Photo: Diva Eva

Living near the water in Sweden I grew up eating tons of seafood, especially crabs. We would prepare those hard bodies in any way imaginable – steamed, sauteed, boiled or in stock – but it wasn’t until I came to New York that I tried soft shell crab for the first time. I was in Chinatown and got a taste of Singaporean crab – that mix of salty sauce and briny meat was it for me! It freaked me out at first that you could eat the whole thing.

Many years and many soft shell crabs later, it’s still one of my favorite warm weather foods to eat. Some may be intimated by the thought of trying to prepare soft shell crabs at home, but it’s really quite easy once you clean the gills and lungs.

Soft shell crabs have a mild, tangy flavor but are tender and delicate in structure. Read More

Photo: Andrea Westmoreland

By: Michael Engle

“Sustainable seafood” generally refers to the ideals of respecting certain seasons, not taking too many fish out of the sea at one time, and/or determining minimum and maximum sizes of legal catch.  Normally, when an animal is killed or fished, its culinary yield is limited to a resulting number of meat portions, plus a batch of stock made by boiling the leftover bones.  What if, almost like a perennial flower, the same individual animal could be fished repeatedly for food?  Not only does this concept exist in real life, but it is a culinary tradition in Miami Beach, FL.

The Florida stone crab is one of the most unique regional foods in the USA.  Unlike the Delaware blue crab, there is almost no meat in the stone crabs’ bodies.  To compensate for their meatless bodies, the stone crabs’ claws, which, in the wild, are strong enough to crush an oyster’s shell, are prized as delicacies.  Read More

When soft-shell crabs come in to season, you don’t have to bother busting out those shell crackers. These tasty delights are available Read More