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Cooked Crabs

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:52 pm
by Alex
Some cooked crabs?

Image

Image

Alex

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:54 pm
by Alpha_7
Wow, that's a lot of crab. Was it really that colour (I don't eat crab so I don't know what it looks like cooked, but that seems very RED!).

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:55 pm
by mudder
Now I'm getting hungry....

And to think I haven't had crabs since the younger days, ar ar ar... Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have said that :oops:

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:58 pm
by Alex
Lol mudder!

Alpha, yes that is the real colour when cooked.

Alex

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:32 pm
by birddog114
Yes, they are "Balmain Bug" another crab! its meat is nice and yummy!

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:28 pm
by el nino
Nice pic Alex, just looking at it makes me pine for crustaceans to eat. The 2nd one I like more. The sheer number of of them in the pot makes it look almost like prawns in a bowl.

Alex, what do the locals in Thailand call it? How do they eat it? Cold or reheated?

Like Birddog said, it is a Balmain/Moreton bay bug (Thenus orientalis). Around the subcontinent, they call it the slipper/shoe lobster. But it is not a crustacean with claws/pincers like crabs have. More like a spiny lobster.

The texture of the meat is somewhere between soft, flaky crab meat and firm lobster tail meat.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:34 pm
by Alex
El ninio,

They call them 'poo juck jaan' in Thailand and eat them warm. Thanks for the English and the proper Latin name.

Regards,
Alex

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:32 pm
by kenny12
m... crabs, now all u need is malt vinigar

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:06 pm
by Zeeke
We call them Spanner crab in Qld... and used to catch them at moolooaba quite easily offshore, and yes they are that red when cooked... they are also a bright orange colour when ooked but when first caught are a browny sandy colour.. it depends wha t kind of bottom they come from

Tim

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:57 pm
by el nino
Thanks for the local name Alex. The tenderest tiger prawns I've ever had was in Samui. These were massive, almost 2 inches in girth and close to 12" from head to tail. But sooo soft , almost shrimplike, and very different to the tough stuff one normally gets when eating big ass prawnies. Apparently they were wild , and not the farmed variety which are supposed to be chewier.

[quote="Alpha_7" Was it really that colour (I don't eat crab so I don't know what it looks like cooked, but that seems very RED!).[/quote]
The red colour (sometimes it can be more orange or pinkish) is due to a pigment, astaxanthin.
In crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, some types of prawn) after the shells have been boiled, the other pigments that give the creature its colour are broken down, and astaxanthin/red becomes the dominant pigment/colour.