Friday, January 13, 2012

Getting Crabby

 Snow Crab Legs...mmm...mmm...good. (photo by me)

I think my most favorite food on the planet has to be snow crab legs.  The ones referred to as Opilio crabs on the Deadliest Catch, if you watch that show.  Now I get a bunch of crap when I say that snow crab legs are my favorite.  People always want to argue that King Crab, Blue Crab and Dungeness are the best.  So here's why they are my favorite.

A.) They taste much better, in my opinion, than Alaskan King Crabs.

Alaskan King Crab.  Good, but Painful. (photo by Google images)

Don't get me wrong, I won't pass up crab meat of ANY kind...unless you spell it with a K.  But the Alaskan crabs taste more bland to me than the snow crab.  Not to mention that trying to bust the meat out of their enormous shells usually draws blood at the very least and requires a trip to the ER at the very worst.  So for these reasons, I choose snow crab over king crab.

B.) They are MUCH less of a hassle than eating the sweet, delicious meat of the blue crab.

Blue crab.  Oh, so delicious, but time consuming and not filling. (photo by Google images)

Blue crab is GOOD.  The meat is sooooo sweet and tender and goes wonderfully with a cold beer with a lime.  Oh.My.GOD, I would kill for some blue crab right now.  But the truth is, they are a pain in the ass to deal with and for the amount of meat you get out of one, you have to deal with about 30 of them to even feel full.  They are fun to catch, too.  Get yourself a net, tie a raw chicken leg to it and drop the net in the water (who knew crabs ate chicken...I guess they get tired of the same old thing).  Wait 30 minutes or leave and come back, pick the net up and there you have it...blue crab.  Maybe 1, maybe 5, that's the fun of it.  We used to catch blue crab with our grandfather in Virginia.  I will never forget hearing their shrill screams as we threw them into boiling water!  Ahhhh...childhood memories! 

C.) They are much cheaper (at least where I live) than Dungeness crabs.

 Dungeness crab.  Delicious, but costly. (photo by Google images)

We might have ourselves a pretty close tie if Dungeness crabs were the same price as snow crabs, but in my landlocked neck of the woods, they aren't.  But Dungeness crab is SOOOO GOOOD.  If I was in San Francisco, I'd choose Dungeness over Snow.  But we're not.  And unless you straight up ram the tip of the claw into your hand, like a dumbass, it's very hard to cut yourself on a Dungeness crab.  They don't have as many pointy, sharp things on their legs.  Ok, I take that back.  All these crabs can be dangerous...especially if you eat them as quickly as I do.

My point is this.  Snow crab legs are salty, juicy, meaty, easy to work with (once you get it down to a science, which I have), readily available (let's cross our fingers it stays this way) and pretty cheap.  When you buy them, they are already cooked, so you really only need to steam them for about 10 minutes to warm their meat back up.  You can add some Old Bay to them if you want a little more flavor.  You don't need butter for this crabbies.  Just a squirt of lemon will do.  But butter makes everything better, so dunk away. 

And that.... my crabby friends... is why I like the snow crab the best.

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