The Nicer Things That Don't Come Cheap - Dalian, China

Street food is great, but let's not forget to indulge in the nicer things from time to time.

And why settle for one when you have the hot plate to rule them all? This seafood platter comes with abalone, shrimp, steamer clams, scallops on the half-shell, and a whole lot of garlic. No special preparation, but good ingredients need very little.

Those sweet little scallops taste as pretty as they look. The garlic bites, but the meat stays delicately soft. What could possibly be better than this little scallop on the half-shell? A giant Scallop on the half-shell! This one also has ginger, scallion, and glass noodles in case you're extra-hungry.

Abalone is the Chinese acai, and sea cucumber has more hype than kale. There are several ways to prepare them, and ginger scallion is one of the best. Abalone is a soft, chewy, and minimally briny. It tastes milky and smooth, like the gustatory version of its mother-of-pearl shell.

Abalone actually tastes good, but Sea Cucumber is valued for its nutrition alone. It's best red-roasted, and when smushed to a little nothing under high pressure, It has the texture of really soft rubber, like if you were to boil a leather shoe, but it's better than non-pressurized, which crunches like a slimy cartilage.

Live Uni isn't a superfood, which is probably why it actually tastes good. The briny roe melts on the tongue after it meshes with a touch of soy sauce and wasabi...if you don't mind spooning around the spikes.

The luxury seafood is great, but sometimes it's nice to keep it simple. Paper-thin slices of Conch stir-fried with strings of scallion is still my classic fave.

Good seafood at a good price is pretty scarce in the states, but you can find it everywhere in Dalian. Even random street vendors sell live shellfish by the pound, and the clams come pretty cheap. We would make some rice and boil or steam them until the shells gape. Plucking the soft meat out of the shells is a dinner that preps itself faster than you can microwave.You can't go to Dalian and not try to seafood.

China - Seafood in Dalian

I can't leave the subject of Dalian without touching the subject of seafood. And in Dalian, seafood is practically street food. Dalian sets a new standard when it comes to shellfish, and by shellfish I don't mean shrimp and a couple of clams. I can buy beach-y bundles of conch, snails, and scallops by the pound right in my grandma's backyard, and believe me, eating scallops straight from the shell is like finding a pearl in every oyster.

There are the common things, and then there are the things you won't find anywhere else. And even if you do, it won't be half as good as what you find in Dalian. Take this giant Prawn, for example. It doesn't get any fresher than this tender, live-skewered, quickly-cooked shrimp-on-steroids.

If you're blown away by just my giant shrimp, you need to get out more. Try the succulent, so-called "River Crab", with meat so sweet it makes those from Maryland forget their baby blues.

Crab can get costly, but Abalone is the real luxury. The meat is fragrant, tender, and smooth-as-silk, with a taste and texture I can only describe as the best parts of scallops and octopus minus the legs. Check out the shiny light-catching shell for a glimpse of mother-of-pearl, and make sure you swallow slowly when you savor shellfish royalty.

Abalone – Dalian

There are numerous ways to serve Abalone, and there is no way to decide which I prefer. Those pictured are simply seared to perfection with unassuming soy sauce and a touch of garlic. Abalone is the Renaissance mollusk, pleasing to all audiences, master of all culinary craft. Abalone is tender and juicy for those who don’t like to chew but maintains some firmness to bargain with those who gag at slime. Abalone can soak in some flavor but never enough to overpower its own, no matter how potent the sauce. Its pearly ovoid symmetry and beautiful green-lustre shell appease aesthetics, and the neutral flavor fails to faze even the biggest seafood skeptics. Those who can’t stand the stench of sea smell none, and the meaty feel of the flesh humors the chest-thumping hunter-gatherer. Although it is classified as a mollusk, abalone stands alone.  Its contribution to the art of cuisine places it in a class of its own.