The Art of Eating Crab (legs)

Two weekends ago, Glenn and I went to Todai , a Japanese buffet chain restaurant, in Woodfield Mall. Let me just be perfectly honest here. I have a deep aversion to Todai because of previous traumatic experiences. Plus, I am admittedly a buffet snob and a seafood snob. When you've eaten at Las Vegas buffets, the best buffets in the world, it's hard to appreciate anything else. Also, when you're used to fresh seafood, it's difficult to enjoy the not so fresh sea food in the Midwest. That's one of the downfalls of living in Illinois - we are nowhere near my beloved ocean.

Anyways, Glenn hearts Todai big time and had a coupon for a free meal that was going to expire. So, against my better judgement, we went to eat at Todai. When we got there, I decided to make the most of it and eat lots of the unlimited crab legs.

The crabs I'm showing here are Dungeness Crabs but they also served Snow Crab legs and soft shell Blue Crabs.
Although I was excited to eat crab meat, my initial feeling could be best described as disgruntled. Just look at my face. What does that say to you? DISGRUNTLED.

This is because I prefer to eat the whole Dungeness crab and not just the claws and legs. What a waste! I don't understand why they don't give us the whole crab or people's wariness of the meat in the body of the crab.
Just look at this wonderful example of the tasty goodness crabs can offer. This picture is from my 2007 trip to the Philippines. Here you can see the fat and the orange crab eggs. In Waray, this is called Aligi (maybe in Tagalog too, not sure though). This whole time, I just refered to it as aligi, and didn't know exactly what it was. Only recently did I discover that it's fat and crab eggs. Woooo cholesterol! This is my favorite part of any crab. It has the most flavor and the texture has this buttery quality to it. I love to pour all the insides over steamed rice and make riceballs out of them. I love to eat cholesterol. No joke. Also, as I said before, I am used to picking out my own crabs and knowing that they are fresh and alive when I pick them out. That sounds a bit sad - like I'm a crab murderer. That's ok, I can live with the guilt.
But, I'll take what I can get. I had to push these negative feelings away and concentrate on the process of cracking crab legs. It takes skill and patience. Two things I have when it comes to eating crab. You have to crack it just right, with just the right amount of pressure. You want to get through the shell, but you don't want to break the meat. Also you want to do it in the right spot, so that when you split open the crab shell, you can pull out a huge chunk of unbroken crab meat.

Don't feel bad if you don't have these qualities. It has taken me years and years of practice.

It's been awhile though, so I did feel a little self-doubt.

Can I do it? Can I rise to the occasion? My pride is on the line here.

Concentrate. Concentrate.

Did I get it? Did I get it?

OHHHHH! VICTORY!!!!!!

Glenn didn't get a chance to take a picture of the huge chunk of crab meat because I popped it in my mouth immediately. My excitement and hunger took over and I forgot that he was documenting the process.

A note about the flavor. Crab meat, especially in Dungeness crabs, should have a subtle sweetness to it. It shouldn't need any additional flavoring or butter or whatever. However, this sweetness can only be obtained in fresh crab. So the chefs here at Woodfield's Todai had to put lots of salt in the water they boiled the crab in to hide the fact that there was no sweetness to be found.

Atleast it didn't smell like fishy ice. I hate that. Overall, it was a good experience for eating all you can eat crab legs in the Midwest.

But I promise you, right here right now, that I will go to Redondo Beach pier during the winter break and take you through the crab eating process with oh so delicious freshly caught crab.