King Crab

Meeting our king crab
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

After a year in Seoul, I’ve more or less come to terms with foods that simply cannot be got in Korea.
New York-style pizza.
Good Cantonese food.
Real sausages.

That’s all okay though, because there is an eating experience available in Korea that would be impossible -- okay, if not impossible, then very difficult and expensive -- to find in New York City. That’s what I was thinking Saturday evening as we stood in Mapo Agricultural and Marine Products Market staring at a bubbling tank of giant, rust-colored Alaskan king crabs waving their fat legs, each of them silently begging us, “Pick me! Pick me!” We had walked briskly past a tempting array of seafood – some alive and swimming, some freshly killed and laid out on ice – to fulfill our mission: to taste the legendary king crab. The ajoshi, somewhat crabby himself, stood next to his crustacean stall waiting for us to decide which one we wanted.

My previous crab eating experiences were pretty much limited to my dad’s steamed Dungeness crabs: juicier and sweeter than lobster, but generally requiring a lot of work to get to relatively small amounts of meat. Due to my father’s warning to never eat a crab that I haven’t observed alive and walking around before its slaughter, I’d never eaten a king crab before. Until recently, there weren’t many that found their way to the East Coast of the U.S. unless frozen. So, I wasn’t quite prepared for the crabs we encountered at the Mapo seafood market. These crabs were huge! A variety of king crab species were available, one of them being the famed red king crab (also known as Alaskan king crab). Although the key to successful bargaining at the market place is to feign disinterest, it was hard to not gape at these monstrous creatures. Some of them even had wingspans nearly 3 feet long!

Negotiating for our crab
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

The crustaceans were divided into tanks according to their size. Of the red king crabs, smaller ones were 15,000 Won a Kilo, about $7 a pound, and the larger ones were 20,000 Won per Kilo, almost $10 a pound. There were other crab species that I didn’t recognize, all of them bigger than any crabs I had ever laid eyes on. For my first king crab experience, I voted to go with one of the bigger ones. There were four of us to split the meal among – Gavin, me, Hyungjin and Hyungjin’s friend -- and our eyes were growing rounder and bigger than our stomachs. After we pointed to our pick, the ajoshi pulled the burly fellow out of the water, holding him up by two legs for us to inspect more closely. Mr. Crab weighed in at 2.2 Kilos (5 pounds). After handing over 42,000 Won (almost $44), we were on our way, carrying a dripping black plastic bag with our new crustacean friend inside.

Above the seafood market, the second floor is populated with several restaurants that will cook your fish to order. We went upstairs to one of them and handed our plastic bag to the ajumma. She pulled out the hefty crab, nodded her approval, then took the hapless crab back to the kitchen to prepare our meal. We really didn’t have to provide much instruction on how we wanted our catch prepared – there could only be one way to do justice to a live Alaskan king crab. Fifteen minutes after the ajumma carried our crab off to his fate, he was returned to us with his long legs draping over the edges of a white, oval plate. Having been steamed in his own sweet juices, he was now a brilliant, mouth-watering red color.

Meat
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

We got to work snipping off the crab’s legs with scissors. His red shell was less brittle than a lobster’s, so it was easy to cut along the length of the leg to release large pieces of the crab’s meat and seemingly endless quantities of sweet juicy clam broth. Although they look similar, the texture of the king crab’s meat is different -- softer and prone to melting in your mouth, not as firm -- from that of lobster. And sweeter, much sweeter. The meal required no condiments – no lemon, butter or spices to dress it up. Our crab was perfectly sweet and succulent, a joy to eat, on its own. I imagine that king crab must be on the table of those daily banquets that people must have when they get up to heaven. Although, I guess that would be hell for crabs.

King Crab and rice
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

We didn’t neglect the body of the crab either; there was plenty of meat there to reward anyone patient enough to dig it out with chopsticks. To complete our meal the proper Asian way, we ordered rice. And what better way to eat rice than mixed in the juices of a freshly steamed king crab? The crab’s shell made a nice communal bowl; we filled it with broth mixed with three bowls of rice for a hearty, filling finish.