Essentials for a Great Day at the Beach
Grills, gear, and a recipe for a perfect beach day
By Paul Hope
A feast at the beach requires a little bit of planning, but the extra logistical lift is worth it. There’s something about the combination of sunshine and swimming that makes even great food taste better.
A cooler is key to safely transporting and storing the ingredients you bring and keeping drinks cold. Remember that uncooked meat, fish, and other perishable foods you’d usually store in a refrigerator can be left out only for 1 hour on a 90-degree day. (Any longer and you run the risk of food poisoning.)
Be sure to bring along a good sunscreen, too, and reapply it often. Trader Joe’s Spray SPF 50+ (shown below, $14 at Amazon) is an affordable option that rates high in CR’s sunscreen tests.
Trader Joe's Spray SPF 50+
Kevin Curry’s Bacon-Wrapped Scallop Kebabs
Courtesy Kevin Curry
The Food
Surf-and-Turf on a Skewer Menu
• Bacon-wrapped scallop kebabs
• Homemade potato chips (seasoned with herbs or Old Bay Seasoning)
• Orange sections or lemon bars for dessert
Serve up a taste of the sea with scallop kebabs that you can assemble at home and grill quickly at the beach. This recipe is from the chef and cookbook author Kevin Curry, whose Instagram profile (@fitmencook) has 1.6 million faithful and well-fed followers. “The scallop kebabs are a great way to get out of your comfort zone and elevate your grill game,” Curry says.
If you’re planning to grill on a portable or public grill, keep the kebabs under 40° F in a sealed plastic bag in an ice-filled cooler until you’re ready to cook them. You can also grill the scallops at home and bring them with you to eat cold.
Kevin Curry’s Bacon-Wrapped Scallop Kebabs (shown above)
Ingredients
1 lb. jumbo scallops, about 8
8 slices of beef bacon (Can substitute turkey or pork bacon)
BBQ Paste
1¼ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 heaping teaspoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon coconut sugar
Garnish (optional)
Chopped cilantro
Sea salt & pepper
Wooden kebab skewers, flat ones recommended
1. Fire up the grill and preheat to 375° F. You want it hot enough to crisp the edges of the bacon after a few minutes.
2. Place wooden kebab skewers in water. Allow them to soak for at least 20 minutes before placing on the grill in order to mitigate the risk of them burning or catching fire.
3. Wrap a piece of bacon around a jumbo scallop. Skewer it with the wooden kebab stick. Repeat for the remaining scallops. Place no more than 3 wraps on each skewer.
4. Mix together the ingredients for the paste, then lightly brush the mixture onto the kebabs.
5. Place the kebabs on the grill and cook for about 8 minutes, then flip them over. Cook for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, or until the outside edges of the bacon get crispy.
6. Remove the scallops from the grill, allow them to slightly cool, then garnish.
The Fun
Music is a treat at the beach until your speaker gets knocked into the water and things suddenly go very quiet. Both of the speakers below are good choices for the beach and can survive a dunking but differ in price and features.
The JBL Boombox 2 hearkens back to the giant beatboxes the cool kids—and even LL Cool J—carried around in the 1980s and 90s. But while those behemoths ate D-cell batteries like competitive eaters down Nathan’s hot dogs, JBL’s newest Bluetooth boombox streams digital music (instead of warbly cassettes) and is powered by a 10,000mAh (milliamp hours) rechargeable battery. And JBL claims the Boombox 2 is good for the same 24 hours of music and it’s said to meet IPX7 waterproofness standards, so it should stay safe from a significant splash or even a modest dunking.
Our testers give the Boombox 2 a solid rating for sound quality, though they add that the bass can be overwhelming on certain kinds of music. While it might be a bit much for a small bedroom or home office, this updated boombox is just the thing for that outdoor dance party.
Sony’s SRS-XB23 is proof that less is more. The manufacturer’s earlier wireless Bluetooth speakers were laden with bells and whistles, including colorful LEDs that pulsed with the music and digital sound effects that bleated when you beat on the speaker. These features were fun but ultimately beside the point.
A great outdoor speaker should be all about filling your life with music, and the more straightforward XB23 performs its primary function admirably. It’s a medium-sized model that checks a lot of boxes, and it’s relatively inexpensive. Sony claims that it’s water-resistant. And it sounds good. The low bass of the SRS-XB23 is a bit lacking, and the midrange is missing some of the clarity of the very best portables. But on balance, the Sony’s sound is satisfying.
JBL Boombox 2
Sony SRS-XB23
The Flame
Whether you want to just grill some hot dogs or you want to try the scallop kebabs (shown above), a portable grill makes it easy to cook hot food for a day at the beach.
Portable Grill
Price: $80 to $420
Size: Small (18 or fewer burgers)
Temperature range: 150° F to 500° F
Best for grilling: Anything you’d cook on a regular gas grill.
Pros: Light and compact, many, like the Nexgrill below, are built to be used on a tabletop. No table? Choose one with tall legs so you don’t have to cook on the ground (check our portable grill ratings to find a model).
Con: Many run on 1-pound propane cylinders, which last only 1½ to 2 hours.
Grilling tip: Take a few extra propane cylinders, or choose a model that takes a 20-pound tank. Telling people that they can’t have a burger because you’ve run out of propane before everyone’s been fed is a sure way to spoil a cookout.
Nexgrill 820-0033
Editor’s Note: This article also appeared in the June 2021 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.
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