Originally Posted by
chgoeditor
First: Ina's seafood chowder recipe:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/...recipe-1925488
Chicago is not inherently expensive, and a muchof the stuff you find in the seafood section of most stores is coming from the same distributors (one of the largest of which is owned by the Moonies). All of the stuff gaobest linked to is likely frozen (softshell crabs haven't been in season for months) so there's no point in making a special trip to Sunset for them if you have a closer source. Personally, I buy 99% of my seafood at Whole Foods, Dirk's, H-Mart and Mitsuwa. H-Mart and Mitsuwa generally have the best prices and all have an abundance of fresh stuff. (WF probably has the most items that were previously frozen.) I'm not going into stores until after my family leaves, so I'll call in an order to Dirk's on Wednesday to pick up shrimp, crab and scallops for our seafood chowder, since they do curbside pickup. (Also, some of their yummy smoked whitefish spread, which isn't as awesome as the stuff we get in Northern Michigan, but a pretty good substitute when you're stuck in Chicago during a pandemic.)
I miss Dirk's now that we're in the burbs. It was expensive but great quality and convenient. We have a couple options out here but not the same. And I love the whitefish spread there. I would also often just buy a hunk of smoked whitefish and Dirk's and make my own - delicious! Some of the best smoked whitefish I've had is, surprisingly, in Door County. There's a small smokehouse right up at the tip, Gill's Rock area, near the ferry, that has amazing fish. It's basically the only thing in the area, so not touristy like the rest of the peninsula. I believe you can order from there too, but I can never remember the name.