Showing posts with label crabs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crabs. Show all posts

Bouillabaisse and Bouillabaisse Marseillaise on French Menus.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


A bouillabaisse.
A genuine bouillabaisse is a whole meal.
Do not  order an hors d’oeuvre or an entrée if
you are in a restaurant that serves  a real bouillabaisse; it is a very large meal.
www.flickr.com/photos/birdies-perch/407676260/
       
The taste of a Bouillabaisse
   
Bouillabaisse’s unique taste comes from a recipe that includes a special fish stock blended with saffron and garlic combined with fennel, thyme, parsley, olive oil and of course, the fish.  It is not often that you have the opportunity to enjoy a dish where saffron really comes to the fore and bouillabaisse is that dish.
 
Served alongside each diner’s bowl will be a thick rouille sauce, grated Gruyere or Parmesan cheese, along with garlic toast or croutons. The rouille sauce is a made with Provence’s famous aïoli garlicky mayonnaise, to which chilies have been added to make it spicy. Worry not the diner controls the spice.        
  
Rouille, grated cheese, and slices of toasted 
and garlic-flavored baguette.

The Rouille sauce.
   
Rouille sauce, the word means rust and refers to the sauce's color, is not unique to bouillabaisse; a rouille sauce accompanies many other French fish soups.  All rouille sauces will be slightly different; the chef matches the rouille to flavor a particular soup correctly. 
 
Few French recipes are really spicy and for that reason, you, the diner, add the spicy rouille to your preferred taste. Each diner also chooses how much of the grated cheese and toasted baguette or croutons to add.  I add the rouille, firstly to the garlic toast, and taste it, then I dip a little in the soup and taste it again.  Then I can finally decide how much of the rouille I want to add to the soup.     
   
A serving of bouillabaisse.
www.flickr.com/photos/birdies-perch/377586026/
  
The serving of bouillabaisse in two parts
   
Restaurants who have enough trained staff and enjoy presenting restaurant theatre will serve a bouillabaisse in two parts. The serving of bouillabaisse in two stages, when correctly done, makes a wonderful meal even more enjoyable.  First served is the soup, usually with an additional bowl placed in the center of the table; that extra bowl is on hand for second and third helpings. The soup, when the diners have finished, will be followed by the second course, the fishes that were cooked in the soup. A server, often it will be the Maitre D’, will then fillet the fish with a minimum of hand movements; a theatrical show of genuine expertise and excellent restaurant theatre,
  
The soup from a bouillabaisse.
Photograph by courtesy of  basykes
www.flickr.com/photos/basykes/3695328099/
       
Despite the enjoyment of the dramatic when a bouillabaisse is served in stages many truly excellent bouillabaisses are found in smaller restaurants. Restaurants that do not have the staff for separate servings may have a great chef in the kitchen and separate servings were never part of the dish’s origins.  For the original fishermen and fisherwomen’s fish stews, there were no waiters around.
       
The stamp that honors Bouillabaisse.
Bouillabaisse is part of the French soul; the French issued a stamp in its honor.
   
  
Bouillabaisse on French menus.
    
Bouillabaisse or Le Vrai Bouillabaisse – The real Bouillabaisse.  If the restaurant is a fish restaurant, expect the real thing.  When in doubt, ask how the restaurant serves its bouillabaisse.
  
Bouillabaisse de Pécheur – A fisherman ’s bouillabaisse. You will see this on menus along the tourist routes in the South of France.  The small print on many of these menus note that only one to three different fish will be included; all variations come with different prices. The different types of fish affect the price as well as the taste. Just as there is no free lunch, there are no cheap versions of a real bouillabaisse. Look carefully at the menus outside restaurants that seem to offer bouillabaisse;  if there is small print read it. These variations are often far from the original and usually much smaller; however, when a whole bouillabaisse is too large a meal, say at lunchtime, consider these offerings as fish soup and enjoy.

The fish market in the old port of Marseille.
www.flickr.com/photos/julien-carnot/8575426805/
        
Bouillabaisse du Nord - A sea fish and seafood soup from the North of France. These are often excellent fish soups, but with different fish to those in a Meditteranean bouillabaisse. Despite that caveat I have often found these soups to be delicious fish soups; so I just enjoy them and ignore the word bouillabaisse.
 
Bouillabaisse Marseillaise – The Mediterranean port city of Marseille claims the original Bouillabaisse Marseillaise recipe from sometime in the 1800s. Many menus in the South of  France offer bouillabaisse; however, Marseille owns the trademark.  The Charter of the Marseillaise Bouillabaisse was written much much later, in 1980.  The charter sets down the rules for an authentic Bouillabaisse Marseillaise, and I have noted the fish and shellfish in the charter in a separate post.
 
With or without the charter, the tradition of bouillabaisse still varies among chefs who specialize in this dish.  Each of these chefs will be true to a tradition, it may be that of his or her mentor, or to a recipe inherited from his or her Grand-mère or Grand-père.   
 
Bouillabaisse Royale – A bouillabaisse served with a half or whole spiny lobster, a langouste, on top; sometimes a crab. The spiny lobster is the owner of the lobster tail. A  Bouillabaisse Royale is a dish created to impress the tourists, French as well.  Lobster tails make excellent eating, as do French crabs, but after a genuine bouillabaisse who needs one? 
  
The most popular crab in France.
  
What is the most important ingredient in bouillabaisse?

The chefs and Maître D’s in Marseille will tell you that the that the fumet, the fish stock, along with the saffron are the most critical ingredients. Nevertheless, that fumet depends on certain fish as set out in the Charter of the Marseillaise Bouillabaisse.
    
Some of these fish will be in your Bouillabaisse
www.flickr.com/photos/banyan_tree/5055394584/
  
Bouillabaisse a long way from home.
   
Having enjoyed, in authentic French restaurants that were far from France, a number of excellent bouillabaisses I lean to the fumet, the fish stock, and the saffron being the most critical part of the recipe. The fish stock used is prepared with vegetables, garlic, herbs, spices, white wine, and white wine vinegar and the heads and bones of fish. The fish stock is the real secret behind the perfect bouillabaisse.
      
The place where bouillabaisse began and the origin of its name.
 
Bouillabaisse began in the port of Marseille on France’s Mediterranean coast; then it was a meal prepared by fishermen and fisherwomen as they returned home. Provencal, a dialect of Occitan, is the language used by most of the Marseille fisher-folk, and in Provencal Bouillabaisse is Boiabaïsso.  The origin of the Provencal/Occitan word is similar to the French; in French bouillir means to boil, and the word abaisser, means to reduce, and voila we have bouillabaisse.  Saffron, the most expensive herb in the dish, was always very expensive, but it was, and some saffron still is, locally grown, as are all the other herbs and spices.
      
 The Original Bouillabaisse

As a working fisherman's and fisherwoman’s meal the original Bouillabaisse used the fish that did not sell well; fish and shellfish that were quickly sold were never for the fishermen or fisherwomen or their families. Fish like John Dory or monkfish, as well as shellfish like the spiny lobster, even mussels, would all have been sold. What was left would be members of the very tasty but poison spined sea robin, the scorpionfish family, along with the weever fish, the conger eel and the cigale de mer, the slipper lobster.
Today a Bouillabaisse often includes much more expensive fish along with shellfish and mussels that were never in the original recipe; we can enjoy the additions despite the implied lack of respect for the original recipe. Even the searobin, the scorpionfish, now that it is supplied to fish markets and restaurants without its spines, is no longer an inexpensive fish.
    
  
Bouillabaisse in New York
      
I enjoyed an East Coast Bouillabaisse in an exclusive Manhattan, NY, USA, restaurant, and that was not a traditional bouillabaisse either; nor did it pretend to be.  The two-clawed lobster, shrimp and the fish in the dish I was served would never have been part of any traditional bouillabaisse stew.  The soup’s taste, obviously down to a perfect fish stock, along with wonderful fish, was very close to the best that I have tasted in Provence, even the rouille was excellent; altogether it was a wonderful bouillabaisse.  Who was I to criticize a really excellent bouillabaisse that had kept its essence; even if it had strayed far from its home port.
   
You can buy many of the fish in New York.
www.flickr.com/photos/smoovey/3263779604/
  
The Charter of the Bouillabaisse Marseillaise.
  
In the Marseille Office de Tourisme, I obtained a copy of La Charte de la Bouillabaisse Marseillaise, the Charter of the Marseillaise Bouillabaisse.    The charter was written in 1980 by a group of three Marseillaise's restaurateurs and was dedicated to preserving the traditional bouillabaisse recipe. The original three have since been joined by many others from France and elsewhere. They may not succeed in ensuring that every chef uses the same fish, but if they preserve the taste that is enough. While the Marseillaise Bouillabaisse charter insists on the use, where possible, of the original fish it does allow for the use of a number of different and more expensive fish and shellfish when the originals are not available.
      
Park your yacht in Marseille
www.flickr.com/photos/tango-/32117044816/


     --------------------------------

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2014, 2019.
 
--------------------------------

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Crabes - Crabs. Crabs Among the Crustaceans on Your French Menu. Crustaceans II.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

      
Le Crabe, Le Crabe Tourteau: The Edible Brown Crab.
Photograph by courtesy of Hans Hillewsert CC-By-SA-3.0.
    
Crabs are the tasty, eight-legged crustaceans at the heart of many French seafood restaurant menus. Ordering crabs in France is a joy, with a choice from the simplest of dishes to truly special creations. I have never seen such a variety of crab dishes that France offers available anywhere else.
                        
You can order crabs in season, without too many worries as crabs are far less expensive than lobster. Both crabs and lobsters have exquisite tastes, but those tastes and their individual textures are very different. In competitions for the tastiest crustaceans on the planet, it is crabs and lobsters who are always the winners; the only dispute will be who came first and who came second.  The European two-clawed European lobster, a slightly sweeter and close cousin of the American two-clawed lobster is called the homard bleu in French and it is very expensive. That is a good reason to enjoy one of the crabs on the menu. The rock lobster, the langouste, the owner of the lobster tail, will also be in contention, but fresh crab is something special.
       
How to eat boiled crabs.
                 
If you are new to eating fresh crab begin by ordering the simplest dish on the menu.  That will be cold fresh crab served with Fresh Mayonnaise or Aioli ; the crab will have been simply prepared by boiling in a broth and then allowing it to cool. This simple recipe allows you to enjoy pulling apart the tasty crab meat from the claws, the legs, and the shell. A bowl of fresh mayonnaise will be on the side.  Worry, not the hard work of opening a crab’s carapace, the top part of its shell, is always done by the restaurant. The carapace, the top, is just returned when the crab is served as it looks attractive, it has no other use.  All seafood restaurants provide the special tools that allow you to pull the meat from the legs and claws.
   
Eating crab.
   
Unfortunately, few restaurants these days, supply finger bowls, and for this otherwise enjoyable task, you do need one. The finger wipes that many restaurants hand out do not do the trick unless you use five or six.   When the dish you have chosen is just crab meat, Chair de Crabe, then all the hard work will have been done by the restaurant.
  
In this post, I will keep to the most popular crabs and crab dishes. A future post or posts will include more about other crabs on French menus and the snow crab, and the King Crab already have their own links.
       
French seafood restaurants usually offer, in season, the two most popular local crabs the edible brown crab called the Crabe Tourteau and the European spider crab called the Crabe Araignée or Araignée de Mer.  Neither will be on North American menus, and there are very few UK restaurants that offer a whole fresh crab, let alone a choice.  Other local edible crabs are available in France; however, most are small and will end up in the fish or crab soup. In any case, when you visit a French seafood restaurant the crabs, including imported crabs that you may order will be named on the menu, or possibly on a blackboard on the wall.  Additionally, your server is also there to explain and help you decide.  In the larger towns, in the crab season, many restaurants offer trays of cooked crabs by their entrance. These are for locals who want to buy crabs when the markets are closed and wish to enjoy them at home. Diners in the restaurant may also come out and choose their own crab.
 
The shared name for all crabs in the languages of France’s neighbors:
  
(Catalan –cranc), (Dutch – krabben), (German - kraben), ( Italian -granchi),(Spanish – cangrejos).
        
The edible brown crab, the Crabe Tourteau, is so popular in France, it is not always called by its correct name: Crabe Tourteau; instead, it is often just called Le Crabe. Just calling it “Le Crabe”  is as if, for the French, there was no other crab in the world.   When only one crab is on the menu, then that will usually be “Le Crabe”, the Crabe Tourteau. Despite this crab’s popularity and low price, it is an excellent crab with an orange to brown carapace. Inside the shell, legs and claws are lots of beautiful white crab meat.  The fact that the Crabe Tourteau is an inexpensive crab is another reason for making it the most popular crab in France.  All crabs have heavy shells, armored legs, and heavy claws and the Crabe Tourteau is no different.  The crab meat inside is only about 35% of the total weight.  Many restaurants offer this crab by weight. A half-kilo crab will provide maybe 150 grams (5.30 ounces) of crab meat and that is sufficient for most diners, and, of course, larger crabs are available. If the crabs are large you may be offered half a crab. Enjoy.
     
Crab and corn chowder.
www.flickr.com/photos/26326001@N08/3407831672/

Le Crabe is often offered cold, with fresh mayonnaise, along with a plate of French fries on the side and this is a tasty way to enjoy this crab. When I have been out of France for a while and return with my mouth-watering and my stomach demanding a crab fix, I look for a restaurant with crabs on the menu and I will order Le Crabe with fresh mayonnaise. In France, to order this dish just say Tourteau Mayonnaise, si'il vous plait, (Pronounced: Torto Mayonnaise Sil Voo Play), and a cold boiled edible brown crab served with fresh mayonnaise should be on its way.   In small restaurants, Le Crabe with fresh mayonnaise nearly always comes accompanied by French fries on the side.  If you are in a restaurant where fries do not come automatically, then order them as a side dish, the French fries make this dish.  Fresh crab with mayonnaise but without French Fries is like Moules Frites without French Fries, sacrilege!  After I have polished off the crab, I will need to wash my hands as this is a dish where you use your hands. In an upscale restaurant, they may offer a finger bowl, elsewhere they offer those hand wipes, which I hate. If I am offered hand wipes, then I will get up and go and wash my hands in the bathroom. Only then will I be ready for my dessert, coffee, and a digestif.  

Want to practice your pronunciation?  
Use these excellent free programs, I do:
http://forvo.com/languages/fr/ (Best for single words)

   
In France, this will be made with the meat of the Crab Tourteau.
www.flickr.com/photos/wordridden/6055633809/
   
The Crabe Tourteau on French Menus:

Chair de Crabe Tourteau, Crevettes Grises et Mayonnaise Aromatisée – Crab meat, prepared by the restaurant and served alongside cold, boiled, tasty, sand shrimps accompanied by an aromatic fresh mayonnaise.

Gâteau de Crabe Tourteau, Sauce Cocktail au Raifort, Pousses de Radis Noir- A cake of edible brown crab meat served with a horseradish sauce and black radish sprouts.  Raifort sauce originated in the Alsace but is now is on menus all over France.  To ensure that the sauce is not too spicy only about 20% of the volume is actually horseradish. The sauce has a cream or crème fraiche base with bread crumbs and finely ground horseradish. Different chefs will slightly change the taste by adding mustard, or vinegar and sometimes sugar.
     
A crab cake.
Photograph courtesy of Prayitno
www.flickr.com/photos/prayitnophotography/8561750218/ 
     
Crabe Mayonnaise – As described above, this is a menu listing for the crab tourteau served with fresh mayonnaise. Ask if French fries are included or have to be ordered separately, that's a Portion de Frites, a plate of French fries. 

Tourteau Mayonnaise – Exactly the same as Crabe Mayonnaise .
   
Velouté d'Asperges, Crabe et Jambon Blanc.- A smooth velvety asparagus soup served with crab and boiled ham.

The Crabe Tourteau, the edible brown crab in the languages of France’s neighbors:
 
(Catalan – bou de mer), (Dutch - noordzeekrab),(German - taschenkrebs), (Italian - granciporro or maguro), (Spanish - buey de mar, buey, paguro or sabago), (Latin - cancer pagurus).

  

Crab bisque
www.flickr.com/photos/ralphandjenny/3801612575/
      
Crabe Araignée or Araignée de Mer
The European spider crab.
    
The European spider crab is the second most popular crab in France but considered by the crab cognoscenti to be even better tasting than the crabe tourteau.  I accept their verdict as its second place in the popularity ratings is due only to its price, not its taste.
        
Crabe Araignée - The European Spider Crab
Photograph by courtesy of the FAO.
             
The European Spider Crab is a relatively smaller member of the much larger spider crab family and includes as a cousin the Alaskan king crab. The Alaskan king crab is also available, as an import, in France. Despite the comparison with larger crabs the European spider crab is not exactly tiny, it must be at least 120cm, (47 inches), when stretched out or it must be thrown back. This European minimum size is now being increased to prevent overfishing.
          
Crab, Ginger and Coriander Broth with Mussels
www.flickr.com/photos/tristanf/2681920717/
    
When I am dining with friends at a seafood restaurant, we will often enjoy splitting two crab dishes. One of us will choose the crabe araignée and the other the crabe tourteau. If you point at the two dishes on the menu and say “Moitié-moitié”, Half and half, the waiter will serve the two dishes already divided for two diners; each diner has one-half of the other's dish.  if we are three or more, then we will add a prepared crab dish.  One of the best spider crab dishes is Araignée de Mer Décortiquée, shelled spider crab. Usually served with its meat simply roasted in butter. Nevertheless, the recipes offered for the crabe araignée are as endless as those for the crabe tourteau so choose well. 



N.B. This is not a menus listing:

Araignée de Mer ou Tourteau Selon Arrivage - The spider crab or the crabe tourteau are one the menu depending on when and what is delivered.  Crabs will be delivered fresh daily and by the afternoon one of these two crabs may be off the menu,

     
The European Spider crab on French Menus:
   

Araignée, Bulots, Bigorneaux, 12 Crevettes Roses. The spider crab served with whelks, periwinkles and 12 pink shrimps. This is a large serving and is enough for two diners.  Bulots and whelks served cold with fresh mayonnaise and French fries on the side is nearly as popular as crab and fresh mayonnaise.  In the menu listing here you may satisfy all your desires and the spider crab and 12 pink shrimps are included.
     
The European Spider Crab on sale in the market.
    
Assiette de Fruits de Mer; 1/2 Araignée, 2 Crevettes Roses, 1 langoustine, 3 Huitres no 4. A plate with assorted seafood: half a spider crab, 2 pink shrimps, 1 langoustine, 3 oysters size 4.   A langoustine is the Dublin Bay Prawn; a tasty crustacean though it is neither a shrimp nor a prawn.  With only one included in the serving, and just a little meat in the tail, this is a teaser; the house wants you to order more. If you like the langoustine, with all the meat in the tail, the restaurant will be offering them in half dozens. The three oysters no 4 are small oysters, the smallest served in any restaurant; however, they may be tasty. Nevertheless,  a seafood special including size 4 oysters and a single Dublin Bay Prawn indicates that the plate will be inexpensive. For more about how oysters are served, and billed, by size click here.
    
Crabe Araignée Mayonnaise, Assiette de Frites. A whole spider crab served with fresh mayonnaise and a plate of French fries,  a plate of chips


Moussette - Young spider crab, under two years old. 
       
Pressé de Chair de Crabe Araignée aux Fines Herbes, Mayonnaise et Ciboulette.  The meat from the spider crab served with fresh mayonnaise made with fine herbs herb group and chives. The fine herbs group already includes chives so for this dish extra chives will have been added for their flavor.
  
The spider crab ready to eat
 
The European Spider Crab in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan -  cabra de mar), (Dutch - grote spinkrab),(German - grosse seespinne  or teufelskrabbe), (Italian -granseola), (Spanish - centolla, moelo, pateiro), (Latin - maja squinado).
     
        
Crabe Mou - Soft-shelled crabs.
        
Soft-shelled crabs will be on French seafood restaurants menus, during their season.  in France, that runs more or less from May through September. At other times frozen imports of soft-shelled crabs may be on the menu.  Soft-shelled crabs are crabs caught when they shed their shells and have not yet grown a new hard one. At this time the crabs hide amongst the rocks, in great numbers, for their assumed safety. The crabbers who go after the soft shelled crabs have just four days before the shell begins to harden. When ordering soft-shelled crabs, I have found the best recipes to be the simplest and the tastiest.
     
Crabe Mou Croustillant, Radis Noir et Betterave Chioggia - Crisply fried soft shell crab served with the black radish shoots and the rather amazing beetroot of Chioggia near Venice,.This amazing beetroot is not all red inside rather it has concentric rings of red and white. (For more about the wonderful vegetables of Chioggia and the area click here.)

Friture de Crabe Mou, Citron VertShichimi  A fry up of small soft-shelled crabs flavored with lime and shichimi. 
    
   
Shichimi is a Japanese herb group (not to be confused with the Korean pickles called kimchi) that includes seven flavors: red chili, black sesame, white sesame, Yuzu peel, sansho pepper, dried ginger, and dried seaweed.  This spice group is not as hot as it sounds and is often part of a mayonnaise or aioli, or used in Japanese cuisine to flavor hot noodles (udon) and soba. The yuzu whose peel is used is a member of the citrus family.  The Chinese, Japanese and Korean use the peel on its own in their cuisines; it provides a very aromatic zest and has been adopted by the French since it offers a different flavor.  The peel alone is used to flavor many fish dishes. Yuzu peel is also used to make an alcoholic drink. The dried seaweed will usually be Nori but it may be another. N.B. Shichimi is usually not used in sushi, but occasionally may be used to accentuate a spicy mayonnaise sauce. The shichimi pepper is made from crushed Japanese pepper berries known as Kona-zanshō which are part of many other Japanese dishes.
     
Soft shell crab lightly breaded and fried served with Aioli
www.flickr.com/photos/dinesarasota/4771876378/
   
Petit Crabe Mou Sauté à l'Aïl et au Poivre.- Small soft-shelled crabs lightly fried in garlic and pepper.

Soft shell crabs are a real delicacy; you eat the whole crab and there is no hard work involved.   If the menu offers: Crabes Mou Grillés, grilled soft-shelled crabs, go for it.  This is a treat; absolutely one of the best ways to appreciate soft shell crabs.
  
Le Crabe Bleu - The blue crab.
 
The blue crab, also called the Chesapeake crab is the most widely distributed crab in the Americas; the blue crab is not a regular on French menus as it is considered an intruder, which it is.  The blue crab was accidentally released on France’s Atlantic coast in the 1950s and for years local crab fishermen and women just ignored them. These crabs having been left alone for so long are now embedded in great numbers along France's Atlantic coast and have also found homes in the Mediterranean Sea. They are just beginning to be serious contenders for a place on Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Italian menus.

The blue crab
www.flickr.com/photos/stevewilde/3923786255/
  
The blue crab on menus on France:

Bisque de Homard Garnie à l'Effiloché de Crabe Bleu et Cerfeuil – A lobster bisque garnished with slices of the blue crab and flavored with chervil.
  
Crabe Bleu à la Sauce Aigre-Douce: - Blue crab served with a sweet and sour sauce.
  
Linguine de Crabe Bleu à l'Ail, Tomate Cerise et Basilic – Linguine served with the meat of the blue crab flavored with garlic, cherry tomatoes, and basil. (Linguine is that nearly flat Italian pasta that looks like somewhat like flattened spaghetti or narrow fettuccine).
      
When blue crabs find their way into crab pots intended for more expensive crabs they will not be thrown back as they were until a few years ago.  Now they may be a daily special in a seafood restaurant or more likely they will be flavoring the crab soup. If you have grown up eating blue crabs you may need to make quite a number of phone calls as they are still a rarity. When blue crabs were accidentally emptied into French waters, they did not appeal to the French idea of how a crab should look. Worse of all they were an intruder and compete for food and living quarters with the Tourteau and the Araignée. Despite not starring on many French menus it is the blue crabs that provide most of the soft shell crabs sold in France.
       
Blue Crab Cakes with Lemon Aioli and Fried Red Tomatoes
www.flickr.com/photos/64141731@N00/7949827826/
  
The Blue Crab in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan - cranc blau), (Dutch - blauwe zwemkrab), (German – blaukrabbe), (Italian - granchio nuotatore), (Spanish - cangrejo azul), (Latin - callinectes sapidus).
   
Read my posts on the Crabe de Neige, the Snow Crab, and the Alaskan King Crab as they also grace many French menus.  Then, still another post on crabs should include some of the best crab dishes that I have eaten or possibly watched someone else eating and just had a taste. I will write about the small local crabs that French chefs use for their flavor. These small crabs are usually too small to be offered on their own, but occasionally some larger ones are caught and then they do make some special dishes on the menu.  In the meantime back to my notes.
  
This is a six and one-half kilo (14.3 lb) Alaskan King Crab.
Photograph courtesy of A. Lau.
   
   
  Crabe des Neiges
Photograph by courtesy of the FA0.

---------------------------------------------------------------



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