Crab with a BIG C!

My Aunt Daisy and PoPo visited from Portland over Memorial Day weekend and requested a meal of King Crab. "But you can get crab in Portland!" you say? Yes, true, but to eat King Crab, you need a lot of people around to share in the goodness. How can you possibly eat 6 pounds of crab yourself?

So off we shuttle to Mission 261 after a (unsuccessful) day of outlet shopping. There were two weddings that night at the restaurant, but we walked quickly past the bride and groom's cheesy glamour photos to get to our table.

I waited impatiently for the crab to arrive. The appetizer plate came out, and while I'm usually one to hog the jellyfish, I didn't want to waste stomach space on those tiny sea creatures when their meaty cousin was coming out soon! The shrimp balls were enticing too, and I ended up cramming two in my mouth, but still - I was waiting for the main entree to arrive. I was nonchalant about the ensuing Fish Maw Soup and Abalone too (and got reprimanded for my indifference with the abalone) becuase dang it - I want crab.

And then, out comes Crab. Yes folks, this is no ordinary crab. It's so big it deserves the capital C. 6 pounds of Crab was steamed atop egg whites. Sounds weird, but OH SO GOOD. The meat was fresh, tender, meaty and mildly sweet. (I was surprised by the sweetness becuase really, crabs are spiders-in-the-sea and who thinks of spiders as sweet?) The egg whites too were fantastic: light, silky, with a slight taste of the sea. T-A-S-T-Y. I'd take one slurp of the egg whites, smile, and then go back to digging out Crab meat from the little nooks and crannies of the bones.

I wondered - how else do you usually serve Crab? Steamed with Egg Whites was a new one for me. With King Crab, it's usually steamed, sitting cold in a buffet line next to a plate of lemons and a bowl of cocktail sauce or butter. There's probably other ways to eat it too right?

The rest of the meal went by in a blur. I'm already thinking when's the next time we should have Crab? Seattle probably has better (fresher?) Crab since the city is closer to Alaska that LA is, right? I need to find a good chinese restaurant up there that serves this stuff. Put that on my list of "to-do's".

On a side note: the picture of the Crab makes it look teensy!