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Los Angeles Seafood
Los Angeles offers a wide variety of seafood restaurants that fit every budget for residents and visitors to enjoy. Incredible culinary experiences can be found in nearly every part of the city. Many of these restaurants even offer patrons a relaxing atmosphere with an incredible view while they enjoy their delicious meals.
Los Angeles has the good fortune to be located on the Pacific Ocean. The fresh fish markets offer the freshest seafood caught right offshore that you can take home and cook. All the local seafood restaurants buy this fresh seafood or they get it shipped in from around the Pacific Rim and other parts of the world for your enjoyment.
Finding the Best Los Angeles Seafood
When you are in Los Angeles, you want to find the best seafood. Whether you plan to eat out at a restaurant or you want some fresh seafood to cook for yourself, you need to know where to go to find the best seafood possible. That is where LA Seafood comes in. We will help you find what you are looking for with the least amount of stress. We want you to enjoy the bounty of the sea.
Most of the fish markets in Los Angeles will carry not only local seafood, but fresh seafood shipped in from all regions of the world. Los Angeles seafood markets will not let you down with their fresh, high quality fish and shellfish. You will soon learn that when you are looking for seafood, Los Angeles is one of the best places you can be.
Our Commitment to Only the Finest Los Angeles Seafood
Whether you are looking for wholesale seafood in Los Angeles or the top seafood restaurants in LA, you can be certain we will mention them here for you to find. Take a few moments to look through our listings and you will soon have several new places you will want to check out. We have done all the legwork for you so you do not have to. Each restaurant or fish market is checked out thoroughly before we include it here for your convenience.
We do not want you to be disappointed when you go out for seafood; we want you to enjoy every bite. This is why we have gone to all the trouble to weed out the places that do not meet our standards. In the hectic pace we all live in today, we understand how convenient it is to have one place you can go to for the information you need. This is why we not only include listings of all the best Los Angeles seafood establishments, but we also have had our staff write an entire series of articles to help you cook that fresh seafood you just brought home.
Our recipes have been tried and tested so you can create your own seafood masterpieces without worrying about the outcome. We are very proud of our seafood recipes and information. We hope you enjoy your visit here with us and that you find some helpful information. Please feel free to bookmark us in your favorite social bookmarking sites so you and your friends can come back often to get the best Los Angeles seafood tips.
Thanks for visiting,
Christine and everyone here at Los Angeles Seafood
Featured Seafood Recipe:
Rich and Creamy Seafood Chowder Recipe
This delicious creamy seafood chowder recipe will have you feeling like you are eating right on the coast. With tasty ingredients like scallops, shrimp, crab and calamari, this chowder really delivers on the seafood flavor. Of course, you can substitute whatever you have on hand; a flaky whitefish like haddock would work well, as would octopus, lobster, and mussels. This chowder is adaptable.
This is a wonderful winter soup. It is hearty and thick, with lots of solid ingredients that you can enjoy. While some home cooks may be intimidated by a seafood chowder, this recipe is very simple and delicious. Before you know it, you can serve your family restaurant quality chowder. Serve it up with some thick slices of crusty bread or you can even serve it in a bread bowl. If you want to lighten it up, have a small side salad to help cut the richness.
Leftovers are great the next day. The flavors get more time to blend together, giving the soup a wonderful taste of the sea. By all means, go with your favorite seafood varieties or go with what is on sale. This chowder is just as good with only shrimp as it is with the selection posted in the recipe. Do not miss out on this delicious recipe just because of your budget. Serve this seafood chowder during the holidays, for an everyday dinner, or when you have guests. It is so good you will want to make it a permanent part of your menu.
How to Make Seafood Chowder
Ingredients -
1-½ cups milk
1 (8-ounce) container cream cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (26-ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup green onions, chopped
1 (15.25-ounce) can whole kernel corn, undrained
1-½ cups potatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
½ pound shrimp
½ pound bay scallops
½ pound crabmeat
½ pound calamari tubes
½ pound clams, chopped
Preparation:
Heat ½ cup milk, cream cheese, and garlic in a large kettle over low heat. Stir and cook until blended well.
Add the soup, green onions, corn with liquid, parsley, potatoes, and remaining milk. Stir to mix well. Season with black and cayenne pepper. Let simmer for 25 minutes; do not allow it to boil.
Add the shrimp, crab, scallops, calamari, and clams and let the chowder continue to cook about 10 more minutes, or until the seafood is opaque.
Serve immediately.
(Serves 8.)
Photo Description:
Wouldn't this taste good with a loaf of crusty bread? Look at that creamy chowder, piled high with shrimp, calamari rings, scallops, and other seafood. Yum! Enjoy this tasty seafood chowder on a cold, blustery day. It will warm you to the core. This thick soup is easily a meal in its own right, but you could also serve it with bread or a green salad. This is a very rich soup. You can use low fat options for many of the ingredients to take the caloric level down. Enjoy this chowder on your own, with someone special, or serve it at a family gathering.
Choosing an LA Seafood Restaurant
Part of visiting a new city is enjoying their restaurants. However, if you have never been there before, how do you choose the restaurants that will give you the best meals? We have a few tips for you so you can make the best choices when it comes to Los Angeles seafood restaurants.
How to Choose a Restaurant
There are a few things you can look at when choosing an unknown restaurant. Take a look at the menu. Many restaurants will post the menu outside the door for passersby to see. Excellent restaurants usually have a limited menu that they do well. This will also let you see if the restaurant fits your budget.
Is the restaurant clean and uncluttered? If the front of the house looks clean, chances are the kitchen is clean, too.
Can you smell food cooking? If you can and it smells good, you have probably found a great restaurant. If you cannot smell anything, they either have a really good ventilation system or they microwave frozen food. It is a safer bet to pass it on by.
What Makes the Best Seafood Restaurant?
The best seafood restaurants use fresh seafood; not frozen. They know recipes that highlight the fresh flavor of the seafood instead of burying it under some thick sauce. Each dish should be prepared as it is ordered, not prepared ahead of time, and microwaved. The restaurant should be clean and offer good service to its patrons. Orders should be processed as quickly as possible and the food should be delivered hot and full of flavor. Restaurant employees should be courteous and willing to serve. Prices should be reasonable for what the customer gets.
Why a Seafood Restaurant?
Seafood restaurants are a popular choice because fresh seafood is delicious. It is a very healthy choice. Seafood is low in fat and calories in most cases. Many kinds of fish provide omega-3 fatty acids, a nutrient most of our food is lacking in today. It is high in protein, too. It is recommended that everyone eat seafood at least twice a week, and while most of us do not get enough, we tend to try to make up for it when we go out to a seafood restaurant.
Many people do not cook a lot of seafood themselves, so going out to a seafood restaurant is a treat. It is a chance to enjoy well-cooked seafood that perhaps they do not know how to prepare or that may be ordinarily out of their price range. Most of us do not get the luxury of eating seafood at home on a regular basis, so seafood has become a treat that we look forward to on special occasions.
Seafood restaurants feature fresh seafood from many regions of the world. Going out to a restaurant may offer the chance to try an old favorite or try something completely new. With choices like octopus, squid, mussels, clams, crab, lobster and several types of fresh fish, seafood restaurants have become the seafood experts.
Inside Los Angeles Seafood
Seafood Restaurants
A Guide to Los Angeles Seafood Restaurants - From simply cooked seafood on the beach to fine dining, Los Angeles seafood restaurants offer you some of the best seafood in the world. Enjoy your delicious dinner with a view of the ocean or in the heart of the city. Seafood has grown in popularity, and the restaurants of Los Angeles have risen to the challenge, offering the best freshly caught seafood daily prepared in a wide variety of recipes. Make the most of your time in the city by visiting the top seafood restaurants in LA. They will give you meals to savor when you remember your time in the city.
Seafood Markets
A Guide to Los Angeles Seafood Markets - There are literally dozens of wonderful seafood markets in Los Angeles that make the freshest seafood available to the public. Locals and tourists alike flock to these markets to get the best seafood in the region. From freshly caught local fare to imported seafood, these markets cater to everyone who appreciates the bounty of the ocean. You may even find some that offer wholesale seafood in Los Angeles to the public. If they offer free seafood recipes, start collecting them. The markets often have excellent advice about cooking seafood at home. Do not be afraid to ask them questions.
Order Seafood Online
Handy and Easy to Order Seafood Online - Can't get to a fresh seafood market? Why not order your fresh seafood online? There are several companies that offer lobsters, salmon, crab and more that can be delivered right to your door by overnight express. They offer full guarantees on the freshness of all their seafood products. Online orders are a wonderful way to get fresh seafood for parties, family gatherings or just because you have a craving for seafood. Indulge yourself in some tasty Maine lobster, Maryland crab cakes, or a savory Alaskan salmon. Getting seafood has never been so easy.
Seafood Articles
Handy Seafood Articles and Seafood Cooking Tips - You can feel confident cooking seafood at home with our delicious recipes and articles. Everyone takes his or her first step with seafood at some point. Our articles will help you through the process of cooking your early attempts with seafood so they turn out delicious. You can learn how to buy the best seafood and where to go when you want to go out to eat at the best seafood restaurants. Make the most of the Los Angeles seafood that you bring home. We have lots of ideas that will help you prepare delicious seafood meals.
Five Very Useful Seafood Buying Tips
1. Fresh fish should not smell fishy. While it is possible for the fish area to have a somewhat fishy odor overall, the fish you are buying should smell fresh. Look the fish in the eye. Fresh fish will have eyes that are clear, not cloudy, or sunken in. These are sure signs that the fish has sat for too long. If possible, look at the gills. Fresh fish will have red gills, not brown.
2. The scales on fresh fish will appear more iridescent than the scales on a fish that has sat for a while. Round fish tend to have larger scales than slender fish. Look at the color of the fish. A fresh fish will have brighter coloring than an older fish.
3. If you are looking at crab or lobster, it is best to buy them live. Look for specimens that are lively and active. It is not unknown for crabs and lobsters to starve themselves when in a tank. They become listless and still.
4. It may be impossible to get fresh shrimp; the best alternative is flash frozen shrimp. Raw shrimp are a better buy than pre-cooked shrimp.
5. Clams and other shellfish are best bought live. They should not have a fishy smell. When you cook them, discard any that do not open. Fresh shellfish will always open during cooking. Do not store them too long; try to cook them the day you buy them.
Three Reasons to Make Your Own Seafood Recipes
Many people are afraid to cook their own seafood, but you don't need to be afraid. If you are new to cooking seafood, just stick with basic cooking methods and you will be fine.
1. Making your own seafood recipes at home will save you money. You do not have to pay for someone else's cooking expertise, the wait staff, or anything else the restaurant has to pay for. You will be able to buy more fish for the same amount of money, or buy the same amount of fish at the fish market for less money.
2. Learning to cook seafood is a wonderful skill to have. You will be able to provide your family with healthy meals from the sea whenever anyone has the cravings for fish, shellfish, or other seafood. Tackling this skill is not difficult; once you have made seafood a few times, you will be ready to start experimenting.
3. By cooking your seafood at home, you will be able to pick out the best quality seafood you can find. Go ahead, look for that Copper River wild salmon or those sweet Dungeness crabs when they are in season. You do not have to wait to see if they are on special at the local seafood restaurant.
So go ahead and try cooking your own seafood. It is not difficult to learn. A fresh seafood dinner at home is a wonderful gift to give to your family. They will start looking forward to your fresh seafood dinners and before you know it, you will be an expert.
Try These Delicious LA Seafood Restaurants
Here is just a sampling of some wonderful LA Seafood Restaurants, you'll find plenty more inside the site, along with plenty of LA Seafood Markets and more including an article section on everything you need to know about seafood...
Webmaster's Notes:
LA Seafood is the culmination of months of research and great writing and hours of custom coding. It is a departure from our normal specialty recipe site and a new venture for us. A while back, we bought a small custom local directory site and after many hours of back and forth working out concepts we have finalized on a site that we hope will take off. It is designed more with the dinner and the cook in mind. We wanted to bring a site that would be a valuable resource to people living in the LA area or visiting to find top quality restaurants and fish and seafood markets in their area.
As with all of our sites this one is totally CSS based and 100% hand coded to make sure every page is loaded with top quality information for the web visitor. . As more people switch to higher resolutions on their monitors, we have put this extra real estate to good use. The site should also function even quicker, as we clean up the CSS design from our early generation coding.
As always, we stay committed to bringing you the best in Los Angeles Seafood that will make your next seafood night a hit with everyone. If you like what we do here, please spare a few minutes to add us to your favorite social bookmark site and share us with friends and family, so we can keep putting the maximum amount of resources into new content, articles, cooking tips and recipes.
Thanks,
Christine and everyone here at Los Angeles Seafood
A Delicious Guide to the History of Los Angeles Seafood
Seafood has long been big business in Los Angeles. From fishing to canning to serving up delicious seafood dishes in restaurants, Los Angeles has taken its place as one of the premier seafood ports in the world. Located in a prime spot on the West Coast of the United States, Los Angeles benefits from the cooler northern waters in Northern California and the warmer waters from the Baja Peninsula. Because of their location, the Los Angeles seafood market encompasses many different species of fish and shellfish that can be caught in local waters.
Local Seafood
Some of the better-known seafood caught off the coast of Los Angeles include Salmon, rockfish, halibut and tuna. Lesser known species include mackerel, barracuda, sablefish, thresher shark and hake. Shellfish species include Dungeness crab, rock and spider crab, spiny lobster, prawns, pink shrimp, sea urchins and squid. Sablefish and sea urchins are sold mostly to Japan rather than kept here for the local market.
Barracuda were popular throughout the 1940s, but have fallen out of favor as the public taste has taken on shark as its newest favorite. The population of barracuda has returned to abundance around Los Angeles; this fish is waiting to be discovered once more. Hake is a delicate whitefish that is used to produce surimi that is used to make imitation crab and other products. Mackerel is mostly canned for pet and human consumption; only a small portion of the catch is sold in the local fresh markets.
How to Make Perfect Seafood
There is a secret to making perfect seafood. Once you know the secret, you will be able to cook wonderful seafood dishes. By choosing the highest quality seafood you can afford, you already get rid of many of the issues people often have with seafood.
The real secret to making perfect seafood is to keep it simple. Fish cooks quickly, so don't try anything complicated. Fish can be baked, broiled, grilled, fried, steamed, stir-fried, sautéed, or poached. It is the original fast food because it cooks fast and you can cook it in all these different ways. These simple cooking methods bring out the best in your fish. Choose a method that complements the type of fish you are cooking. Delicate fish like sole or flounder do better with steaming or other gentle cooking method, while a more robust fish like halibut or salmon can hold up well to grilling.
Simple seasoning with herbs or a light condiment like a fresh salsa can make the most of your seafood. Let the flavor of the seafood shine; don't hide it under a thick sauce or with over seasoning. Fresh herbs are a great choice, especially if you can just walk outside and cut some from your garden. You can also bring out the flavor of your fish by serving it with fresh chopped vegetables or fruit in a light, refreshing salsa. Just spoon a little bit over the top of your cooked fish and enjoy.
What Makes the Best Seafood?
There is a lot of controversy about seafood. Due to overfishing, many of our favorite fish, like bluefin tuna, are low in numbers. What do you do? There is a lot of talk now about sustainable fish populations. But how do you know what kinds of fish are sustainable and what kinds are not?
Luckily, there are many organizations like the Monterey Bay Aquarium that publish material that let you know what fish are sustainable in various regions all over the world. You can carry one of their convenient pocket guides with you when you shop so you know what seafood to look for.
These easy to use guides can be used at restaurants or fish markets. Seafood is rated as Best Choice, Good Alternative, or Avoid based on how well the populations are doing. Best Choices are seafood that is abundant and harvested in a responsible, environmentally friendly way. Good alternatives are an option, but there may be some issues with how they are raised or harvested.
Those on the Avoid list are overfished or harvested or raised in manners that harm the environment or other marine life. When you are looking at Los Angeles seafood, for instance, your best choices include catfish, farmed abalone, clams, oysters, mussels, Dungeness crab, Pacific halibut, wild Alaskan salmon, US tilapia, pink shrimp, rainbow trout, albacore tuna, and white sea bass, among others. You can take these handy guides with you anywhere to ensure that you choose your seafood in a responsible manner.
Good alternatives to these already listed includes Pacific cod, farmed sturgeon, pollock, American lobster, sea scallops, squid, tilapia from Central America, rockfish, mahi mahi, flounder and King crab, among others. All of the seafood on this list are okay, but there may be some issues with them.
Those to avoid in Los Angeles include seafood like Brazilian lobster, imported wild sturgeon and caviar, monkfish, orange roughy, shark, imported shrimp and swordfish, Asian farmed tilapia, bluefin tuna, Atlantic and farmed salmon and several more.
By choosing your seafood responsibly, you cut the demand for those varieties of seafood that are most endangered. Your shopping and eating choices impact the entire fishing world, so keep an eye on these guides to help you make good choices. They are updated periodically. You can even get updates on your mobile device.
If you want to take it a step further, you can learn more at the Aquarium's website, where you can learn how to ask your favorite fish markets and seafood restaurants to choose sustainable options for their customers. Many restaurants are already a part of this program to preserve our oceans and their bounty.
By following these guidelines, you can rest assured that you still get to enjoy your delicious seafood while you are also doing your part to make sure we have plenty of seafood options for the future. Teach your family to shop and eat responsibly, too. Every diner makes a difference when it comes to preserving our seafood treasures.
Find additional "Seafood Info" on our Seafood Articles index page. Browse through our seafood categories to find the answers to all your seafood questions for your next dinner. No matter if you are making the most of the Catch of the Day or a delicious International seafood recipe with exotic flavors and spices, you will find what you need. We will keep you informed about seafood and the LA seafood scene.
Choosing the Best Seafood to Make
Seafood is delicate. It starts to spoil very quickly. Because of this, it is important to select the best seafood you can when you buy. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to find a fishmonger that you trust. Luckily, there are several to choose from in Los Angeles.
You will recognize a good fishmonger by a shop that smells clean, not fishy. The shop should be clean, including the floors. If they have whole fish on display, it should be immersed at least half way in ice. Fillets should sit on top of the ice. No seafood should be displayed in puddles of water. The counter help should be able to answer questions for you like how long will the clams last or where do the halibut come from.
When you buy seafood, make sure it is the last thing on your list so it does not sit in your car too long. Bring a cooler with you to keep your seafood cold. Ask for a little ice to go along with it when you buy. When you get it home, store it properly. This means fish should be chilled and well wrapped. Shellfish should be chilled and wrapped, but there should be airflow. They are still alive, so air is important. By doing all of this, you will be ensured of eating seafood that is fresh and delicious.
What to See in Los Angeles
If this is your first trip to Los Angeles, what will you be doing in between eating at all the wonderful seafood restaurants? If you truly love seafood, you may want to keep with the aquatic theme during your visit.
The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium is a wonderful place to learn about the marine life of Southern California, while the Los Angeles Maritime Museum will teach you about the maritime history of the region. While you are exploring the coastline, visit the Queen Mary Wharf for a delicious seafood lunch and afterwards, take a look at one of the most famous ships in history.
If you are still in the mood for fish afterwards, check out the aquarium at the Santa Monica Pier. There are lots of fun activities there for all ages. Why not visit the Original Farmer's Market while you are in LA. You can choose some delicious seafood, produce and more to enjoy back at your hotel room for later.
After you have rested, spend a day enjoying the water yourself at Raging Waters, the largest water theme park in California. The family will have a great time, and you can work up an appetite for even more seafood. If you still want to see more fish, visit the Aquarium of the Pacific, which houses more than 12,000 of the ocean's living creatures. If you still have some time, book yourself passage on one of the whale watching cruises along the coast of Los Angeles. You can see dolphins, whales, killer whales, and sharks in their natural habitat.
