Scallop issues.

Sea scallops are a big favorite in our family, beautifully sautéed with a little salt, pepper, lemon, and dill. What a treat! It's about the only seafood we can all agree on.

And yet... there seems to be a national shortage of them.

According to various sources, including LA's KCRW last summer, 

The seafood section on some menus have been slim these days. Restaurants across the country are pulling dishes like crab croquettes or seared sea scallops from their offerings. That’s because prices are too high right now, thanks to major delays in the supply chain just as consumer demand for a nice seafood dinner is soaring. 

     "A pound of halibut before the pandemic might have gone for $16, now it’s $28. The worst example we're hearing is about scallops," says Kate Krader, food editor at Bloomberg News. "Scallops are getting pulled from menus across the country. They've gone up to about $42 a pound. Chefs were buying them for $28 pre-pandemic."

It's been hard to find a pound of sea scallops at all around here, fresh or frozen. Most of the supermarkets either don't have any or have precious few. I had a coupon for sea scallops at the wholesale club, hoping against hope that they had somehow gotten a line on them, but there was nary a scallop to be found, sea or bay. When I did finally get a pound at the Stop & Shop it cost $25, up at least $5 from last year.

I'm impressed that KCRW actually used the word inflation in its story, months before it could be blamed on that Russian schmuck raising hell just now. Bear that in mind the next time you hear someone try to blame all our economic woes on Putin. Putin also didn't ruin our supply chain or cause labor shortages. That was all the work of our own brilliant leaders. 

I was at least glad that the scallop issue was not caused by some horrible scallop blight. That means that in future the little beauties will once more be in good supply, and either the prices will drop or at least will stay stable long enough for all the other inflated prices to catch up. Meanwhile we have had our one Lenten scallop dinner; now we'll just have to eat mac 'n cheese and the like going forward.