I know what you are thinking, "What the heck is a fat crab?" Well, Chinese people (I think most Asians, but I am not sure) eat female crabs when they are carrying eggs. That makes them fat and juicy.
YUM :)
Now, I live in Maryland, the state of blue crabs. Around summer time and fall, blue crabs can be as low as
$0.99 a pound. Basically, you eat till your hands are bleeding. I am kidding. My fingers only get sore.
At the local international (Korean) grocery stores, they have live female crabs, all sprawled out on a table. It's time to go hunting! Now, female crabs don't have a lot of meat compared to male crabs. And what little it has does taste different (not as good according to many like my dad). Then, why the heck are we picking out female crabs? It is for this:
Look at that
orange yumminess. Just a warning though, it's full of
cholesterol, so eat at your own risk. Look at how the eggs have crowded into the corner of the crab shell and you can just gently tug on it and the whole thing comes out. That's what we call "
filled to the corner". I am drooling just looking at this and I just ate!
Ok....so here's
my dad's secret (ok not secret anymore hehe) method of picking fat crabs. There are a
few things to look for.
1. You can see a patch of light orange on the shell. There's this little spot that's usually just a lighter green or white, but if there are lots of eggs, it is orange.
2. If you turn the crab over, it shouldn't be snow white. If it's too clean, no eggs.
3. Also on the under side, right along the edge of the big pointy thingy on the shell, you should also see some orange.
Using this method, my dad picked 4 crabs. And they are all
full of eggs! 100%! Even good luck won't give you this kind of results!
So, all he does with the crabs is take the gray stuff (the lungs) out, rinse it under water, split it in half, put the top shell pack on, put on a dish and steam for like 8 minutes. He said you have to wash the crabs because you are gonna be putting that in your mouth. You don't want to know where the crabs have been. He uses a old toothbrush to quickly go over them sometimes.
Bon Appetite!
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