Seafood Adventures

We are finishing up crustaceans, echinoderms, and molluscs in my marine ecology class and as a wrap up we do observations of a bunch of stuff so the kids can have experience looking at what we have been talking about. Some of them have never eaten seafood, and those that have often have not really looked at what they were eating. So.. I have some sea stars and sea urchins and things, I have crab molts and legs, but really I have to go to the grocery store and see what I can find. Nothing is available at the food dog in Louisa, so usually I head to Charlottesville to see what I can get there and usually I have some luck.

I started off at Giant and they had some things. I wrote down the prices and headed to Barracks Road. The Harris Teeter is usually a guarantee and even though they didn't have head-on shrimp that last time I was there, they did this time so I bought a few, eyed the one lobster they had, and wrote down some prices and then went one more place to look. The other place is across the street from Barrack's road and they i think are an authentic butcher shop plus wine store plus other stuff.

Anderson's had quite a few lobsters, and I bought the smallest one there, but it was still pretty expensive. (I should have just brought one home in my suitcase from Rhode island) I think the managers felt sorry for me (bc they knew what I was using it for and they didn't have any smaller ones), and they were nice enough to comp me a blue crab, an oyster, a mussel, and a clam. :) I am going to write them a nice thank you note.

Back at Harris Teeter I purchased a snow crab and answered the questions of the entire seafood department. Snow crab legs were on sale, but when it rang up at the cashier it didn't ring at the sale price. According to the manager, that means I got it for FREE. I did find out that the sale price really only applies if you buy a minimum amount of poundage.

Today the kids poked at everything and surprisingly didn't complain about the smell. Maybe because it was already a little smelly when they came in from setting everything up. Kids are so funny. Some of them want to touch everything and some of them will touch nothing. And some will only touch some things. I think they get a lot out of it which is why I pony up the money to buy a lobster that I don't get to eat.