Photograph taken by Melissa Hom, from Grub Street Now there's no excuse for finding cartilage in your warm peekytoe crab cake with shaved cauliflower at Le Bernardin. They use an ultraviolet light that distinguishes crabmeat from cartilage (the cartilage appears a much brighter white), which executive chef Eric Ripert discovered last year after seeing it on a French TV program. Related The 50 Best Restaurants in the World, per S. Pellegrino Eric Ripert's New Website In Videos: Anthony Bourdain Interviews Eric Ripert...
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Living in Saigon, I’m constantly adding new Vietnamese words to my vocabulary. It’s fascinating how some terms stick straightaway, while others, regardless of how many times I run into them, refuse to integrate into my lexicon. For instance, I can’t seem to remember the words for menu, even though I ask to see one practically every day. However, just one tasty encounter with soft-shell crabs was all it took for the words cua lot to be forever seared into my mind. I guess the part of my brain that processes new information is directly connected to my taste buds. I visited Quán 94, a restaurant specializing in crabs, a few weeks back with a travel journalist named Peter. I...
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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...
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While celebrating New Year's Eve in Japan, Amy of Blue Lotus ate kegani, literally "hairy crab." Cute? Hell no. Tasty? Hell yes!...
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After reading Bryan Waterman's definitive account of crabbing near the San Juan Islands in Washington I have a newfound interest in going crab hunting and eating the flesh of the freshly killed crustaceans. And by "going crab hunting" I mean "watching other people do the dirty work" since I have no proclivity towards handling live seafood and I'd probably get a finger pinched off after poking a crab in the wrong spot. But after all the catching and killing is done I bet the rewarding mountain of steamed crab tastes really good....
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