Skates, and ultimately skate wings, come from egg cases like the one shown here. Most such "mermaid's purses" wash ashore only after the hatchling has emerged in deep water. Though this case seemed intact, the egg was almost certainly no longer viable after being tossed in the surf and left high and dry.
Skate egg cases
North Beach, New Jersey
Though it's a close relative of the sea urchin, the sand dollar offers slim pickings for hungry predators, two-legged or otherwise. Only a few bottom-dwellers pay any heed to mature sand dollars, which can grow to a diameter of several inches, let alone to nickel-size specimens like this one, which washed ashore with the last high tide. Look elsewhere for your uni.
Sand dollars
North Beach, New Jersey
Sorry, all gone. Strawberry shortcake sundae (about $6).
Harvey Cedars Ice Cream Parlour
8007 Long Beach Blvd. (at 81st St.), Harvey Cedars, New Jersey
609-361-6103
B&K had served its final cup of coffee long before I passed this way, some years ago. I can't speak for the restaurant itself, but the color scheme of the pole supporting the coffee-shack sign was painted in the red and white of the island's most famous landmark.
B&K Coffee Shack
Barnegat Light, New Jersey
After seafood, Italian is the dominant cuisine on Long Beach Island. Though not an attempt to combine the two, this onion-strewn focaccia (square, $1.95) and a little imagination can evoke the ocean sand after the tide has receded.
Previously: A filled-to-order vanilla cannolo.
Surf City Bake Shop
610 North Long Beach Blvd. (6th-7th Sts.), Surf City, New Jersey
609-494-1400
(This location is closed. Far from LBI, Stutz's Pennsylvania locations remain open.) As a token of time at the shore, a box of salt-water taffy is easy to cart back home for everyone who couldn't get away. When shopping for myself, I mix and match from the self-service bins (about $8 per pound). Orange, teaberry, and molasses mint are all nice, but none is the equal of the softer-than-licorice licorice.
Stutz Candies
1419 South Long Beach Blvd. (14th-15th Sts.), Ship Bottom, New Jersey
(one of several locations)
609-494-5303
The Woodchipper ($7.25), like all the themed burgers on Woodie's expansive menu, is hand-shaped from ground sirloin. Even beneath lettuce, tomato, onion, cheddar, and ruffled potato chips, the flavor of open-flame cooking is unmistakeable. Though I half-expected the chips to arrive in much smaller fragments, I happily took the job of "woodchipping" in hand; after one crunchy bite, my free hand took on cleanup duty.
Woodie's Drive-In
South Long Beach Blvd. at 5th St.), Ship Bottom, New Jersey
609-361-7300
www.WoodiesBurgers.com
Nothing sits on the shelves at Shore Good. Every donut ($1.40 each) is fried and decorated on the spot, to the customer's specifications, by way of handwritten order forms and stubby miniature-golf pencils, and served warm. This cinnamon-and-sugar donut is one of the more modest options.
Shore Good Donuts
1211 South Long Beach Blvd. (12th-13th Sts.), Ship Bottom, New Jersey
609-492-0100
www.Facebook.com/pages/Shore-Good-Donuts/194074517310067
Clam strips, like these cornflour-battered deep-fried babies (sandwich, $5.99), are cut from the bivalve's muscular foot. Often the species at issue is the Atlantic surf clam, which former summer campers of a certain age will remember, from arts and crafts, as the key component of a common gift for parents, an ashtray.
Clam bellies incorporate all the fleshy parts of the animal, including the gastrointestinal tract (but sometimes excluding the chewy siphon). Usually these are prepared using Ipswich clams, also called softshells, steamers, and longnecks. Mature specimens are considerably smaller than surf clams and so can be deep-fried, whole, with no concern that they might burst in the deep-fryer or remain mushy at heart.
Most fried-clam connoisseurs favor bellies over strips for their brinier, some say fuller flavor. (Both are available at Boulevard Clams.) It's an interesting preference for internal organs over muscle meat, not unlike favoring beef liver over filet mignon or chitterlings over pork loin. That said, these clam strips tasted mighty fine; the LBI ocean breeze makes all the difference.
Boulevard Clams
2006 North Long Beach Blvd. (at 20th St.), Surf City, New Jersey
609-494-9494
www.BoulevardClams.com
Thank you!
