Jersey Shore Steamers

We have made our annual trek to Avalon, New Jersey for our family summer vacation and enjoyed a typical first of many meals consisting of fresh Jersey corn, ripe beef steak Jersey tomatoes and steamed clams. We will be eating a lot of these three ingredients while we are here so let me get this out of the way and tell you about it.

As you can see from the photos, we sliced yellow and red tomatoes and layered them between fresh mozzarella and fresh local basil. I season them with aged balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and some salt & pepper.

When the tomatoes are this good in the month of August, they don’t need much. I remember growing up and my dad could make a meal on just sliced tomatoes, mayonnaise and salt & pepper.

The corn was good last night but not great. I will have to get to one of the farm stands and ask the people there what they are seeing. It just didn’t seem as sweet as usual.  We had some corn from Lancaster PA on Friday night with our friends Barbecue Bob and his wife Bert that was incredible. Sweet as can be.

The young lady in the photo is Gabrielle, one of my oldest daughter’s friends who spends the summer here in Avalon just about to taste her first steamer.  She has just finished dipping it into the melted butter and is about to give it a chew or maybe just a swallow.

I’m not sure how much Gabrielle enjoyed it. She didn’t rush to grab a bunch more like my girls who can 50 steamers between themselves.   We now have to buy 100 count just so my wife and I can get some.

It was a gorgeous first night here in Avalon, the temperature just right, no bugs, family and a couple of their friends. I’m looking forward to many more nights like last night.

Question – What’s Your Favorite Foods?