We Thank Thee For This Crab

Talk about feeling thankful! 

First Dungeness crab of the season.

My Beloved had learned about a new-to-us fish market, Tokyo Fish, in Berkeley, so we went over on the second day of the crab season to see if perhaps they had a few. I had driven past that store a thousand times but never thought to stop in. I will be stopping in on a regular basis, now! They not only had a few crabs cooked and ready for cracking, they had a huge aquarium full of lively ones awaiting a certain doom.

We asked for two of the already-cooked to be cleaned and cracked, which was done in a trice and very gently - no finding pieces of shell wedged into the sweet meat. They made a sumptuous meal paired with a nice, buttery white wine, fresh sourdough baguette with unsalted butter, and nothing else.

Normally, I serve crabs on newspapers that I spread on the table and we just dump out the crab pieces and help ourselves.  This time, however, we forgot and threw away the paper so deep in the recycling bin that I couldn't reach it. So, I hauled out our two largest platters, arranged the crab on one end with implements of war, and left the other half free for shells. It worked well - maybe not as minimalist as newspapers that can be simply rolled up around the shells and thrown away, but still very few dishes to do.

Even though I'm not religious, I do love Thanksgiving as a time to reflect on all one's blessings. I think of myself as the luckiest person I know, so I always have a great deal to be thankful for. My Beloved, my Cora, my family (and this includes my Michigan family), his family, our friends, our life together and, yes, Dungeness crab.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!