Why Coastal Seafood Tastes So Good

There is a simple reason fish eaten within sight of the sea tastes better than fish eaten anywhere else: time. A dayboat lands its catch in the afternoon, and a good pub kitchen cooks it that evening. Nothing has been frozen, nothing has crossed three counties, and nothing needs much doing to it. That is the whole philosophy of coastal eating in Britain — buy the best thing landed that morning and get out of its way.

So when you plan a beach day or a cliff walk, build the meal around what the boats are bringing in rather than the other way round. Walk first, eat second, and ask what came in today before you even look at the menu.

Mussels: The Best Value on the Coast

Mussels are rope-grown in estuaries and sea lochs from the Menai Strait to Loch Fyne, and because they grow on ropes rather than being scraped off rocks, they arrive clean and grit-free. They are also cheap, sustainable and quick to cook — a kilo between two people is generous with plenty of bread.

The old rule about eating shellfish only in months containing an "r" applied to wild mussels during the summer spawning season, when they turn thin and watery. Farmed mussels are good all year, though they are plumpest from autumn through to spring. Order them in a big pot with white wine, shallots and cream, or cooked in cider if you are in the West Country. The cooking liquor is really the point — mop it up properly with crusty bread, and do not let anyone take the pot away early.

If you are buying from a harbour-side fishmonger, ask them to check the shells are closed and to give you a bag of ice for the journey home.

Oysters: Natives, Pacifics and When to Eat Them

Britain has two oysters worth knowing. The native is flatter, slower grown, more expensive and more mineral and metallic on the finish. Pacific oysters are larger and creamier, and because they are grown so widely they are available all year round. Both are superb with nothing more than lemon, or a mignonette of red wine vinegar and finely chopped shallot.

Natives have a closed season — traditionally you eat them from September through to April, avoiding the summer months when they spawn. Pacifics carry no such restriction, so an oyster in July is almost certainly a Pacific one. Traditional beds at Whitstable, Mersea and Loch Ryan have been worked for centuries, and you will often find them sold by the half dozen from a stall, with a shucking knife going at impressive speed.

Eat them within a couple of hours of buying if you can — standing up, outdoors, with something dry and cold to drink.

Crab, Lobster and the Case for Brown Meat

Dressed crab is one of the great simple pleasures of the British seaside: white meat for texture, brown meat for deep savoury flavour, served in the shell with a wedge of lemon and brown bread and butter. Cromer crab is the famous name, and rightly so, but you will find excellent crab all along the south-west, the Welsh coast and the west coast of Scotland.

Do not turn your nose up at the brown meat — it is the most flavoursome part. Ask for a dressed crab with plenty of both. Lobster is best split and grilled with garlic butter, and spider crab, all legs and sweet meat, turns up on Devon and Cornish menus through spring and summer.

Crab and lobster are sweetest from late spring into autumn, when the water is warmer. In the colder months, look to scallops instead.

Dayboat Fish: What to Ask For

A good chalkboard will name the boat, the port or both. Look for clear eyes, bright red gills, firm flesh and a smell of the sea rather than ammonia. Anything landed today is worth ordering simply — grilled, fried in butter, or baked with herbs.

• Mackerel — line-caught in summer, best grilled hard and fast, served with gooseberry or a sharp pickle.
• Gurnard — a firm, sweet, underrated fish, wonderful roasted whole on the bone.
• Plaice and sole — the classic fried-in-butter order, dusted in seasoned flour, with lemon and parsley.
• Hake and pollack — meaty white fish that take well to batter, and usually the best value on the board.
• Scallops — hand-dived ones are worth the extra, seared briefly in a hot pan with bacon or just butter.

If the menu offers fish pie, fish soup or fishcakes, that is often where the day's smaller and cheaper catch ends up — and it is frequently the best thing on the table.

Practicalities for a Seaside Lunch

• Check the tides. A two-hour walk can become a wading expedition if you time it badly. Tide tables are posted at most harbour walls and beach car parks.
• Book for dinner, chance it at lunch. Coastal pubs fill fast on sunny weekends; lunchtime tables turn over more quickly.
• Take cash. Harbour stalls, shellfish huts and beach cafés are still often cash-only, and mobile signal on the coast is unreliable.
• Ask about the catch, not the specials board. Staff will happily tell you what is freshest and what has been in the freezer.
• Carry a cool bag. If you plan to buy fish or shellfish to take home, ice and a cool bag make the difference between a treat and a wasted journey.
• Bring layers. Even in July, a sea breeze on a harbour wall can be bracing, and the best seafood lunches are eaten outside.

Do all of that and you will eat beautifully for very little: a pot of mussels, a dressed crab, half a dozen oysters, a pint of something local and a view of the water. It is one of the great pleasures of travelling around the British coast, and it costs far less than the view suggests.