What’s Going On?

If you don’t know by now, it is now Dungeness Crab season.  The California Department of Fish and Game announced back on November 7, 2009 that it is open season for Dungeness Crab out in the Pacific Ocean. The holidays are fast approaching and it’s time to get that crab out onto the dinner table. The season for Dungeness Crab will last until June 30th, 2010.

For the most part, I’m happy that this season has approached because time after time I’ve always wanted to purchase crab and make new dishes from them. There is this one place down in San Francisco’s Chinatown called R&G Lounge and they have probably one of the best Salt and Pepper Dungeness Crabs I’ve ever laid my taste buds on. I’m in the pursuit of trying to figure out how they do it. If anyone does find out a decent recipe I sure would love to get some feedback from you.

So the other day I went down to Chinatown to look for a fish monger that would be still open because I arrived in Chinatown at about 6:20pm. Most stores in Chinatown close at about 6pm, but I happen to find a shop that was still open. As I walked in I saw all sorts of fresh fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. However, my eyes were set on one thing and one thing only, crab.

I walked over to one of the workers there and asked him to help pick out two large Dungeness Crabs for me. First thing he did was grab a plastic bag that was lined with a paper bag inside of it. Next, he shifted some of the foam away from the top of the water tank as he stuck his bare hands into the water. In my mind, I was shocked to see him brave enough to stick his hands in there and not use a stick or some sort of net, this guy has “balls”. So with his gutsy move, he picked out two crabs that were to my liking and I was happy and went home with two 2.5lb crabs at $3.99/lb. My head calculations bring that to about $20 for two crabs, what a bargain. That’s like going to a restaurant and getting a crab for free, if only it were that cheap to get one alone at $20. Most restaurants around the city charge anywhere from $35-50 for a single crab weighing about 2.5lbs.

When I got the crabs home I took a few pictures to scale the size of these monsters. I happened to use a quarter to show scale, but I should have known that the quarter was too small and that I should have used a dollar bill. Anyhow, the next universal thing that I did was found a can of fruit cocktail and I placed it in front of the crab to show a little bit of the scale of the crab and I think that did justice.

The next day I decided to cook the crab in the oven. I took the crab and cleaned it. After cleaning the crab I broke the crab into segments. On the stove top I cooked up some minced garlic with butter and salt and fresh ground pepper to season the crab. I tossed the crab into the mixture coating the shells and then placed the crab segments into the oven and spooned the remaining garlic butter mixture on top of the crab as it roasted. After the crab finished roasting, I placed the crab with some pasta, green bean casserole, and macaroni and cheese. The meal was delicious. Now the leftovers will probably be used into making some sort of crab cakes if it lasts that long. Anyhow, I’m still looking for a recipe for deep fried salt and pepper crab and if you have a recipe that’s delicious please share it with me.

If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

Crab wanting freedom

Crab sized up with a quarter to show scale

Crab sized up using a tin can

Crab dinner