Grocery Ninja: Fatty, Preserved Crab Roe: Not PETA-Safe
The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read her past market missions here.
I know it’s only April, but this may be my food find of the year. Tiny, freshwater crabs—each barely two inches across—are soused with water, sprinkled with Kosher salt, and stuck live in the fridge. Hours later, they’re skillfully pressed and prodded to extract a grainy, coral paste that Pinoys like to mix with freshly steamed white rice, its richness cut through with a generous squirt of calamansi juice—a poor (or busy) man’s paella, if you will.
The thing is, I’m not positive what the gorgeously creamy, salty, slightly tangy stuff is. My bottle says it's "crab fat," and the Tagalog label of "taba ng talangka" concurs—"taba" is "fat" and "talangka" is what those little crabs are called. Yet, I’ve found roughly the same number of sources that claim it as either "crab roe" or "crab fat," and some fence-straddlers that call it "fatty crab roe." Seizing on that, the researcher beau helpfully suggested that since crab roe can be fatty, but crab fat isn’t necessarily roe, the yummy (calorific, cholesterol-laden, highway-to-a-heart-attack) stuff we’ve been sneaking spoonfuls of all weekend must be the eggs.
I only wish someone had told me that earlier, because the bottle has been sitting in my fridge for yonks. I picked it up on one of my grocery reconnaissances, but then got cold feet. I mean, no one actually thinks of eating crab fat, right? When was the last time you spooned animal fat of any kind into your mouth, neat? But crab roe, that’s altogether different. Crab roe I can handle.
To give you an idea of what it tastes like, I find it reminiscent of mentaiko, the Korean-inspired, marinated pollack roe from Japan that has been globetrotting menus, appearing in the likes of pasta, risotto, panna cotta, and strangely hypnotic Kewpie doll ads. Like mentaiko, taba ng talangka has a distinct, somewhat granular fishy-ness that’s best savored in small doses—a little goes a long way. It's more approachable (and affordable) than mentaiko, being less confrontational at first bite but with a similar ocean-y depth. I like to apply the "cheese taste test" method to foods I'm new to. So if you hold a dime-sized blob of taba on your palate and let it warm up, you'll find it releases a sharp, briny, yet "rounded" piquancy—almost like a blue cheese from the sea.
Interestingly, according to Pinoy tradition, any dish involving the crabs—the talangka—should be served during the day. Mainly because looking for a doctor at night is a pain, and eating talangka that were dead before cooking is guaranteed to give you violent nausea and diarrhea. I got mine in a bottle, so I’ve no idea if the crabs were alive before being preserved and pressed. But it’s been 36 hours since we had the stuff tossed with fresh tagliatelle, cherry tomatoes, and “chicken leg” shrooms, and I’m happy to report that we’re happy, our tummies are happy, and we’re both thinking very hard on how else to spread its gloriousness.
Can any Serious Eaters tell us for sure? Is it crab roe or fat?
About the author: Wan Yan Ling is an impoverished grad student and sourdough finger-crosser living in Rhode Island. She can usually be found in the kitchen procrastinating on "real work" or online tracking down obscure recipes. Ling thinks eating alone is no fun, and she still believes in hand-mixing.
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16 Comments:
Until reading this post, I always assumed it was crab roe. But now I'm not sure anymore!
But your deductive reasoning of "since crab roe can be fatty, but crab fat isn’t necessarily roe" makes complete sense. So I'm sticking with crab roe;)
Marvin at 2:27PM on 04/07/08
it's crab roe.. and it's dynamite with a warm plate of rice!
but you should eat it in moderation because it can make your cholesterol level shoot up..
you can also use it as an extender if your cooking a crab dish that has some sort of sauce.. makes the sauce taste more crabby.. ;p
ryushin at 2:49PM on 04/07/08
ryushin: that's a good tip, i'll be sure to keep that in mind when making seafood sauces! do you have any idea how long my bottle will keep (opened) in the fridge? not that it's going to be there for long, but i was wondering for *ahem* stockpiling reasons ;)
re. the choolesterol, i think the bf and i are going on a vegetarian diet this week to make-up for the weekend's excesses!
onedaylingers at 3:01PM on 04/07/08
hmmm.. i'm not sure how long it'll keep in your fridge.. a safe guesstimate would be 2-3 weeks.. an opened bottle never lasts that long in our fridge for us to find out.. ;)
ryushin at 3:23PM on 04/07/08
I'm so glad you posted about this! When I lived in Hong Kong, somebody let me eat the crab "gou"...but could never quite explain what it was. It just came from the crab (we were eating blue crabs that night), the stuff was the color of fresh wild salmon, and it was AMAZING on my rice! I'll have to go look for this at Ranch 99...
Teahlo at 5:01PM on 04/07/08
This post is really not cool with me. I don't care how tasty a food is, "skewering" something while it's alive and basically allowing salt to seep in is one of the crueller means of death - and there are a few out there still, but people are trying to do something about them. A chef like Jamie Kennedy goes to great lengths to have us think about matters like that, and you glibly toss it in as a clever opener. I think it's irresponsible of you to have written about it the way you have, and not done a little research about the matter first to find out how much pain is actually experienced.
surfchef at 5:08PM on 04/07/08
Oh I LOVE this stuff. It's brilliant served as simply as possible: sautee a lot of garlic (I go with one head) till golden and fragrant, toss in some minced onions, chopped tomatoes and maybe some chopped up thai bird chili. Add a few spoonfuls of the aligue (aka taba ng talangka), stir for a few seconds, then throw in some freshly cooked and hot noodles (rice noods if you've got it, spaghetti or linguini if you don't.) Add a few spoonfuls of the pasta water and serve immediately with some lime wedges. If you're feelin' fancy, throw some parsley on top for that bite of green (and for looks. It's so pretty!) Finally, eat the entire thing without sharing. THen call your doctor because you're gonna need a heart transplant.
Also, brand counts when buying aligue. Due to cost-cutting, some manufacturers actually cut it with fillers and extra salt and msg, as well as seafood flavourings. When we go back home, we buy Navarro's, or Razon's brand (found out about it through here, which also has a more complicated version of the pasta recipe I've posted above.)
lorelei76 at 6:12PM on 04/07/08
Hi surfchef,
I'm sorry you found the description of how taba ng talangka is traditionally homemade offensive. I'm not certain if that remains how it is mass produced today.
Grocery Ninja is a column to share delicious finds from ethnic groceries and steers clear from passing value judgements on foods -- especially foods from other cultures where the nuances of their traditional context may be lost to us here in the States.
The decision of what to eat is a personal one, with vegans perhaps frowning on vegetarians, vegetarians dismissing pesco-vegetarians as unenlightened, and pesco-vegetarians probably thinking the guy next door who grills steak for dinner a complete barbarian!
This is an important issue, of course, and there are lots of forums for such discussions. I don't believe Grocery Ninja -- with its focus on tasty grocery finds -- is one such forum though. (Incidentally, the crabs aren't "skewered" as you describe, merely salted and placed in the fridge.)
onedaylingers at 6:38PM on 04/07/08
Teahlo: You lived in HK, you lucky duck! As far as I'm concerned, HK is foodie paradise... I remember having my first cold crab dish there when I was ten... sweet, fleshy crustacean simply steamed and dipped in a gingery, vinegary, soy sauce. Utterly delicious =p
lorelai76: i wish i could have had your recipe for aligue pasta this weekend... i spent AGES cross-referencing multiple ones so i could figure out one that would work for me, and yours is perfect! do you have a blog? i'd love to cook my way through your recipes... especially if they all sound as good as this =)
from what i've read, everyone recommends buying Navarro's or Razon's (like you say), but i wasn't able to find either at my grocery. the one i picked up (Handaan) was yum, though probably not as good as those two!
onedaylingers at 7:00PM on 04/07/08
Hey *surfchef* do us all a favor, rather than seeking justice here at this website behind your keyboard (where the issue surely IS NOT) take your crusade of rightous enlightenment to Asia and start working on the 2.5 billion there whom commit the vast preponderance of crimes against The flying spaghetti monsters vast panapoly of creatures.
Our actions here at SE are the proverbial "Drop in the bucket".
Drop a little action on that AmEx *Gold card* and get your crusading ON!\
You go boy!
Stiv61 at 7:48AM on 04/08/08
OMM NOM NOM! onedaylingers, I emailed my mom and asked exactly what aligue was made of, and she said it was the delicious fat and meat squeezings of some kind of tiny crab. I suppose "Crab Roe" is more appetizing that "Crab Fat and Meat Stuffs." Whatever it is, it's magical. (p.s. sorry, no recipes on my blog - I'm too lazy to write it down and photograph. Besides, you don't need any help! Your recipes on your blog are awesome.)
Pinoys cook/process shellfish (or any kind of seafood, actually) live: I remember being taught when I was around nine or ten how to hold a live fish in order to gut it, scale it and cook over coals. Grandma always said it helped keep the meat sweet and fresh. Crabs are cooked while still alive in some flat beer or coconut milk, shrimps must be alive when it is tossed into a pot.
Sorry, surfchef, we were usually too hungry to worry about how the seafood felt regarding its oncoming death. I find it amusing to see someone pass judgement on a foodstuff that was originally created by the barely subsisting in order to make it 1) safe to eat 2) freaking delicious. (Though nowadays, aligue is CRAZY expensive.) Just remember: Don't be a jerk - especially about a food culture that you know zero about.
lorelei76 at 5:04PM on 04/08/08
lorelai76: I can see why people would be squeamish about handling live seafood (I probably am too, myself =p), but I've so missed having freshly steamed live fish since moving from Asia. My friend's dad will not eat fish that was not swimming just seconds before being placed in a wok -- I don't know how, but he can taste the difference (could be because he grew up in a fishing village!) I think this is especially prevalent in tropical climates, where the warm weather can make seafood that is not perfectly fresh downright dangerous to eat!
onedaylingers at 5:56PM on 04/08/08
Wow, sounds like I'm being the "spoiler" here.
Sorry, Onedaylingers and Grocery Ninja, I misread the "skewered."
And lorelei76, I don't think I was showing disrespect to the culture - at least not my version of disrespect. I was critiquing what I felt was Grocery Ninja's flipness about what is (possibly) a cruel tradition and that I wished she had either debunked (that it was indeed cruel to the animal) or simply addressed it differently.
I say the same things to my French friends when they talk about how much tastier it is to feed geese until their stomachs literally burst and they die. (I also note that according to one gastronome friend, the French "food culture" has changed in our generation, and that geese are still overfed, but more pleasantly so. And apparently geese naturally overeat to some extent, which makes this a much less cruel approach, albeit slightly less tasty.)
So any comments on the mayor of Seoul's attempt to reclassify dogs as "livestock" so it can be normally served as a "traditional delicacy" in restaurants? Or should I leave that for another forum...which I guess I will avoid seriouseats forums in the future so as not to offend.
(BTW - Stiv61, I do not, sadly have that AmEx Gold or I would be funding any organization lobbying against the dog reclassification in Seoul.
If we all love food, we should be conscious about it and able to talk about it in context - if I feel someone is sexist in the locker room, I'll say it. But I'll be nicer about it if they don't mean to be.
surfchef at 6:25PM on 04/08/08
That's the problem with the written word: you read it one way, I read it in another. Just to keep things clear: the "flipness" that you were speaking of was regarding the title "not PETA safe," which was then followed by the description of how aligue was made, correct?
Perhaps the title could have been worded differently. The description of how it was made? I read it as a very matter-of-fact explanation. And yes, that's probably exactly how it was made (I can double check that for you. I'm pretty sure family back in the Philippines knows SOMEONE who makes aligue. I probably couldn't tell you how large scale aligue-production works.)
With regards to the "possibly cruel tradition," I can't address that objectively. To us, it's just practical. As someone who grew up in a very rural environment and where every meal counted, making sure that livestock were comfortable during butchering was pretty low on the list.
Sure, I understand that we need to be conscious. If the luxury of cruelty free farming/butchering/cooking is available, then by all means, go for it. There should be standards on how livestock are treated, seeing as they'll eventually end up in someone's stomach.
RE: Dogs as livestock - having eaten dog before (not to mention bat, giant lizard, and assorted reptiles), I can safely say it's not worth the grief. I've been westernized enough that dogs, cats, even lizards are pets. 2 inch crabs? Food.
lorelei76 at 8:57PM on 04/08/08
Hi surfchef, I didn’t mean for “not PETA-Safe” in the title to be glib. Rather, I meant it the way “NSFW” is used to warn readers that what’s ahead may not be to their tastes. I think you nailed it when you said, “If we all love food, we should be conscious about it and able to talk about it in context” – hence the matter-of-fact description of how aligue is made. At the same time, it would be unwieldy delving into the foods of different cultures (in the spirit of discovering what’s delicious) if we’re preoccupied with evaluating them based on our own set of cultural/social ethos.
I reckon exploring other cultures will always be to some extent discomfiting, yet if we were to limit our worldview based only on what we have deemed “acceptable,” then we run the risk of greatly narrowing what the rest of the world has to share with us.
Of course, there’s a fine line between not passing judgment and being socially irresponsible, and I think that’s a line we all have to draw for ourselves =p
onedaylingers at 10:41PM on 04/08/08
"I've been westernized enough that dogs, cats, even lizards are pets. 2 inch crabs? Food."
I think my bf nearly keeled over laughing. You're hilarious, lorelai76 =)
onedaylingers at 10:52PM on 04/08/08