Day three-The florida Experience

I recall how much colder it seemed when I was growing up. In Lemon City, a small village which was actually part of Miami, it was
not at all unusual to find a 1/4 inch of ice on a pail of water left outside. My Mother reported to me that even as far South as Key Largo, they could occasionally pick up many small snappers the
morning after a freeze. Of course snook in the creeks and amongst the mangroves on the bay side froze as well but were not collected.
To the people in the Keys they were called "Soap fish" because they
tasted to them like soap. that was because in those days the scales were cut off leaving the skin intact. Today we filet the sides off, then the skin,and that solves the problem. Snook are now a game fish and one of the tastiest morsels fish lovers can savor.
It will come as a surprise to some that "Sea Cows" [Manatees] were also on the menue for some and it was said they tasted exactly like pork. Another staple was sea turtles, both Green and Loggerhead. Nets would be set around certain rock "patches" known as turtle habitat. The live turtles would be brought ashore and if there was more than one, they would be put in a Kraal [fenced inclosure] and fed and watered until used as food. In the central Keys, there was a popular resturant featuring turtle called "Sid and Roxies Green Turtle Inn."
Small barracuda up to about 5 pounds were served in restaurants as "Deep Sea Trout". They are one of the tastiest of fish with firm white meat but dangerous to eat. Large ones, especially those caught in deeper water near the reefs, develope a poisen called ciguaterra that is very lethal.
The large mollusks called "conchs" from which the inhabitants of the keys derived their nichnames were a favorite item on the menue. We called them [broad lip conchs] but marine scientists refer to them by their scientific name "Strombus gigas". No matter, they taste the same. A great way to enjoy them is to dice then into small squares and douse with salt, pepper, and lime juice. As my friend used to like to say, they would "Make a rabbit hug a hound" they are so good.
A couple of other ways to fix then is to fine chop and season and deep fry. These are called "Fritters." Lastly, my son's favorite is called chowder. Again dice into small pieces, cut up fresh tomato in small pieces, add finely chopped onion, celery, black pepper, sea salt and drown in lime juice but do not cook.Let sit in the 'fridge overnight and VIOLA!!!! [p.s. more hound hugging]
stay tuned to my blogs for more memories of fishing and huntiog.
The geeze