The undisputed seafood choice of Americans? Shrimp is No. 1. Other spiney or hard-shelled creatures from the deep elicit mixed reactions.
Lobster: Not universally beloved, it's too lively before cooking for some sensibilities. The green delicacy beneath a whole lobster, the tomalley, is a source of shudders or delight, depending on the person.Scallops: They seem innocuous, but I once came across a literary reference that called them "marshmallows of the underworld."
Squid: Most people would rather eat calamari than squid. Some restaurant owners suspect they're selling a lot of deep-fried calamari rings as appetizers to customers who don't realize that the basic ingredient is a sea creature complete with black ink and tentacles.
Minus those, however, squid is a neutral food that tastes of nothing much besides sea water - especially cross-cuts of the mantle or main body - which are bland and white.
Speaking of deep-fried appetizers, if a cook could cover strips of rubber tires with enough breading, that same cook could deep-fry them into some semblance of edibility. And they would roughly equal the eating experience of fried goeduck clams (pronounced gooey-duck), those giants of the Northwest that are definitely an acquired taste (chew, chew, chew).