Shrimp and Fish Po’Boys at Motorboat & the Big Banana at Rockaway Beach

It seems counterintuitive to eat fried fish at the beach, which inevitably gets paired with cold beer and ends up puffing out exposed bellies, but what the hey. At Motorboat & the Big Banana at Rockaway Beach, the shrimp and fish po’boys are worth the slightly bloated bikini body.

The beachside counter joint has good pedigree: it was opened by Jean Adamson of Vinegar Hill House and Lindsay Robinson, formerly of Diner. In addition to fried-fish sandwiches and cheese fries, they also peddle frozen chocolate-covered bananas.

The po’boys come topped with chopped lettuce, cabbage, and pickled onions, all stuffed to the gills inside a puffy toasted bun. Chunks of fish are light with a crispy batter, smeared with a bright dill mayo. The shrimp, more hearty and snappy in texture, come with a mustard mayo. There’s a great combination of flavors and textures here: creamy mayo, acidity from the onions, crisp batter, fresh greens. Both sandwiches were just the right size and went down well with a can of Modelo Especial. As for the issue of fried food at the beach, we biked there from Brooklyn, so we figured we could afford the calories.

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