stuffed and stuffed

I'm behind on blogging. In the mental blogging queue: Anti-Martial law movement, pinoy comedy, and on eating dog.

Some entertaining reading coming up indeed.

We opted not to do turkey and got prime rib instead for the Thanksgiving day. I remember the first Thanksgiving for my cousin when he arrived from the Philippines. He had never seen a drumstick so large and could not imagine the animal that might have had a leg so huge. In his eyes, this land called America truly as large as they said in stretched out tales.

However for the Thanksgiving eve dinner, the SO and I went to Ranch 99 and got some live Dungeness Crab (Tis the season for crab). There was one Thanksgiving where all we had was crab. I remember the stack of a dozen or so red shelled beasts steaming on the tray. Asian people can be picky about their crab as customers told the seafood guy to keep reaching into this tank of really pissed off crab to find the biggest ones. Another guy bought 10 crab and asked them to be cleaned. Cleaning crab means taking off the shells and clearing the gills. It also means getting rid of tastiest parts! sayang!

Of course, the best way to cook crab is when it's live. We could either just steam the crab for 30 minutes or boil it for 6-8 minutes. We chose boiling as it would kill the crabs much more quickly. Once the water was at a rolling boil, I looked at the SO and said OK you can put them in now. He looked at me and said, "I thought you were going to do it. I'll take the pictures." sigh, very well.

The crabs knew what was coming, they held onto each other and to the paper bag. I pulled the first one out and I looked at him/her/hym (how do I know what sex a crab is?) and thanked him/her/it. I know I'm high on the food chain and I think it's important to acknowledge the animal. Lifting the lid, the steam rising high, I placed the crab in to the pot shell side down. A few seconds and it was over for the crab.

We cooked three crabs. The last one was a fighter even upside down. Almost pushed the pot off the stovetop. Hey, if I were a crab about to be put into a boiling pot, I'd fight to the end.

Some people don't like to see the heads or bodies of the food they eat. I don't mind. I think it's important to see that this fillet of fish or steak was once something living. And to acknowledge its life and give it thanks.