I have actually tried these, in Shanghai in fact. In Shanghai they were called “hairy crab”. Although they were good, I wouldn’t put them on the top of my list of favorite.
I was hoping for an option like that. I’m similar, except I also like the (possibly fake) crab meat that’s on one of my favorite salad bars.
When I lived in Virginia, I worked at a restaurant that did the soft-shell crab sandwiches.
Despite having processed crab for a living <opies, beardi and king>, as well as catching and eating dungeoness…despite loving the hell out of all of them, I could not even bring myself to try one of the soft-shells. It just looks…like a giant spider. Ugh. A hairy gross one. UGH.
Please tell me what they taste like?
We can get some nice blue crabs up here in NY too. I love crab, but I hate getting them (and lobsters) out of the shell. Too much work for my lazy ass. Never learned my grandmother’s skill. She could get every last piece of meat out of a blue in 30 seconds.
I’ve had fresh Australian and Alaskan king crab on several occasions, cooked in two Chinese styles (legs fried with ginger, garlic and green onions, and body steamed with garlic and served over wide rice noodles), and that’s really the best in my opinion. The crab benefits from being kept alive until it’s cooked, as opposed to the pre-cooked and frozen Alaskan king crab which is so common.
Alaskan king crab is nice; snow crab is fine; but I was born and raised in the suburbs of Baltimore, so if you please, I’ll have a big ol’ mountain of MD blue crabs, steamed with plenty of Old Bay; side dishes of MD crab soup, steamed sweet corn, cole slaw and potato salad.
Anywhere in northern Australia you can go out to a local waterway and catch fresh mud crabs. Usual restaurant fare elsewhere is Blue Swimmers. Muddies are just as good.
I picked Blue crab, if it is the soft-shelled variety. I had that in New Orleans once, man that was some good eats. Though I once spent a day on the beach on Oregon’s Nestucca Bay, boiling fresh-caught dungies and corn on the cob, and swilling cold beer. Life doesn’t get any better than that.
Dungeness crab and Blue crab are so similar you should get what’s caught off whatever coast is closer.
“Dungeness” sounds cooler; I want a sushi roll call “Dungeness and Dragon Roll.”
Anyway, I prefer lobster to crab outside of crabcakes and California rolls.
Dungeness for me.
I am fortunate to live in an area where it is widely available, near the mouth of the Columbia. But I rarely have to buy it. One friend owns a crab company that flies crab all over the country for banquets. My son is a part time commercial crab fisherman.
And a couple times a year I go out with another friend on his boat to sport fish for crab. Each person is allowed to keep 12 crab and the license only costs $7 per year.
That $7 shellfish license is also good for digging razor clams of which I still have about 4 limits of 15 in the freezer. Just about time to start digging again!
Another Marylander, here. Blue crabs, steamed in beer and spiced with Old Bay. Just thinking about it sends me back to almost every Saturday afternoon in my childhood. We would go out on the boat in the morning, bring back a couple bushels, and steam them out on the carport on my dad’s old camping stove. Even when I’ve lived in places where crabs weren’t available, I have never not had a big can of Old Bay in my pantry.
I love Dungeness. We’ve got rock crabs down south, and they are indeed a bitch to break and are pretty stingy with the meat. I don’t even get excited when I pull one up when out lobster fishing.
I prefer mud crab to any other crab. IMHO it is better than lobster.
I’ll eat almost any sort of crab, but, not being familiar with crab anatomy I prefer the ones it’s easiest to get the meat out of. I almost prefer surimi just because I don’t have to shell it in the first place.
I was gonna say, “I’d give Osama Bin Ladin a blow job for a plate of snow crab done up right.”
Then, I realized I probably wouldn’t.
I do love snow crab though.
I picked stone, but again, other than soft shell crab, I have never met a crab I didn’t like.
I have a thing against eating soft shell crabs because you eat the guts also. I do not eat crustacean guts, thanks.