Sweet Willie

I've never understood this food, expensive and every preparation I've had of it has been mediocre at best. Preps have been: sauteed, raw(sushi), breaded sauteed.

I far prefer conch for raw or sauteed preps.

Anyone love abalone? What prep in particular?

chollie

It's been far too long since I had abalone, which I dearly loved. I only ever had it stir-fried with vegetables and noodles in Chinese restaurants.

violist

Chinese stir-fried dishes use precooked abalone, either steamed,
pressure cooked, or out of a can (also pressure-cooked). The
flavor, rather mild, is pretty well killed off by such treatment, so
the result is kind of like the clams you get at Howard Johnson's,
i.e., not very distinctive and without much charm.

A few times I've had it raw, where it's got a nice sweet and
briny taste with a crispy crunch similar to geoduck. Once the
cook failed to trim off the hard part, so that added a bit of
unappreciated textural interest.

Sushi or sashimi, I reckon, is the best way, when fresh fresh
anyhow, though as Lord Peter Wimsey would say, I agree with
you that it is horribly overrated.

gfunkdave

I've never had it. What's it like? Is it the same texture as, say, tuna sushi? I have it as more rubbery in my mind for some reason.

Sweet Willie

Much different texture from tuna (or other fish sushi) Whenever I've had abalone sushi style is has been scored with a knife to assist with chewing, obviously a reason for that.

TWA884

I've never had raw abalone; however, in my experience, the closest seafood in texture to cooked abalone is calamari steak.

crabbing

there is a korean restaurant in LA called 'san' ("mountain" - the sign has the chinese character, not in korean) that specializes in abalone chowder. not at all expensive, and quite good. 8th and vermont.

mosburger

Fav abalone dish is the Korean congee served for breakfast and lunch.

Other than that, just had a rather delicious abalone sashimi dish as part of a grand seafood dinner in Mokpo, Korea. We could see the fishing harbor from the restaurant windows and my three dinner companions were all born and bred locals, very discerning of fish and seafood.

Eastbay1K

I've had plenty of locos in the south of Chile (a close relative) and they are ok - served cold, with the traditional condiments of mayo and boiled potatoes. I don't know why they are so popular.

roknroll

I think it's most similar to calimari steak, but a more buttery flavor. I go diving for it off the northern California coast a few times a year and my favorite is raw, very lightly pounded, with a touch of soy sauce and wasabi (sashimi style). Usually we'll do it with friends in a big group and just fry the steaks in butter, breaded lightly in panko. I've done a sweet miso glaze and grilled. A great appetizer is a strip of abalone wrapped around a piece of pepperjack cheese and sliver of jalepeno. Then wrapped in bacon and grilled.

I dive for it, so it only costs me my time, gas, and abalone license. I've never purchased it from a restaurant (not worth the price, IMO). One 8" (7" is the minimum size) abalone can feed 4 people for dinner if you've got some veggies/sides to go with it. Also anything in the US from a restaurant will be the farm raised abalone between 4"-5" in size. It takes several years for them to get that large and anything beyond that isn't economical to commercially raise. Commercial harvesting/fishing from the ocean is illegal so you have to go dive for those yourself (or find a friend).

Next on my list when I have the time is whole grilled abalone which I've heard is really amazing. A trimmed/cleaned whole red abalone is put over low heat on the grill and continually basted with butter (or garlic butter). Then it's sliced and served. Comes out very tender from what I hear, and you get the true taste of abalone.

The breaded and fried in butter method is great, but it's a little rich and the panko and butter can overpower the delicate flavor of the abalone.

work2fly

I saw these abalone sliders on an episode of Diner's, Drive-ins and Dives...I think the plate looks pretty good, regardless of what's between the buns

It's a short drive for us down the coast, so it's on our short list.

Loulou's Griddle in the Middle in Monterey, CA

VivoPerLei

Is it anything like cuttlefish? That's one piece of sushi I simply can't get down.

roknroll

The stuff I eat raw is more like a firm yellowtail. Very mild in flavor, on the rich/buttery side. I always take cuts from the center of a large abalone (pure white meat) which tend to be firm but not chewy. Texture/firmness/chewiness reminds me a little of a roasted beet or a similar roasted vegetable.

Stuff you'll buy in a restaurant will be different though. Like I said they are smaller abalone and becasue of the cost they usually use the entire thing without much trimming of the black skirt and foot. But I've found the smaller abalone to be more tender around those parts. The larger ones tend to be fairly tough around the skirt.

FlightNurse

I love it, but it's a pain to prepare correctly. Growing up in Calif I had friends that went Diving in northern CA up by mendocino and would get Abalone, haven't had it in a while.

After cleaning it, I'll soak it in milk for a few hours, then bread it and saute it in combo of butter and olive oil. Now I love Conch as much as I love Abalone.

tentseller

I just drooled all over my keyboard!