Half Moon Bay Fish Market

One of the secrets to making a fabulous meal with seafood includes a trip to a favorite fish market for fresh choices.  Cannot count the number of times that we've left the beach, headed for home and have made shopping at the Half Moon Bay Fish Market a regular stop.

Great shop owned for many years by the same family - family photos and memories tacked up all over the tiny market.  They have thought of everything -

Great people to help - always friendly.  They treat us like long lost friends whenever we come in, even tossing in a few extra oysters on occasion!

Blue Point Oysters are always on the menu... (not mine, but Tom's!)

Fresh local dungeness crabs live, also cooked and cleaned ready to take home and dip in melted butter. (YUM!)

Salmon fillets, or whole salmon for the more adventuresome.  Not this girl - I don't like the bones! (or the heads)

Live crabs and lobsters available, as well as fresh squid, prawns, and jumbo shrimp!  We frequently pick up fresh clams here too for clam linguine and yummy clam chowder.

On several occasions we've also picked up the most incredible Ahi - melt in your mouth with just a light searing on the outside.

They have it all do you don't have to make another stop. Lemons, seasonings, fresh baked bread from Half Moon Bay Bakery...

Specialty private label sauces to complete your meal...

Forget the wine?  Half Moon Bay Fish Market has a nice selection to choose from, most of which are local California wines.   They even sell fresh flowers for the romantics!

Stop by and see our friends next time you take a drive down California's Hwy 1 past Half Moon Bay.
Phone: 650-726-2561
Website:
http://www.bizglimpz.com/HMBFishMarket

And to show off your seafood creations, 

how about these fun serving pieces?

Polished Fish Servers

Scallop Appetizer Dish

Large Oyster Shaped Serving Platter

Fun cocktail napkin boxes!

Coastal Themed Wine and Cocktail Glasses

Crazy about Octopus!

We're seeing octopus images in just about every beach house decor element!  Check out some of our favorites-

Thomas Paul, a young and upcoming designer has some fabulous octopus beach house decor items with incredible images - natural botanical designs but also very modern.  Love these pillows sized overly large, made of  natural linen fabrics and luxury down-filled. (yes, I am craving these!) Oh, the best part, the image is reversed on the opposite side - easy to change the look of your room with seasons.

From Cyan Designs. We love this Octopus bookshelf element - couldn't you just see him (or her!) nestled among your favorite beach reads on a grand bookshelf?  Made of pewter with waving tentacles, I don't think I would ever get tired of looking at this sea creature!  (PS  We will be adding to the Caron's Beach House site over the next month)

Of course, there's always my favorite things from Vietri... How about this pretty hand painted round octopus platter?  Hurry though, it looks like it might soon become a collector's item!

From Caron's - detailed botanical drawings of blue octopus surrounded by other sea creatures on antiqued ginger jars.  Kicking myself for not keeping one of these 14" tall beach house decor jars for myself.



Found on Amazon - Pretty amber Octopus lamp!  I think I saw a blue glass version too.












Look at this blue octopus deep salad dish from Anthropologie!  Too cute, and very affordable at $14.00.  Am just imagining the party now -beautiful seafood salad, with this pretty creature peaking out underneath...

Just had to show you all this creative, wildly detailed pewter wine glass from Vagabond House that I found featured on Interior Digs.com  Isn't this octopus stemmed wine glass awesome??  (yes, I am also craving these!)

And then there's these bright fun pillows from our Caron's Beach House store too! 

Excited as they will be featured in "The Nest" coming out in May for their summer issue.

Thanks for stopping by - let me know about your Octopus finds!

Hot Chocolate Warm-Up at the Ritz!

Having been a little cooped up this past week, we relished our quick jaunt to the coast to check out the shore at Half Moon Bay. I wanted to see if the tsunami waves had washed up anything interesting... I think the most interesting part was that there were NO shells, and NO sea glass.  Usually we scoop up all kinds of flotsam and jetsam, this past Saturday the beach was wiped clean.

The tide was still pretty dangerous and more than a little ferocious. We still thought we might be able to get around one of our favorite points at Half Moon Bay. (where I usually find all kinds of purple sea urchins and periwinkle shells) Yeah....probably shouldn't have tried that, as we got a little bit soaked trying to out-run the sets of waves back to safer ground!

Still so much beauty. Sometimes it's just a matter of actually seeing it.  Look how these prehistoric-looking barnacles and dark blue mussels have clung to a crevice in a basalt beach rock just waiting for the tide to surge in.

Coastal flowers are beginning their annual show of color; dark fuchsia pinks, butter yellows....

Thank goodness the Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay welcomes wet sandy beach combers to their outdoor patio! It's one of our favorite places to relax on a weekend (or weekday escape!) afternoon.   The patio at the Ritz faces the Pacific Ocean looking Northwest - perfect for watching crashing waves, swooping sea birds, and pink sunsets.

Awaiting guests on the patio, big round brick gas fire pits are lit with cozy fires, and surrounded by generous comfortable, Adirondack chairs.  We always meet interesting people gathered around from all parts of the world, simply enjoying the afternoon in the sea air. (The picture is from a previous trip)

The best part?  At 4:30 the Chocolate Bar is open on the patio!  Three choices of hot chocolate can be had - milk, dark or white.  Too many choices!  They even sell entire kits for roasting your very own S'mores over the fire, roasting sticks included. Yummy, ooey-gooey chocolate chunk cookies are always on the menu too.

Their  gourmet hot chocolate can be ordered with, or without your choice of liqueur, and then topped off with whipped cream, crushed coffee beans, white chocolate stir sticks, crushed cookies. Of course my particular favorite is always available- mini marshmallows!  I had a little Baileys and a little Frangelico, Tom opted for Gran Marnier.

Yes, life is good.


Shared on Savvy Southern Style - "Wow Us Wednesdays"


http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2011/03/wow-us-wednesdays-8-and-sisters-home.html