I just wish more restaurants would do what this one did and slice open every bit of shell to make the meat easier to get to. I hate the effort that goes into it, but it's so worth it!
Yeah, it's sure extra spiky. It's like someone decided to make a cactus or an artichoke into a crustacean. We sliced open the shell with knives to get at it, but both sustained minor injuries to the fingers in our eagerness to pry it open. Still though, a small sacrifice. NOMMITY
I actually love the effort that goes into it! :D I just bite through the shell and then I can go OM NOM NOM ^^ fun for the whole family!...well not really, my mom hates it, but that's half the fun! :D
Piffle. Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs are better, and less stabby. So much better my Baltimore-bred self will still eat them on rare family-oriented occasions despite calling myself a vegetarian for the past four or five years. Of course, they're also smaller and thus more work for the same amount of food, but at least they are not made of spikes.
They're a west-coast crab, so I'm not surprised. The transportation costs probably make it prohibitive. (By the same token, we don't get fresh blue crab out here, that I know of.)
Because of the amount of overfishing and damage to the Bay and catch limits to try and fix that, most restaurants don't serve anything actually made with local blue crabs here. I've had the Alaskan ones, or at least the legs, so I know that's what they were. But if I've had Dungeness, it's been labelled as generic "crab" to make less savvy locals think they're getting what we're known for, and fresh. They may well be just as good.
I only ever see them as legs for some reason. Maybe the body is too big and unwieldy to keep in grocery store cases (given the size of the legs I can only imagine the size of the beast!).
But if I've had Dungeness, it's been labelled as generic "crab" to make less savvy locals think they're getting what we're known for, and fresh.
It would likely have to be frozen and re-thawed, I'd think, if it were Dungeness. But that would be a strange thing to do, shipping in something special and expensive and then labelling it generically? *scratches head*
My initial experience with Dungeness was at the Kitchener Red Lobster, in a "Crab Feast" which included 1/2 pound each of Snow, Dungeness and King. At the time, I actually preferred the Dungeness. It was (to my 14? year old brain) the dark meat of crab meat. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but it was something that my mind held on to for quite some time. Somehow they were quite different. King Crab just translates to my brain as some kind of super-charged snow crab.
Am now picturing a snow crab with electrodes and a frazzled-looking Dr Cancerstein laughing maniacally over his latest and greatest culinary triumph...
-- Fresh blue crab..--housewives market down in oakland sometimes had them, but, ahh, that was thirty years ago, now.. they were still live, shipped in by air--no weirder than live main lobster they were cute, compared with our crabs they are Little
OOoooooo, Dungeness crab... There used to be a place around here, "Chesepeake Bay Seafood House", that had all-you-can-eat seafood deals. Not gourmet, but great for the occasional pig-outs. They're gone now. I like to think that's at least partially due to my pal Bob. The rest of us he used to drag there every chance he could, too, but mostly Bob, who did his best to eat them out of crab. Once you got past the 10th plate of crab legs the staff got downright surly. But anyway, Dungeness crab legs were my personal favorite dish there. Much better than the far wimpier snow crab legs.
(Obligatory Jon Pinnette paraphrase, "You here four hour. Eat vegetable!!"
But damn are they spiky. I had to handle the frozen legs when I was working in the seafood department... it was nigh impossible to avoid getting stabbed at least once.
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Date: Apr. 6th, 2009 06:46 am (UTC)From:no subject
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Date: Apr. 6th, 2009 12:17 pm (UTC)From:I feel cheated. *pouts* ;D
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Date: Apr. 6th, 2009 05:50 pm (UTC)From:Better for you?
(I just figured staunch veg's probably wouldn't want to see me talking about how delicious animals are.)
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Date: Apr. 6th, 2009 06:55 pm (UTC)From:I only ever see them as legs for some reason. Maybe the body is too big and unwieldy to keep in grocery store cases (given the size of the legs I can only imagine the size of the beast!).
But if I've had Dungeness, it's been labelled as generic "crab" to make less savvy locals think they're getting what we're known for, and fresh.
It would likely have to be frozen and re-thawed, I'd think, if it were Dungeness. But that would be a strange thing to do, shipping in something special and expensive and then labelling it generically? *scratches head*
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Date: Apr. 7th, 2009 08:01 am (UTC)From:no subject
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Date: Apr. 6th, 2009 11:03 pm (UTC)From:they were still live, shipped in by air--no weirder than live main lobster
they were cute, compared with our crabs they are Little
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Date: Apr. 13th, 2009 04:48 pm (UTC)From:(Obligatory Jon Pinnette paraphrase, "You here four hour. Eat vegetable!!"
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