Crabs

I love love love crabs.

I grew up catching them in the Chesapeake Bay and ever since I've been devouring them whenever I get a chance.

A silver lining of being bi-coastal is that the crab seasons on the east and west coast almost sync up perfectly. The local Blue crab season on the east coast basically ends in October and the Dungeness crab season on the west coast begins in November.

The experience of eating crabs on the west coast is very different than on the east coast. One difference, out of many, is that Dungeness crabs are huge compared to Blue crabs which means that you basically eat one whereas on the east coast you pull up to a newspaper covered table and chow down as many as you can eat -- depending on the size around dozen usually does it for me. Flavor-wise I prefer the Blue crabs which have a sweeter and more delicate taste than the Dungeness.

This hasn't been a very good year for Dungeness crabs. Some blame an oil spill in the San Francisco Bay while others attribute the decline to normal cyclicality in the crab population. Whatever the cause, we managed to get a few the weekend the season opened and they were delicious.

I've also had Hairy crab (it gets its name from hairy like stuff on its claws) which is extremely popular in Asia, particularly China. They don't stack up to Dungeness or Blue crabs though because they're pretty small and the flavor is just average.

Now this is one crab I'd love to sink my teeth into. It's called a coconut crab and it's the largest land-dwelling arthropod on earth. Although it has no natural predators, it's endangered because people keep eating them.

Mmmm...look at that claw!