#8 COMPLETE: Ate Conch & Wahoo — Seriously.

Conch | Source: Wikipedia

I think we get the gold star for today because we spent our whole day trying to find something “new”, which was surprisingly hard. Conch is supposed to be popular out here in St. Thomas, so I made it my mission to find some and eat it even though seafood is my enemy.

I won’t waste time explaining what Conch is because you’re gonna see this photo to the right and be all “oh that’s that shell I’ve bought in various sizes on every summer vacation I’ve ever been on!” Yup, that’s the one. I’m actually more familiar with it from playing Animal Crossing way too much back in 2004 (bonus high-fives to anyone who understands that).

Anyway, unfortunately, they’re big on conch “fritters” around here and I felt like that was cheating. But we DID find conch chowder and I think that totally counts because there were giant bits of it. Think of it like clams, but soft and not chewy. Same flavor, different texture.

Conch Chowder @ Molly Malones, Red Hook, St. Thomas

But… we one-upped ourselves later on over at some over-priced fake Italian joint when our waitress told us that a fisherman pulled up to their back door with two 50lb Wahoos this morning. Yes, our thoughts exactly… “WTH is a Wahoo?” An ape of some kind, perhaps? Sounds like an ape to me.

Wahoo! | Source: PesekCharters.com

Well according to Wikipedia (yes, we did this on the spot), it’s a “prize game fish”, “the body is elongated and covered with small, scarcely visible scales; the back is an iridescent blue, while the sides are silvery, with a pattern of irregular vertical blue bars and have razor sharp teeth” and “they are one of the fastest fish in the sea.” Also, they are sometimes confused with the barracuda.

That last part is the ticket got me to say “yes, we’ll take it!”.

It was served sort of like Tuna steak, mostly raw and only seared on the outside. Patrick dug in like a champ while I took a little time to swallow my fear of raw fishy bits. All in all, it was pretty good. The salted seasoning was pretty yum, but the Wahoo itself was pretty bland and flavorless. A novelty item I suppose since it’s somewhat hard to catch? In any case, we did it. I also had plantains and a few other items while looking for the conch and not wanting to miss this resolution but I’m glad we endured!

Wahoo!