I saw these fairly good looking scallops at a shrimp/crab/scallop vendor at the Salcedo Market yesterday morning and decided to buy a 1 kilo pack for PHP380. I’m sorry, I forgot to ask the name of the stall/owners but they were the ones near the softdrinks station at one corner of the market. A very amiable couple seems to man the stall and they fly in their seafood directly from the South. They always have a nice selection, and while somewhat pricey, the quality and freshness of their offerings definitely makes up for it. I have never been disappointed with any of my purchases from this vendor. They also sell pre-cooked crab and other seafood dishes, but I have never tried those. The scallops were frozen and on the half shell; they were rather small/thin but perfect for the dish I had in mind…
Isn’t it funny that in some cuisines such as Italian, seafood and cheese in a dish together is a serious NO-NO, and yet I find the combination of cheese 
and shellfish to be almost irresistable. I simply thawed the scallops, seasoned them with some pepper, added a slice of green chilli (bottled), and lots of cheese and stuck them in a 400 degree oven for say 10-12 minutes until the cheese was slightly browned. Eat shortly thereafter and you could easily down 12-18 of these scallops in a flash…they were very good. At about 50-60 scallops per kilo, this was roughly PHP6 per scallop raw or about PHP8 per scallop all in… I have done similar treatments to mussels before but this is the first time I have tried it with scallops…YUM! I also sprinkled these with some of the tarragon salt but the cheese just overwhelmed the flavored salt…
11 Responses
Those scallops look SO yummy. My sister went to Eastern Samar a few weeks ago and she just keep bragging how she feasted on these sweet, plump scallops. *drool*
Wow, looks good! Have you tried bbqing them? Just marinate them in butter, garlic and calamansi juice for 15 minutes, wrap each in a rasher of bacon, impale with a bbq stick and grill. Heavenly!
i just had baked scallops on half shells for dinner. you guys might wanna try this recipe I just invented while in the kitchen today. Sprinkle some chili flakes,minced garlic, a little butter and some teriyaki sauce. Its delicious!!
MM i’ve done this with a scallop thermidor theme, topped with breadcrumbs or crushed potato chips or cheese and chopped flat leaf parsley then broiled briefly until golden brown. hmmmm….having moved to a landlocked city, it’s been so challenging to look for seafood, the quality that my family was used to when we were living in the Phils. here in Alberta its salmon, salmon and more salmon….at least the beef is good!
YUMMMM! Visual as well as gustatory feast!
I don’t like cheese on shell fish because it overwhelms it and sayang especially if the shell fish is fresh. I love how the shell looks though. Would anybody know where I can buy soft shell crabs in manila?
hi mm, have you tried “diwal” or what they call the angel wings shellfish?
tei, you just reminded me of the BEST shellfish in the entire planet. yum, yum, yum! MM, you gotta try “diwal” if you haven’t.
yes i completely agree maddie! they’re so good!
i heard they’ve resurfaced lately…after being thought of as “lost or gone for good” by local fishermen, casualties of overfishing & dynamite fishing.
i love scallops! last time i ate scallops was at dampa, macapagal avenue. i think it costs P300/kilo plus cooking fee (baked with cheese and butter) costs P150.. yummy!
Ohhh yeah i agree!! shellfish are aren’t supposed to be matched with Cheese in iTalian Cuisines. But just the smell of melted Cheese period. Overpowering somewhat the distinct smell of seafood, its like an adventure kind of. Like you are almost hesitant to try but somehow curious, and then when you finally had the taste of it, you cant stop eating it coz its simply addicting and satisfying.
I had my first taste of this when i was in Manila. its perfectly just fit my palate ohh sooo sooo Good. normally i would just eat scallops seared or wrap with pancetta. But this concotion ohhhh WOW soo GOOD!!