by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Maybe you have a taste for adventure. Perhaps you scan menus looking for an unfamiliar item, something you’ve never heard of or never tried. If so, you may want to seek out Clark’s Fish Camp, hidden in Mandarin, off the standard thoroughfares.
Not everything on the menu is thoroughly exotic, in fact the extensive menu (with well over 125 selections) is mostly made up of things you’d find in many seafood joints and bars, like onion rings and grouper. But if you’re looking for a taste adventure, go straight for the section entitled “Call of the Wild Appetizers.” For the scant price of around $7.50-$9, you can try a taste of turtle, quail or ostrich. I zeroed in on the three most usual selections because I’d never tried them before. We asked the waitress which of the three (kangaroo, antelope or snake) that we should try. She told us frankly that the snake, though reportedly tasty, was a lot of work because of all the bones. We finally settled on the kangaroo. It reminded me of flank steak, though it had a texture that screamed “I DID NOT COME FROM A COW.” It was strange, but it wasn’t so weird that I hated it. We brought the leftovers home to nosh upon later. Antelope has now been added to my list of “strange things to eat before I die.” If you’re ordering from the “Call of the Wild” section, know that you order at your own peril. Clark’s guarantees the quality of their meat in that section but, they say, “We do not guarantee it to be to your liking.”
Mounted and stuffed animals are EVERYWHERE at Clark’s. That freaks some people out. No matter where you sit you’ll get a feeling you’re being watched. Look around and you’re sure to lock eyes with an ocelot or tiny deer. If you have trouble dealing with it, just ask for a few shots from their full bar. As for myself, I love the homegrown kitsch of Clark’s, including the mounted animals. The restaurant owner, Joan Peoples, collects mounted animals, but she’s an animal lover so she makes certain that all her animals died of natural causes or old age. This time of year they throw in those moving wicker reindeer, festooned with holiday lights. The animals come from all over, not just Florida. Many of them are from Africa. As you first come into the restaurant there is a huge display immediately on your right which includes lions.
Another collection at Clark’s that you might want to take a look at are the “fish plates” displayed and encased in glass on your way past the hostess station. Also in that same area is a tank with baby gators, an attraction that delighted the kids waiting to be seated. There’s so much to look at, you’ll discover something new each time you go, because you’re bound to miss some small, tacky-but-fun detail on the first visit.
Clark’s has been part of the landscape for locals since it was a tiny bait store. These days it’s a sprawling restaurant on the banks of Julington Creek, a tributary of the St. John’s River. If you aren’t a local, you’re not likely to know about the place, although I’ve noticed that locals delight in sharing it with newcomers, recounting Clark’s rise from humble bait camp to eatery.
Our waitress knew the menu, a difficult feat since it’s so damn huge. If she hadn’t personally tried a menu item, she could recall what customers in the past had said about the item. She was also eager to hear what we had to say about what we ordered, both to see that we were satisfied, and also to file the information away on her mental rolodex of menu items.
We perused the extensive appetizer section, finally giving up and asking our waitress to choose something for us. What she recommended was the tastiest item we tried. It’s called Brinda’s Seafood Bake. Fresh crab, tender shrimp, pillowy scallops and fish are baked in a divinely rich white wine cream sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese. Excellent garlic toast comes with the bake, so you can pile it on and eat it up! I would walk over a frozen tundra without shoes to eat this dish. It’s just as good as something you might find in a fancy-smancy restaurant, minus the pretension and the presentation.
My entrée was good, but it didn’t top the spectacular bake. However, I would recommend the Flounder Florentine to those who love rich fish dishes. My husband was a bit taken aback by his entrée, the Boudin Ala Nawlins, which is a very popular menu item. He hadn’t read the description very thoroughly and was surprised by the taste and texture of the sausage topping the dish. The sausage was stuffed with rice and crawfish, great for crawfish lovers, not so great for my poor husband, who was expecting a different taste and texture altogether. If you like spicy Cajun and crawfish, this is the meal to order.
For dessert, my husband ordered the fried cheesecake bites and I had the Key Lime pie. The cheese cake bites are topped with a raspberry sauce and are tasty little treats. The Key Lime wasn’t the most genuine Key Lime pie I’ve ever had, but, it was not unnaturally green and it was pleasantly tart. Dessert at Clark’s is adequate, but it isn’t one of the dishes most people come back for.
What people do come back for at Clark’s is the atmosphere and the incredible seafood and freshwater fish dishes. Whether it’s broiled, blackened, baked or deep fried, they know how to cook the things that used to swim.
|
