Gnarly Cousin

Back in my early dating days, one of my favorite places to suggest to my swains for dinner was the Pearl City Tavern in Pearl City, Hawaii. Back then, they had a wonderful Monkey Bar with live, tiny monkeys cavorting, frolicking and loving behind a pane of glass for the amusement of the patrons. A drink or two at the Monkey Bar was de rigueur on these outings. Afterwards, when we'd sit down for dinner, I always ordered the King crab legs with melted lemon butter.

On our last foray to Andronico's, My Beloved and I were proselytized by the most charming young fishmonger it has ever been our pleasure to do business with - he was promoting these ugly characters.

This young man must have some Irish blood as he truly has the gift of the gab. He offered us, with a broad and confident smile, a sample of the King crab legs he was touting, warning us that we would never be able to say no once we had tasted them. Knowing what a treat MB was in for, I handed him the sample.

Note that this picture was taken at home.

These are the lankiest, ugliest, hulkingest crab legs we have ever eaten, fully 18 inches from tip to toe and about 1.5 inches thick, Dungeness on steroids. MB wielded our kitchen shears to cut the rather leathery shells and out slid the sweetest, juiciest, most succulent crab imaginable - and the pieces were enormous. We could have made crab salad for four from just these two legs. They look like a homely, huge cousin to our local Dungeness crabs but these come from Alaska. Dunked in melted butter, they were nearly a meal in themselves.

All of a sudden, I'm planning a trip to Alaska.