Cupcake, the crab

We had an expensive anniversary dinner at Humphrey's last Thursday. When Thom received his meal, he looked at the measley 5 sea scallops and laughed. He felt like the Visa commercial where their expensive dinner was a plate full of tiny food.

The following weekend Thom was in the mood for some more scallops (to make up for what his dinner lacked). We looked at Costco where they sold it for $10/lb. Then I mentioned that we should go to the Asian markets since their seafood prices are much better.

So off to Vien Dong we went. Mya loves going there to see the fish and was quite excited to hear that we were going back. We spotted the sea scallops but Thom wanted the bay scallops since they were cheaper. We also picked up a frozen seafood variety pack. But we weren't done though...

I showed him the tank of Dungeness crab (which Mya was insisting on seeing). I said that he had to "fish" for them to get one out. He rolled up a sleeve, grabbed a tong and started fishing for a crab in the frigid water to show Mya (what a great sport). He looked at the price ($5.99/lb) and decided he wanted a crab for dinner. We fished for another crab (that Mya named "cupcake") and stuck it in a heavy-duty bag.

Back home, I filled a stock pot with a little water, a steamer basket started to bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, Thom took photos of the crab and battled it with a pairing knife (vs. the claw). To our amusement, the crab flipped itself over several times while on the counter and in the sink.

Once the water was at a rolling boil, I threw in a halved lemon, a halved garlic, some spices and fresh basil and parsley. I said my "good-byes" to cupcake and shoved it in the pot. 15 minutes later he was done.

Thom never had a whole crab before so I took the crab apart. Boy was it good. Mya loved it too.

The bay scallops were a disappointment though, oh well.