Father’s Day Seafood Dinners

Seafood can be an excellent choice as a gift or as a main course for Father’s Day dinners. Shellfish including shrimp, lobsters, crabs, oysters, and scallops all make excellent choices when planning a seafood feast.

Shrimp is the most popular seafood consumed in the USA. For father’s day gifts or dinners, items such as shrimp cocktail, stuffed shrimp, scampi, or bisques are sure to be enjoyed.

Lobster is well suited for gift giving or as a main course at celebratory dinners. American lobsters are available live in most locations and can even be ordered online and shipped overnight. Fresh lobsters can be boiled and served whole or the meat can be extracted from the shell prior to serving. Frozen lobster tails are also available, and are perfect as a main course.

Rock lobster tails are another delicious choice for shellfish lovers. These are smaller than American lobster tails but are highly prized, especially when split and grilled.

Regardless of location or season, crabs and crab legs are usually available from seafood markets or online suppliers. From the Pacific Northwest, Alaskan king crab legs, snow crab legs, or Dungeness crabs are available as frozen products. Another high quality, frozen product is stone crab claws from Florida.

Fresh blue crabs are available by Father’s Day along the Mid Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico. These delicious crabs are steamed or boiled and served whole, or the meat can be purchased and served as crab cakes. Crab soup is another favorite and is available in non-perishable containers which are suitable as gifts.

Oysters can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. At taverns and restaurants, these delicious shellfish are sometimes served raw on the half shell. If available locally, fresh oysters can also be steamed or roasted at home for a family dinner. Where oysters are out of season, delicacies such as oyster stew or smoked oysters are a possibility.

Scallops are another seafood delicacy. When fresh scallops can be found, they are perfect as a main course, served sauted , fried, or wrapped with bacon and broiled or grilled.

Originally published: May 19, 2011.