weekend I was in the mood for some fish and stuff and a Google search turned up a spot a few blocks from my abode located in….an abandoned mall?
I have this joke with my local friend Ms. M that I live in a hovel near an abandoned mall. The hovel part is a 50/50 thing, but the abandoned mall is pretty much that. Called Northgate, I remember from my super early youth as the place to go for Chess King, Sears, Orange Julius and moves. Some of which are no longer around (for good reason). It seems the inside of the mall closed down for good some years ago. Parts of it are still in use so I say it is more like 95% empty if you take into account the free standing bank in the parking lot on one side and the separate strip mall part of it on the other side which, oddly,. seems to have a full set of tenants and still going strong.
But the place I was interested in is called Sho Nuff Seafood and they are still open on the outside edge of the main closed inside mall. Basically a part of the larger unused building with an accessible entrance from the parking lot. At least they are there for now. There are plans to raze the giant main building eventually, but no timeline seems evident at this point. Which is fine with me since I love me some fried seafood and if they are good, it is nice to have them in the hood.
fried flounder and shrimp combo platter
This is what you get for $13.99. Two pieces of fried flounder, about 8 fried shrimp, couple hush puppies, Carolina cole slaw and a crap ton of crinkle cut French fries. It is a lot. This is something I could probably get three meals out of depending on my hunger levels.
It is cooked to order so you get it hot, fresh and crispy right out of the fryer. The flounder has a nice light cornmeal coating as does the shrimp. Enough to give it a small crunch in texture without overwhelming the fish or shrimp. Though, lets be honest, I was gonna be dousing them in tartar sauce after some initial tasting because I do loves me some tartar!
The peripherals that round out this meal were also good. Props for the crinkle fries instead of some thin cut ones. I do also enjoy Carolina cole slaw which is chopped fine and is a mixture of touches of mayo, vinegar, black pepper and sugar to round it all out. Hush puppies are really just deep fried cornbread but the trick is to make sure they come out crispy on the outside and light and bready inside. Keeping them small like this helps and the small bits of onion add a little sweetness. But again, I’m just gonna douse these in butter because I do loves me some butter!
But beyond the above platter, one thing which really drew me to Sho Nuff was an item I came across while perusing their menu online.
deep fried lobster tail
Yes, it was this thing. A deep fried lobster tail. I was intrigued by this because, I do loves me some lobster! As I have covered in the past due to my childhood birthday food choices. Thus I was intrigued by the idea of a whole tail being deep fried. I mean, it is the South, they will deep fry anything as all the food booths at State Fairs can attest to. But I was also dubious as it seems this could lead to some over cooked lobster and again, I wanna smother this in butter, yet the coating and seems to make it untenable. Of course, there was also the price. They were charging $15 for just the tail. A $1 more than the entire platter above. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and added it to my order.
lobster meat
It was definitely bigger than usual and as you can see, it was thick with white lobster meat. I’m not sure the coating really adds much to lobster, the meat itself is so nice and sweet solo I usually find I don’t need any extra texture elements. I will say this was just on the edge of being over cooked as parts of the tail had more of a chew to them then you would normally want. It wasn’t as greasy as I thought it would be either, so there is that. I think after a few bites my decision was deep frying of a lobster tail probably isn’t for me. I ended up scraping off the coating and then immersing it in some melted butter to absorb all the flavor before devouring it like it was my 12 year old birthday.
Well, phew, turns out this is a pretty good seafood spot in my hood. At least for as long as the mall is still standing and they decided to keep going till such a time. And it does seem to be popular. I didn’t order online, I actually went by the spot. At the time they still were not doing indoor eating, just take out. There were several cars in the lot and few folks inside ordering at the same time. Once I placed my order it probably took about 20 minutes to get and they brought it out to my car were I was waiting lined up with everyone else.
For those of us in this part of Durham Sho Nuff is definitely that when need a fried seafood fix. And if deep frying a lobster tail is your thing you can get that too. Seems they also specialize in Cajun seasoned crab legs and a fair number of other seafood options so surely you will be able to find something to tempt your taste buds. I’m sure I’ll be back since you know, I do loves me some fried seafood!
