The 33 Best Fish And Shellfish, Local And Exotic
Every year on the thirty-three weekdays of Lent, we present a ranking of the best seafood around town. Some years we rank seafood restaurants. On others, we rank specific dishes. Three years ago, it was the thirty-three best local seafood species for the table. This year, the subject is all the seafood that we find in our restaurants, seafood markets, and our dinner tables at home. The list is dominated by local seafood--we live in one of the great fisheries of the world, after all. But it also includes favorites from other places. Salmon and scallops. Lobster. Mussels. Halibut. Our chefs prepare spectacular dishes with those fine guests from other waters.
The list is not a countdown, beginning with the thirty-third best and working up to Number One. Rather, it starts at the top. It's a measure of how superb our seafood selection is that even #33 is involved in many excellent local dishes.
#5: Hard Crabs And Crabmeat
It's the waiter's and chef's favorite trick: turning ordinary dishes into irresistible creations by just throwing a little crabmeat on top of whatever it is. With an appropriate uptick in price, of course. That's how appealing crabmeat is. And with good reason. But that's the least interesting way to use this fantastic local seafood. The best way is to serve the biggest lumps imaginable more or less as they are. Or with the lightest of sauces. The flavor of our local blue crab is so distinguished that it needs no help. We occasionally see stone crab claws, king crab and snow crab legs. Occasionally even exotic crabs from around the world. At the bottom of the spectrum, there's the fake crabmeat they serve in sushi bars. I'd trade it all gladly for the meat of the local blue crab (hereinafter called simply "crabmeat"). It reigns supreme. Crabmeat is found in several forms, listed here from the most expensive to the least:
Marbles. These are the largest lumps from the biggest female crabs. Very expensive and rare. Jumbo lump (also known as backfin). This is the big lump of meat from just below the point where the claws are attached. There's a little sliver of thin shell in there that's almost impossible to remove without breaking the lump. For this reason, when I don't find shell in dishes made with crabmeat, I get suspicious. Restaurants buy almost all the jumbo lump in the market. Even in the best of times, the price per pound rarely drops below about $15, and it's usually over $20.
Lump. This is the same piece of crabmeat, but from smaller crabs or broken off big ones. Lump is sometimes available at retail, but you have to look for it. It's still good for crabmeat ravigote, crabmeat au gratin, and things like that.
Special white. This is the best available in most stores. It's the white meat from inside the crab, but it's usually shredded up. The flavor is not bad, but the look isn't as good as lump, and the consistency from one container to the next is. . . well, there is no consistency. This is good for making soups and sauces, and for topping things like baked fish.
Claw crabmeat actually has a stronger flavor than any other part of the crab. It's perfect for stuffings or dressings. It doesn't look as good, however--the meat is dark and stringy. So it's the cheapest kind of crabmeat, universally available wherever crabmeat is sold.
Whole boiled hard-shell crabs. This form may be the ultimate way to eat crabmeat, because you have all of the above in there. At the peak of the season--the beginning of the summer--it can't be beat, even though it's a lot of work. (It's always seemed to me that eating boiled crabs will cause you to lose weight because you expend more energy than you get from the crab.)
Crabmeat has shot up in price in recent years because our crabs have become part of the national market. The people along the Chesapeake Bay--who have the same kind of crabs we do and a similar crab-eating culture--buy up a titanic quantity of our crabs. The meat is in demand all across the nation. On the other hand, producers of crabmeat in South America have entered the market with pasteurized crabmeat in sealed cans. It's much cheaper, and for the price, it's not terrible, but it has nothing on fresh local crabmeat. It's one of the great delicacies we have around here. The season for crabmeat is just beginning now. Enjoy it!
Crabcake: Pelican Club, Galatoire's 33 (pictured), and Mr. B's.
Crab Dip: Blue Crab
Crabmeat Au Gratin: Impastato's
Stuffed Crab: Blue Crab
Crab Salad: Louie at Desi Vega's, Drago's, Imperial at Galatoire's, Maison at Antoine's
