Steamed Crab

So yeah, in case you haven’t seen it yet, Jieun was quoted in the Old Gray Lady. I was wondering if anyone would see it without knowing about it beforehand, and I guess Darlene did. I’m guessing the NYTimes reporter did some websearch and found her page, then he emailed and called. Anyway, kind of cool.

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” – Genesis 2:18

Ain’t that the truth. Jieun went down to SoCal for Karen’s baby shower this weekend so I was left on my own, never a good thing. I’ve whined in the past about how useless I am when Jieun’s not around so I won’t belabor the point. But yeah, when people ask, what did you do this weekend? The answer is essentially: nothing. How is it possible to do nothing? It’s possible.

Although it did give me a chance Sunday night to experiment with things Jieun is too squeamish for. One thing about me is that I love lobster and crab. I can name several Chinese dinners I’ve been to when I’ve eaten the great majority of the lobster/crab entree by myself. Like Lorraine and Henry’s rehearsal dinner. (And why not? The people at my table were like John “Hormel chili mixed with white rice” Yoon. His taste buds weren’t going to appreciate it.)

So I’d been wanting to try steaming a whole live crab for a while. Jieun made crab the other day but couldn’t stomach taking it home alive, she had it cracked and cleaned at the market. “You don’t understand… it was ALIVE” she kept telling me. With her gone, I decided to try it out. Chinese readers are probably thinking I’m lame. I dunno what it is, but everything I’m learning to do now in my late 20s my Chinese friends all seemed to learn to do in their teens or something, it’s all old hat. Or maybe it’s just the Chinese people I know. But it’s weird.

I felt bad for the thing. I chose a nice feisty one (more likely to be fresh), stuck it in the fridge for a bit to slow it down, then put it in the steamer. It was groggy at first, but as it wakened up it started twitching and panicking. Even after minutes of heavy steaming it was making struggling movements. And afterwards, when I was removing it, I saw two of its legs had fallen off. Maybe it was scared. That or the steamer was too small

But yeah, steaming whole is much better than boiling in pieces. The flavor stays in the meat instead of leaching out into the water. Highly recommended.