You especially appreciate having friends when you want to have a king crab feast. According to experienced feasters, the minimum poundage for a meaty king crab is 12 pounds, and restaurants could charge as much as $40 per pound in season (Toronto price, it's much cheaper in Vancouver). The larger crabs cost more but they are also more meaty and you are paying for a lower shell to meat ratio. Apart from helping you eat the crab, more importantly, friends also help you pay for it!
King crab season is very short. Alaskan king crab fishing lasts only a few weeks some time between October and January (depending on the year) and by the end of March, most of the crab would be gone and of course the "seasonal" price would be skyhigh. Fishing in the Bering Sea in the middle of winter is no joke, making king crab fishing a dangerous occupation with one of the highest fatality rate in the world - something you wouldn't think of when you see the king crab sitting primly in the tank. The latest trends are that the highest quality and biggest crabs are now sent to China to feed the nouveau riche, and that the Russians overfish - so stick with American crabs (with strict quotas); not that we would know the difference but one way to avoid eating Russian crabs is to not eat outside of the Alaskan season.
When we arrived at the restaurant tonight, the owner greeted us with the good news that there are still lots of crab and that we are "in luck". We are definitely luckier than the mister below -
The restaurant made 5 dishes with him.
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| Dish #1 - lower legs steamed with green onions and bean threads. The bean threads soaked up all the juice - yumyum! |
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| Dish #2 - upper legs steamed in garlic and pepper |
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| Dish # 3 - Very meaty and tender "knuckles" fried in light batter |
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| Dish #4 - Fried rice with crab roe |
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| Dish #5 - Smoothest steamed eggs ever (with crab meat) |
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| The luckiest fella of all - he is laughing all the way to the bank - owner Ringo Hui at O Mei restaurant brought in 180 crabs this season. He charged $448 for a 12 lb. crab (this one is definitely more than 12 lbs). You can do the math... |
