World’s Best Beach Food
October 19, 2009
World’s Best Beach Food
by Siobhan Adcock
Conde Nast Traveler on Concierge.com
On most beaches, the best food you’ll get is something fried, served with a side of something else fried. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course: to eat greasy French fries (or fried clams, or even fried dough) on the beach is human. But to eat tender grilled octopus and wash it down with a cold cerveza while digging your toes into the powdery sand of Mexico’s Pacific Coast—well, that’s divine. Our (Travel + Leisure’s) list of contenders for the world’s best beach food contains its share of classic fried goodies and seafood, as well as some less-familiar seaside delicacies, such as the traditional English breakfast preferred by Cornwall’s surfing set, cool and creamy salads served on a shady patio overlooking the north coast of Mykonos, and what may be America’s best—and definitely its largest—cheeseburger.
Whether it’s prepared in a roadside shack or a gleaming modern kitchen, this is beach food sublime enough to compete with an ocean view.
Steamed Lobsters in Maine
Fry-Up in Cornwall
Grilled Fish in Vietnam
Alcapurrias in Puerto Rico
Oysters in Brittany
Acarajes in Brazil
Fish Taco in Maui
Bacon Double Cheeseburgers in San Diego
Grilled Octopus in Mexico
Elephant Ears on the Jersey Shores
Paella in Mallorca
Mezes in Mykonos, Greece
Classic steamed lobster in Maine
The beach: Waterman’s Beach in South Thomaston, on Maine’s Midcoast
The place: Waterman’s Beach Lobster, a family-run roadside stand with picnic tables right on the
beach
The dish: Salt water–steamed lobster
If lobster is an art form in Maine, Waterman’s Beach Lobster is its Mona Lisa: a deceptively simple classic with mysterious, seductive powers. Don’t go expecting fancy techniques or elaborate side dishes—or any dishes at all, for that matter. Your crayon-red lobster will arrive on a cardboard tray, with a bag of potato chips, a cup of melted butter, and a soft piece of bread. Period. But once you settle onto a brightly painted picnic bench and crack into one of Waterman’s huge, fresh lobsters, you won’t miss any of the accoutrements.
The lobsters are steamed over salt water (rather than boiled in a pot of fresh water), which accounts for their sweet, briny flavor. The taste is pure, unadorned Maine, as is the view: pine and spruce forests; a shell-strewn, rocky beach; a dock stacked high with lobster traps; and a glittering blue bay. Save room for ice cream or homemade rhubarb pie.
Waterman’s Beach Lobster
Waterman’s Beach Road
South Thomaston, Maine
(207) 596-7819
Gourmet breakfast fry-up in Cornwall, England
The beach: Watergate Bay in Cornwall, the surfer’s paradise of western England
The place: Fifteen Cornwall, where Jamie Oliver helps aspiring young chefs earn their stripes in the
kitchen
The dish: A locally sourced English fry-up, with eggs, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, and fresh-baked
bread
A day of surfing on Cornwall’s north coast—where the water temperature hovers around 60°F—calls for a serious prebeach fuel-up. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver comes to the rescue, in more ways than one. His acclaimed restaurant Fifteen Cornwall, overlooking a wide, pretty beach in the heart of England’s surf country, each year gives underprivileged students true hands-on culinary training. And like many restaurants born of England’s food renaissance, Fifteen Cornwall ( http://www.fifteencornwall.co.uk/)is all about local ingredients and food products. Those fried eggs with their gorgeous, sunlight-orange yolks came from a nearby poultry farmer. The thick slices of grilled heirloom tomatoes arrived courtesy of a regional specialty-veggie grower. The succulent sausage? The foraged mushrooms? Yeah, the chef “knows a guy.” Top up your tank with some of the best coffee for miles, and you’re ready for the bracing water.
The beach is a home base for local surf kids as well as extreme water-sports aficionados from further afield—although “extreme” in this case means nothing more aggro than parasailing (this is the English countryside, not L.A.).
On the Beach
Watergate Bay , Cornwall
England
Tel: 44 1637 861 000
The original “special sauce in Phu Quoc, Vietnam
The beach: Bai Truong Beach, on breathtaking Phu Quoc island in Vietnam
The place: The Palm Tree, a sand-floor, family-run seafood shack next to the La Veranda
resort
The dish: Ca chien sot tieu, whole fish grilled in foil and served with the island’s
renowned nuoc mam fish sauce
Phu Quoc, an island off the coast of Vietnam, is famous for two things. It’s one of the most buzzed-about emerging destinations in southeast Asia (luxury hotels are swooping in as you read this). And Phu Quoc is renowned among epicures for producing some of the world’s finest peppercorns and the very best fish sauce, that briny, heady condiment ubiquitous in southeast Asian cuisines. Right in front of the La Veranda resort, you’ll find the Palm Tree, an open-air beach shack that serves up seafood about
as fast as the local fishermen catch it. The Palm Tree doesn’t have refrigeration, so preparations tend to be classic and simple. The whole fish grilled with nuoc mam and peppercorns combines the best of the island on one paper plate—add some silky sand, a view of gentle waves, and a friendly, homey atmosphere, and you’ve got something much better than a cheeseburger in paradise.
The Palm Tree
Duong Dong, Phu Quoc
Vietnam
no phone
Deep-fried heaven in San Juan, Puerto Rico
The beach: Piñones Beach, Puerto Rico
The place: Any one of a long stretch of open-air beachside stands
The dish: Alcapurrias, fritters made with crabmeat and yuca
Head east from San Juan along Highway 187, a scenic coastal road, and you’ll hit Piñones Beach, a favorite Sunday drive destination for locals. A bike path follows the beach under pine and palm trees, leading to a stretch of open-air kioscos where the sea air is tinged with the mouthwatering scent of onion and garlic. Alcapurrias are the beach grub to grab here: They’re made by spreading a golden paste of ground yuca onto a broad almond-tree leaf, which is then used to fold the paste around a dollop of crabmeat flavored with onion, garlic, and chiles (an alternate version is made with ground beef, but crab is the way to go). The next step involves frying in lard, about which perhaps the less said the better. But the result is fist-sized, golden-brown, deep-fried heaven. Find the kiosco with the longer line—which means they’re making their alcapurrias fresh—and it’ll be well worth the wait. Alcapurrias are best enjoyed in the shade by the water, watching turquoise waves crash around kids playing in the surf.
Piñones Beach
Highway 187, Puerto Rico
no phone
Oysters in Brittany, France
The beach: Cancale, on the French Côte d’Émeraude
The place: The charming and friendly Bistrot la Marine, on the main street of
St.-Quay-Portrieux, overlooking the Atlantic
The dish: Oysters pulled fresh out of La Manche
Thanks to a unique confluence of environmental blessings, oysters from the beaches of Brittany are among the tastiest in the world. Cancale oysters, in particular, have a firm texture and a tangy bite that endear them to oyster-lovers, and at seafood bistros along the Brittany coast, each oyster costs little more than one euro, or about $1.40 by current conversion rates (a better deal than the $2 to $3 per oyster at raw bars here in the States). Oyster restaurants in Brittany tend to follow a comfortable formula: wood paneling, tile floors, walls covered with nautical bits and bobs, and a patio or sidewalk tables with a view of the harbor. Bistrot la Marine, in the little seaside town of St.-QuayPortrieux, adds its own lively touches to the formula, with retro-hipster live music on weekends and a friendly late-day bar scene. Tuck into a bowl of a dozen oysters with seasoned butter and a chilled glass of muscadet in the quiet étage upstairs overlooking the boats, with sprawling murals that depict old-school ostréiculteurs returning from a day’s sloshywork in the bay.
Bistrot la Marine
38 Quai de la République
St.-Quay-Portrieux, France
33-2-96-70-87-38
Afro-Brazilian beach cuisine in Bahia, Brazil
The beach: Itapua Beach in Salvador de Bahia
The place: Acarajé da Cira, just off Itapuan Beach
The dish: Acarajés, black-eyed pea fritters served with shrimp and hot sauces
The African-influenced cuisine of Brazil’s Bahia region is the source of the colorful acarajé, a much-loved beach snack that combines seafood, spice, and a sizzling pot. The foundation of the dish is the humble black-eyed pea, mashed into a paste, formed into a lump, and deep-fried in dendê oil. The fritter is topped with a combination of bright relishes and sauces, including caruru, an okra gumbo; vatapa, a thick, tangy sauce made with nuts, shrimp paste, and coconut milk; and your classic hot-pepper sauce. The finishing touch—worth the extra centavos—is a handful of small, bright red, sun-dried shrimp, or camarão, whose strong, almost pungent flavor plays well with the dense,
earthy fritter and the spicy sauces. Almost everyone in Salvador has a different opinion about where to get the best acarajés, but there’s a consensus around Acarajé da Cira, a simple outdoor kitchen in a shady square just off Itapua beach. You can watch the entire process, from forming the fritters to scooping on the sauces. But why watch when you can eat?
Acarajé da Cira
Itapua Beach
Bahia, Brazil
no phone
Fish Tacos in Maui
The beach: Big Beach in Makena, on Maui’s south shore
The place: The Jawz Tacos truck in the beach parking lot
The dish: The monstrously huge ono taco
The fresh, hot fish taco could be considered southern California’s greatest contribution to world culture since the birth of the motion picture industry. At the risk of offending the entire state, however, we’re nominating a fish taco from a little ways across the Pacific, in Maui. Big Beach, on the south shore in Makena, is Maui’s wildest, least-developed stretch of sand, where the sparkling, clear blue waves can get a bit rough. There are no resorts here, no lifeguards, no beach bars, and not much shade. But there is a long crescent of sand, a backdrop of green, a perfect view, and, out in the parking lot, a basic but well-organized truck called Jawz Tacos, selling civilization at its finest. Jawz offers three locally caught and equally delectable options for your fish taco: light and flaky mahi mahi (the traditionalist’s choice), pearly and firm ono (for those who like their fish a bit more buttery), and ahi (yellowfin) tuna, whose thick flake stands up nicely to the rest of the taco. The fish is combined with freshly shredded cabbage, rice flecked with cilantro, and a zingy salsa-and-sour-cream sauce in not one but two overlapping corn tortillas—the large fish taco is as long as a woman’s forearm, and almost guaranteed to fall apart under the combined weight of the deliciousness within. If you’re the kind of person who can eat an entire helping, you might also be the kind of person who can agree that claiming the best fish tacos are in San Diego is a little bit…safe.
Classy San Diego …. and covered in cheeseburger grease
Bacon Double Cheeseburgers in San Diego
The beach: Point Loma at Ocean Beach in San Diego
The place: Hodad’s, the legendary beach burger joint
The dish: The famous, intimidating bacon double cheeseburger
Just as any list of great beach food must include a fish taco, so must it include a tip of the cap to the city of San Diego. San Diego produces some damn fine beach food, including the grub at Hodad’s, one block from Ocean Beach. Recently ranked no. 1 in a locals-only poll of the best burger in San Diego, Hodad’s also regularly tops lists of the best burgers in the nation. Hodad’s fans are numerous, ferocious, and sometimes a little scary—almost as scary as the sheer vertical height of the bacon double cheeseburger. If you can get your jaws around it, you’re either a velociraptor or very determined; in either case, congratulations. So what’s the genius of the Hodad’s burger? Is it the bacon that’s formed into two bacon patties rather than layered on in strips, allowing even distribution of bacon-y goodness across both burger patties? Is it that you can request your burger “SAC-ed,” creating a triple threat of Swiss, American, and cheddar? Best to examine these sacred questions for yourself. But skip the busy, crowded dining room and get your burgers to go, the better to enjoy them while watching the surfers on Ocean Beach, a classic strip of California beach with swaying palms and a long pier. Hodad’s apostles suggest a dip in the ocean to clean up afterward, anyway.
Hodad’s
5010 Newport Avenue
San Diego, California
(619) 224-4623
Tendar, tart octopus in Savulita, Mexico
Grilled Octopus in Mexico
The beach: Sayulita, north of Puerto Vallarta in Nayarit, Mexico
The place: El Costeño, also known as Ruperto’s, one of the town’s original beachfront
restaurants
The dish: Grilled octopus laced with lime juice
The once-sleepy fishing pueblo of Sayulita has officially been discovered: No spot on the Pacific Coast with surfing this good can go incognito for long. But despite the steadily growing influx of foreign visitors and well-to-do Puerto Vallartans buying real estate, the town has retained its eccentric, laid-back vibe. There’s one of just about everybody here, from rancheros to retirees, surfer kids to San Francisco expats, drawn by the region’s world-class surf and the small-town, sand-between-the-toes beach culture that has evolved here. Sayulita’s beach is dotted with sand-floor seafood shacks, but the most established is El Costeño—also one of the friendliest spots in a welcoming town. Settle into a plastic chair in the shade of the palapa for some people-watching and blue-gazing, and order a plate of the tender grilled octopus, charred crispy around the edges but meaty in the middle and made tart with a squeeze of lime juice. Most of the seafood here is fresh-caught, so you can’t go wrong with a simple grill-plus-citrus preparation. Wash it down with a
cold cerveza, or if you’re feeling brave, one of the bathtub-size (and shockingly cheap) margaritas.
El Costeño
Sayulita
Nayarit, Mexico
(329) 291-3045
Classic boardwalk grup on the New Jersey shore
Elephant Ears on the Jersey Shore
The beach: Beach Haven, New Jersey
The place: Crust and Crumb Bakery, a family-owned beachside institution
The dish: Elephant ears, fried dough coated in cinnamon and sugar
The old-fashioned elephant ear is classic boardwalk food: an irregular flat disk of deep-fried dough topped with butter, liberally sprinkled with
a cinnamon-sugar mixture, and served piping hot. And Beach Haven, New Jersey, at the southern end of Long Beach Island, is classic Jersey Shore: an old-school American beach town that’s a magnet for families from Philadelphia, New York City, and all the Jersey suburbs in between. So it stands to reason that the combination of Beach Haven and elephant ear is a Proustian talisman of summertime Americana—and that’s before taking into account the tiny family-run bakery, Crust and Crumb, that’s been producing elephant ears and other baked goodies since 1987. It’s located within a Skee-Ball’s throw of the town’s low-key amusement park, Fantasy Island, and just two blocks from the wide, sandy beach. Beach Haven regulars insist that the official start of summer isn’t June 21—it’s the moment you get your first whiff of cinnamon-scented sea air on the beach near Crust and Crumb.
Crust and Crumb Bakery
Ninth Street and Bay Avenue
Beach Haven, New Jersey
A paella feast in Mallorca, Spain
Paella in Mallorca
The beach: Palma Bay, in Ciudad Jardín
The place: El Bungalow
The dish: Sumptuous seafood-studded paella
Despite its popularity in Mallorca, El Bungalow feels like an insiders’ secret. It’s partly the unpretentious look of the place: With a mailbox out front, it could almost be your uncle’s ranch house…if your uncle’s house were on a quietly spectacular beach, with a terrace on the sand where you could watch the hushed advance and retreat of the Mediterranean. But the restaurant is packed every night with locals, chefs, and Mallorca scenesters, so clearly the secret is out. El Bungalow is justly beloved for its paella—toothsome rice seasoned with paprika, saffron, and garlic and studded with gleaming mussels, shrimp, and oysters. Book a table on the terrace for lunch or dinner, and the sea breezes from the south will stir the tantalizing scent of saffron from your paellera.
Mezes in Mykonos, Greece
The beach: Agios Sostis Beach on Mykonos’s north shore
The place: Kiki’s
The dish: The delectable offerings at the salad bar: tabouleh,
curried fusilli-and-chicken salad, beets in yogurt sauce, or black-eyed peas with
parsley and olive oil
After all the good old fried-with-a-side beach food out there, it may come as a surprise (or a relief) to discover that great beach food isn’t always deep-fried, grilled, greasy, or fishy. At Kiki’s, a relaxed favorite on a tiny beach on Mykonos’s north shore, there’s no phone, no address, no sign, and no electricity. But there is that rare thing: something healthy and satisfying to eat within sight of the ocean. Put your name on the list, get a chilled bottle of wine, and cool your heels in the waves on the sheltered, tiny beach below the restaurant while you wait for a table on the shady patio. The place serves straightforward grilled entrées like chicken, pork chops, and seafood, but while waiting for your main dish to come off the coals, you can help yourself to Kiki’s excellent salad bar: bowls heaped with creamy, yogurt-coated beets; plump artichokes dipped in lemon juice; and cucumbers dressed in a deliciously light and garlicky tzatziki sauce, among other tasty dishes. But save room for whatever Kiki’s chef slammed down on the grill for you: The portions are enormous. You can’t eat healthy all day, can you?
Agios Sostis Beach
Mykonos , Cyclades
84600
Concierge.com’s insider take:
If this place sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve read about it in a travel magazine, heard a honeymooning couple raving about it at your hotel, or maybe seen it in your Greek island dreams. Kiki’s is the embodiment of laid-back Mykonos: no phone or sign, a limited menu, and only one meal (lunch) served daily. To find it, follow the road to Panormos Bay, then keep heading north to Agios Sostis beach; you’ll see cars parked on the shoulder and a trail of smoke rising from a white cube house shrouded by the gnarled branches of an ancient tree. Order a glass of chilled Greek rosé, sit on the shaded terrace overlooking a textbook white-sand beach, and help yourself to a choice of salads—perhaps artichokes with lemon, beets in yogurt sauce, or white beans with parsley and olive oil. Entrées come from the grill; the marinated pork chop, chicken thighs, and supremely tender octopus are our favorites. Kiki’s is a good choice for a windy day, since the cove (and the perfectly blue water, of course) it sits above are more protected than the southern beaches. But regardless, everyone on the island makes it to Kiki’s once during their stay—or ought to.
Closed mid-October to mid-April.
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