Passing on the deep-fried catch of the day (in a burrito!), not to mention the pit-smoked pulled pork and homemade chorizo, I opted for shredded beef, which had both surprising heat and a wonderful depth of complex, whole-spiced, slow-cooked flavour.
They fried their catch on tin plates heated by burning plastic bags.
One of the best places to eat in the area is Henry's Fish Restaurant on Frying Pan Island, serving battered and pan-fried local catch on picnic-style waterfront tables (705-746-9040; entrees $16 to $22).
The seaside town of Kep, near the Vietnamese border, is the crab capital of south-east Asia, and restaurants in its seafront crab market – a collection of stilted shacks – sell fried, freshly caught crab with Kampot pepper.
Lunch is a traditional Finnish moose soup, and dinner is fried fish caught fresh from a nearby lake.
The inspiration for the fried porgy, which is caught off Long Island, hails from farther south.
Cousins and old neighbors would catch up over fried snapper and potato and cheese-filled pastries, traditional Sephardic foods that transported Seligman back to her childhood.
That attention to finger-licking, politically incorrect goodness extends to starters and non-sandwich menu items, which include Armadillo eggs (bacon wrapped fingerling potatoes on a bed of spinach to catch the grease), fried tuna fingers with sesame slaw and a plate of smoked brisket, sausage and chicken sticks with Shiner Bock BBQ sauce.
The catch is wok-fried by the chef back at the resort.
When I searched Table Fifty-Two's Web site, on the lookout for cookies (none were listed), one appetizer in particular caught my eye: fried green tomato napoleon with goat cheese, local greens, applewood smoked bacon and olive and sun-dried tomato tapenades.
The menu is basically a list of things caught in the sea, fried and served with a slice of lemon.
