I love eating shellfish, especially crab, but I’m severely allergic if the shellfish is dead before it’s cooked. I break out into hives all over and my throat begins to close up a bit, but nothing a little Benadryl can’t fix. So when I finally had the chance to eat dinner at an all you can eat snow crab legs place, naturally I jumped on the idea.
There’s no classy way of eating crab, so when I walked into this restaurant for the first time I don’t know why I was thinking it would be a fancy place. It had concrete floors, high top tables, a huge fish tank that I could have probably swam in, and a little section at the front with a mic and a TV. It was also very dark inside and just had this overall warehouse type of feel.
The hostess showed us to our booth, which was by the aquarium stocked with all sorts of fresh water fish, and handed us our menus. Menu’s weren’t needed here, we already knew what we came for. All 3 of us at the table had ordered the all you can eat snow crab legs, all 3 of us had never done this before and weren’t sure what to expect. Knowing I was trying to really eat all I could eat, I decided on iced tea as a drink because I didn’t want to fill up my stomach with a carbonated drink.
To tease us with what was to come, our server brought out a bucket for our shells. My mission was to fill this bucket and eat all I could eat, or till I throw up, whichever came first. Our plates came a small while later and it had half a crab on it, some steamed vegetables, and mashed potatoes. I meant business here and had no time or room in my stomach for some fillers like those, I quickly scooped them into the bucket and got started on the crab legs.
Eating crab legs, like I said, isn’t really a classy thing to eat. You could use the nut crackers they provide you with and also use the mini fork, or, you could just down right savage the crab legs and get to what’s inside as quickly as possible using your teeth. Don’t get me wrong, I have excellent table manners and try to act with class as often as possible, but this occasion wasn’t one of those times. Everyone else around me is doing it, and if I feel ashamed, when am I ever going to see any of these people again. A week from now they’re not going to say, “Oh you remember that Asian guy eating snow crab legs like a machine, using his teeth to crack the shells?”
As I cracked the shells, I always dipped the meat in a bowl of hot butter which was being kept warm by a candle that was placed underneath it. To this day when I think about how much butter I used, I can’t believe my heart didn’t give out that day. After all was said and done I had finished a bowl and a half of nicely melted butter with just a hint of salt, by myself.
Just out of curiosity, sometime during the meal I asked the server what the record was. She informed us that she once had a table of 3 big guys and one of them ate 13.5 lbs of crab. She also informed us that each crab half was .5lb, meaning that guy had eaten 27 crab halves. I was already at 9 halves and starting to feel the effects of it. My hands were wrinkly from all the crab juice they had just endured, I had crab shell bits all over me and my napkin was soaked with crab juice also. I decided to wash my hands and throw in the towel but when I came back from the washroom I had just enough room to squeeze a bit more in. I quickly ordered one more crab half and savaged it like I did with the other legs. Now I was full and in need of a shower, but I was also very satisfied. As for that bucket? I completed what I set out to do, I filled that bucket and ate 5lbs of crab.
All throughout dinner we kept wondering, is this crab fresh or does it come in frozen and the chef just boils it. Now remember how I said I was severely allergic to shellfish if it’s dead before it’s cooked? The answer to whether they were fresh or frozen was answered in the middle of the night. I woke up scratching and had hives all over my body and I could feel my throat beginning to get tight, guess they were frozen. Downed my Benadryl and went back to bed, definitely going to do that again sometime.
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