Dish No. 78: Seafood Combo With Hot Sauce at Randazzo's Clam Bar

By Sarah DiGregorio Tue., Aug. 10 2010 at 10:06 AM

Categories: 100 Dishes to Eat Now, DiGregorio

A mountain o' seafood.

Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, Fork in the Road's handy list of some of our favorite dishes -- old standbys and new finds alike -- compiled daily.

Today's pick: Seafood combo with hot sauce ($20.95) at Randazzo's Clam Bar (2023 Emmons Avenue, Brooklyn).

The glory of this dish is the thick, tangy, spicy tomato sauce. It was invented by Helen Randazzo when she took the restaurant over from her father, a fish salesman, in 1960. The "hot sauce" is deployed in great ladlefuls, poured over steamed lobster, fried clam strips, shrimp cocktail, and more. Really, it isn't all that hot, more a glow than a burn, but it elevates the sweetish tomato gravy into something you want to eat by the bowl.

Indecisive types will most enjoy the seafood combo, which comes with fried calamari, steamed scungilli (conch), shrimp, and mussels, all of it doused in that brick-red sauce. The calamari somehow maintains its crunch; the shrimp, mussels, and scungilli are all cooked gently so that they are tender and mildly briny. Underneath it all lies a crust of bread as tough as a battleship, uncuttable but irresistible, soaked, as it is, in that sauce. We took turns spearing it with a fork and taking unwieldy bites.

Previously in the countdown:
Dish No. 100: Zaragoza Grocery's Flor de Calabaza Quesadilla
Dish No. 99: No. 7 Sub Shop's General Tso's Tofu Sandwich
Dish No. 98: Nigerian Goat Stew From Baku
Dish No. 97: The Captain's Daughter From Saltie
Dish No. 96: Bun Bo Hue From Thanh Da
Dish No. 95: The Beauty From Mile End
Dish No. 94: Potato, Egg, and Provolone on a Roll at Torrisi Italian Specialties
Dish No. 93: The Terrine Board at the Breslin Bar and Dining Room
Dish No. 92: Sausage and Egg Breakfast at La Bonbonniere
Dish No. 91: Roasted Carrots at Porchettta
Dish No. 90: Spicy Miso Ramen at Ramen Setagaya
Dish No. 89: Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie From First Prize Pies
Dish No. 88: Brown Butter, Corn, and Mushroom Linguine at Buttermilk Channel
Dish No. 87: Katsudon at Ennju
Dish No. 86: Fried Chicken With Two Sides at Soul Fixins
Dish No. 85: Fried Lamb Intestines at El Quinto Pino
Dish No. 84: Kunafa From Nablus Sweets
Dish No. 83: Potato Flatbread at Sahadi's
Dish No. 82: Chicken-Fried Chicken Livers at Cornbread Diner
Dish No. 81: Taleggio, Broccoli Rabe, and Sausage Panini at Bocca Lupo
Dish No. 80: Hamburger at M. Wells in Long Island City
Dish No. 79: Vanilla Malted at Brooklyn Farmacy