The Art of The Crab Feed
Mar 2nd, 2008 by alyoung
Last Saturday we got invited to a crab feed. It has been a few years since I went to a crab feed so I was looking forward to it. All you can eat meals are not always good, but crab feeds almost always is good. The only bad experience I have had at a crab feed is one where they ran out of crab. How can you run out of crab at a crab meat? To get the most out of your crab meal, here are some tips:
Preparation:
- Bring your own crab utensils: Crab feeds do not provide anything except plastic fork which is not good enough. You need to bring your own crab cracker, and little crab forks to get all the crab out of every nook and cranny of the crab. You also may want to bring your own containers to hold the melted butter. At crab feeds they only provide small dipping cups for the butter which is not enough to last and you don’t want to make 20 trips to get melted butter. Also, you might want to bring candles to heat the butter at your table and keep it warm.
- Bring your own condiments: To enhance your crab meal, bring any sauces you like such as soy sauce, sesame seed oil, and seafood sauces. Bring anything you like because the crab food will only have melted butter. In fact one person at my table bought their own butter to melt because they did not like the butter from last year. Regular butter is good, but a bit heavy after eating crab for a few hours. You may want to bring a lighter butter or margarine.
- Bring your own cleaning tools. Crab feed eating is messy….very messy. Bring a package of wet wipes and your own napkins. You can’t have enough. Some lemon juice would be useful as well.
Eating Style:
Everyone eats their crab in one of two ways.
- Make a pile: Before eating, do the work of cracking the crab, and picking out all the meat. Meticulously use your fork and get all the meat out of every cavity of the crab. Build a pile of plate of crab on your plate. Don’t start eating until you have a big enough pile.
- Eat as you go: Instead of making a pile, crack the crab, dig and eat. Repeat.
I have tried both methods, but I usually eat as you go. You don’t get as much crab eating as you go, but I prefer it as it takes a long time to get a plate of crab ready, and I don’t have the patience to wait while others are eating. Choose your own style that works for you.
Other tips:
- Don’t get filled up: As with all buffets, don’t get filled on on the other appetizers. At crab feeds, they usually have a lot of pasta, bread and salad. Sometimes, there is a long wait for a program before the crab feed starts. Resist the urge to get filled up on bread. You go to a crab feed to feed on crab. You can have pasta any night.
- Most crab feeds serve pasta. I like to make a small pile of crab meat and mix it into the pasta. Than I pour garlic butter and oil over the pasta and mix it up. It adds a little variety to eating just crab for 2 hours.
If you get a chance to go to a crab feed, I recommend that you go. Its usually a fund raiser for a good cause, and you get a good meal.
