Crabs and Lobsters

In the human world crabs are always testy

I confess to preferring lobster. Although Balmain Bugs are yummy too if done right.


I once had a lobster curry that was stunning. The flavour and the texture of the lobster held and blended with the curry. To die for.

I have had lobsters only thrice in my whole life

The Mediterranean Grilled Lobster With Tomatoes and basil,
Malaysian Lobster Satay
Lobster Sphaghetti.

Liked the first two. Last one was tasteless. I had that in a Cheff Corner in Glasgow once.

Had crabs numerous times... Lets admit! crabs are economical too. Only thing about crabs that I hate is, not their shells or pincers, but a form of processed crab meat sticks we get in supermarkets.

Yuck!

That's not crab, it's pollock - a fish, not a crustacean.

Lobsters don't live on the west coast of Canada but we do have the alaskan king crab, it's very sweet. I prefer lobster, I've had the huge atlantic clawed ones from the Maritimes, A clawless blue one in Thailand and an amazing one in Belize that was caught moments before and cooked on a street corner over a halved oil barrel bbq. Yummy.

We get mud crabs, huge, nice with a champagne sauce.


And soft shell crab in season. Still prefer lobster.

My ginger chili crab eating tip: 'Don't wear white'

You've never had Maine lobster cooked the New England way - steamed with butter. If you had, there would be no doubt - lobster would win. New England lobster is significantly better than other lobster - I've had both.

Beat me to it. the MAine lobster is a totally different species that is only found on the western coast of the ATlantic and in a few places along the French Spanish Greenland coasts. The lobster is a clawed mother that needs NO dressing up (CURRIED LOBSTER??? are you shittin me??)

Now crabs are a staple on the seashore of US from New York down into Louisiana. The crab cake is a fare over which there are wars and hundreds of yearly cookoffs. STeamed blue crabs are a delicacy served in thousands of taprooms along the EAstern shore of Maryland and Virginia. The crab is steamed with a "secret spice combo" and served on a huge tray . It is eaten using a wooden mallet with butter and with a large pitcher of a beverage of choice , Ill try to find a picture of a crab feats Eastern SHore style.

If you hvent seen USers eating crabs, you aint looking too hard.

HERES A DISH of two MAINE lobstahs (proper pronunciation has the "R" at the end taken away and substituted with an " Aaaah " sound




AND HERES SOME CRABS on a plate ready to eat accommpanied by your beverage of choice.

I'll have both, thank you.

Mud bugs, too.

Love those as well too!

Love crabs. Never eaten a lobster though.

Mud bugs, also known as crawdads or crayfish . . .



Them Cajun boys will get them a marmite (a big iron pot) and about half fill it with water--then they throw in whole potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and turnips. When the potatoes are about done, they throw in two or three pounds of red pepper powder (usually paprika), lots of whole peppers, some green beans, some okra, lotta garlic and onions, and then start feedin' the mud bugs and crabs in there. I believe that might be the origin of jambalaya . . .

Maine lobsters are king of the seafood menu!

Hi FM - I know curried lobster sounds like gilding the lily but you had to try it - freaking amazing.

I've never had Maine Lobster - curious. Does anyone farm them? It wasn't apparent from Wikipedia, but this factoid was terrifying:
According to Guinness World Records, the heaviest crustacean recorded was an American lobster caught off Nova Scotia, Canada, weighing 44.4 lb (20.1 kg) and having a length of 3.51 ft (1.07 m).

I have to agree withthe Tsar, North Atlantic lobster needs NO "gilding" infact, the lobster industry is always pushing back to try to make this crustacean a foundation for foreign flavors. Ive tried a disassembled lobster in a Chinese (Szechuan) meal. It was somewhat underwhelming. The flavor of lobster is so fine and delicate that nothing can improve it.
I just think that curry would hammer it with its perfumery. The diner would miss the delictaeness that accompanies the flavor and texture of this nearly perfect food (tastewise and dining expwerience wise).

The only deviation from that rule is THE LOBSTER ROLL. Which is a disassembled cooked lobster mixed in a mayonnaise/butter sauce and the entire mess is slipped into a white bread roll and eaten as a picnic or country fair finger food.
Lobster roll is delicious and is the only "gilding" for this seafood treat that I would condone.
Stuff like Lobster thermidor or lobster cheese bake (GAGH) is just a waste of perfectly good lobster.

SOme people who love lobster , dont even like to use butter to dip the meat in as you sit at table. Many of these "purists" just like a small lobster, a hard shelled one at that, steamed for exactly 12 minutes and then promptly brought to table.
Its that much of a sacred food stuff in Maine (and most of the East Coast)

When I lived in New Orleans, they tried using the same technique that they use with crawfish to adapt to lobster. It doesnt work at all because the "boil spices" used for a crawfish boil are quite strong and peppery. A crawfish is NOT just a small lobster, it is a fresh water crustacean that has a flavor all its own and that flavor is not shared by lobster.

Ive had fresh crawfish from bayou Tesche and Pointe al la Hatche which werent lobstery tasting at all. They have a wilder flavor that goes with a spicy boiling spice and a preffered way of eating this little guy.

Blue crabs are also quite delicate but, because the meat can be separated into claw meat and "lump"(muscle packet meat) each of these separate types can be used for things other than just steam crab picking. The crab cake is a regional food that brings tears to the eyes of old timers who each have a favorite crab cake house along the Chesapeake Bay. The rule of thumb is that a crab cake gets more crappily made for each ten miles away from the BAy.

I agree that lobster needs no "gilding." I've also had Chinese "lobster" sauce, but it's an humane sauce--no lobsters are actually harmed in the making of Chinese lobster sauce.

The lobaster Szexchuan was a very hot lobster sauce served with big chunks of lobstermeat left in the shell. HOW YA gonna eat something like that. Firt it was overly spiced and sweet/salty sauced and the lobster meat hadda be extracted from this glop.

HINGE--Actually what you showed were what we call "Rock lobsters" which are a different genus entirely. The tails are the only part that are used and they really dont taste as decadently delicate as Maine lobster so I gues doctoring them up would be in order. Ive eaten them motly in southern climes around the equator and, while very good, Gimme a MAine Lobster any day.


Its like mussels from anywhere , you will always come back to Gallway Bay or PEI mussels as the best.

Well, in my personal experience i've never come across any "lobster" sauce which actually had lobster in it, or even remotely tasted like lobster--Sezchuan or otherwise.

Click here to see a recipe for "lobster" sauce. Once again, no lobsters are harmed in the making of this sauce. It appears that this is called lobster sauce because it is intended to be used with lobster, rather than actually being made from lobster.

The Szechuan dinner wasnt called "Lobster sauce" that was my depiction of it. The actual dish was called Szechuan Lobster in GArlic Sauce.
I agree, no more than :Duck sauce" has any actual pieces of duck meat in there.