Capital Seafood Market in Durham

Sometimes all you want is some deep fried goodness and a couple of down home sides without all the fuss and frills. No funky slaws, no left field side dishes—just good, filling eats. In bigger cities this can be a challenge, I know it was in SF, but here in Durham, it hasn’t quite grown to the point of overly gentrified, can’t afford—-yet. Getting there but still a few years to go. Till then the city does have a fair number of local joints which offer up all the basics without all the fuss. One such spot I stumbled across while looking to fulfill my fried seafood need is Capital Seafood Market (so local they don’t even have a website!).

I had remembered driving past the place a number of times and thought it was just a place to buy fish, which it actually is. You can get all sorts of fresh from the NC coast fish, shrimp, etc you want if you are more of the I like to do it myself kind. Me, not so much. Thus imagine my happy surprise to find they do a steady take out business of their offerings. Well, I was totally down for this. So much so, I actually made it a point to go more than once. You know, just so I gorge, I mean eat and try as many different things as possible.

Like this flounder and shrimp combo with a side of yams and turnip greens. To say this was a hearty serving is understatement. This was two meals in one all for around $14. Plus a generous helping of hush puppies tossed in to fill you up even more. Except for sides, everything is cooked to order and comes out hot and crispy without being too greasy. I think sometimes you tell when seafood is fresh. The shrimp just seems more buttery and the flounder more flaky without all the fishy smell or taste. I know that is like the opposite of how it seems it should be but good fish shouldn’t smell or taste like bad fish. This is good fish and shrimp.

The sides were a little more simple. The yams were on the super sweet side if you like them that way. All they seemed to be missing were marshmallows. While I prefer collard greens to turnip greens, if that is all they got I’m gonna get them. Much like collards I do tend to smother mine vinegar just to kick them up a bit. These might have been a tad over cooked but still decent enough greens. Sometimes I’ll even crumble the hush puppies into them which is a thing though folks seem to do it more with cornbread and collards. consider this a variation on a theme.

Here we have a fried chicken and catfish combo. Yeah, I know, a little odd and not really on the menu per se. I just asked if they would do that and she was like “sure” which just tells me I wasn’t the first person to ever ask for it. I went classic with sides and got fried okra and their house made mac and cheese. Again, a bunch of food and a little more at about $17. We do eat big in the South (judge away—we already know). I got a breast, a leg and two pieces of catfish. Hot out of the fryer and crisp. Both the extra crispy chicken and the cornmeal battered catfish. There is nothing like that first bit into some crispy chicken hearing the crunch. It is why we eat fried chicken after all. You can deny all you like, we all love some super crispy skin. The fish was all pretty good with only a slight note of earthiness you are going to get from fresh catfish. I mean it is a bottom feeder after all.

The coating on the okra was a little heavy for me but in the end it is fried okra and when they fresh fried they are all tasty and you know what you are going to get. The mac and cheese was somewhere between home made and Kraft mac and cheese. Not a bad thing. The noodles were bigger and it was definitely creamy cheesy as opposed to a baked version. Very cheddar forward on this. For me it was probably a little overload on the carbs as I did need just a little lie down after eating my way through about half of this. But in the end, isn’t that one of the joys of down home cooking. Not a question, just a statement.

On my first visit I felt I could not pass up a piece of home made pumpkin pie, according to the sign on the glass fridge door. The slice isn’t quite as big as the pic, more a surprisingly petite size considering the rest of the offerings. Like the yams this was heavy on the sweet, maybe more so than I like, but it is kind of how they do things in the state. Always a little more of this and that than one is normally used to when it comes to food. I did like the crust. Not terribly crumbly and a tad buttery, though still not quite enough to offset the sweet but still, I ate it because……it is what I do.

If you are looking for some fresh local take out seafood Capital Seafood Market is the way to go. Cooked to order and an array of down sides to choose from I don’t think you can go wrong no matter the choice you make. The fact so many people who live nearby also frequent the place also tells you it is good and worth it. Plus, if you wanna be your own home cook you can just get fresh raw stuff from the market side and get your chef on at home. Me, I will stick with the lazy take out way where you eat half then collapse on the couch for a nap afterwards. Which really, could also be called the Southern way. That’s how we roll people.