Chicken Wings and Crab (by G)

After the excesses of the night before, I was not feeling all that well. Because I am in Japan and because I have to keep eating to take advantage of the situation I went to the seafood market for grilled smoked fish (of some kind). I had not really considered how difficult it would be to pick the meat off the fish frame with chop-sticks in my shaky condition but, like the pro that I am, I struggled through. Even in my impaired state I was able to observe the couple next to me who ordered a whole crab, all the flesh de-shelled and put into the shell - it was a thing of beauty. I made the decision that that is what I wanted for dinner.

 

I hadn't considered the fact that the whole market area closes down at dawn and my choice for restaurants would be limited - to about one.

 

So I went to the one seafood restaurant in the vicinity of my hotel that was open, surveyed the Japanese menu and could not obviously see crab, even though they featured it in the window. 'I want crab', I told the waitress. She showed me a picture of two types of crab and asked me what type I would like - I went with the horse-hair crab (I think). A little while later she came out with my crab and showed it to me and said that it would be $43, would that be okay. I'm in a kind of 'money is no object' situation at the moment so I said, yes.

 

5 minutes later she came back with the crab and asked if I wanted it grilled or steamed, I went with grilled.

 

Some time later she came back with the same crab (by this time I was getting fond of him) and told me the crab could not be grilled so did I want it steamed or... I asked 'or what', 'Sashimi' she said. I was not feeling terribly well, otherwise I would not have passed up the chance of raw crab - I went with steamed.

 

Quite some time later a male waiter came over and told me that what the female waitress should have told me is that the crab would take about 1/2 an hour to steam - did I want something in the meantime. I took a look at the menu and, though I didn't really need anything else, went with chicken wings. They came pretty quickly and, unsure of the convention, I ate them with chop-sticks - try that on an immense hangover.

 

Eventually, by which time I had consumed more beer than is good for me, the crab came. It was in the state shown below. I tried attacking it from a few angles and decided to make a start on the thorax, problem was the 'dead man's fingers' were still attached. While I was trying to pick these off and considering whether to eat them a crowd of waiters and chefs had formed behind me. A waiter took the crab off me and said, 'The chef will do something to make it easier to eat'.

 

The crab came back with the legs detached and split and the meaty bit had also been halved. I spent about 10 minutes picking the meat out of the various bits with the meal tool provided before another hand reached in and took the crab off me again. 'The chef will do something to make it a bit easier to eat', I was told.

 

The chef picked all the meat out for me and personally delivered it to the table. The crab, when I finally got to eat it, was very good. Only towards the end did I decide to add some of the soy and chilli flakes provided. Those few condiments boosted something good  up to something phenomenal - those last few bites were spectacular.

 

Verdict - totally worth it.