Scallops

Port Philip Bay
2nd January 2010

We’re up before down, trying to beat the storm clouds gathering over the Bay. A group of us grabbed the required mountain of gear and headed out SCUBA diving in an attempt to get a feed or two of scallops. Port Phillip Bay is a massive body of water on which the city of Melbourne adjoins and lots of Victorians spend summers fishing, swimming and boating. I hadn’t dived in a couple of years so was hopelessly incompetent and retired from the adventure early. Before surfacing I did see a massive school of crabs that had swarmed for breeding and were churning up the ocean floor; an impressive sight. The others however did their job and returned with bags full of the fresh molluscs. Eating scallops is easy, but cleaning them is a different matter. Slaving away with a knife opening shells at least had that benefit of being able to munch on them, sashimi style, I worked. We had to head back to Melbourne, but took a bag of the fresh, juicy scallops for lunch. Pan-fried with and garlic and butter, they became the feature of a delicious salad. Fresh scallops gathered in the morning and eaten latter that day; oh Australia I’ll miss you.