Yesterday, Rob and I hit up the seafood department at Big Y, looking for some fish suitable for grilling. We settled on halibut, which for the record is excellent topped with fresh fruit salsa.
That should have been it. But of course my eyes wandered to the shellfish on display. Among excellent-looking jumbo shrimp and lump lobster meat rested two Dungeness crabs, on sale for $5.99/lb.
I first had Dungeness on a 2004 trip to San Francisco, where it was everywhere, from street carts to fancy restaurants. The meat is sweet and tender. Suddenly, the halibut wasn’t enough – I needed that crab.
(Rob is the master of going to a store and getting exactly what he needs, no deviation. The look on his face was nothing short of “Are you serious?”)
But what to do with it? Thankfully, the crustacean was pre-cooked. The seafood clerk advised us to toss it into boiling water for a few minutes before eating. I decided we’d eat it like boiled lobster – crack open the body and legs and hunt feverishly for meat.
As an homage to Homer Simpson, we nicknamed the crab “Pinchy” before we gave it a very hot bath. It wasn’t until I took this picture that I realized Pinchy had a face. Oops.
But the crabmeat was delicious, especially when sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning and dipped into melted butter, then washed down with a 2007 Bonterra Chardonnay. California wine for our West Coast seafood. Yummy.
Leeanne Griffin is a freelance writer and food enthusiast.
