The Stone Crab...

Listen...this is something I just DON'T GET! In Florida they go NUTS for "All You Can Eat Stone Crab". Nuts I tell you. See that little bugger? There's no harvesting of the full on crab...nope. You dive down, or trap em up, pull a claw off, and send em' back to Davie Jones's Locker. They regenerate their botched claw while living as "The One Armed Man I Tell Ya"(sorry for "The Fugitive" reference), and live to give another claw at another time.

Great idea, especially for all the hippie tree hugger PETA types. Our first encounter with the ole' Stone Crab was on the Ambergris Caye in Belize. Fresh off the reef, crabbers would chug in on their little Jon Boats with a 5 gallon bucket toppled with meaty claws. Served on some Jasmine Coconut Rice and Peas, lime, and butter...can't be beat. Claws...meaty, tender. But the Floridians and their ways astound me...

Served on Ice, pre-cracked, with mustard sauce...

Dood...I tried...and immediately asked for warm butter. And I ate about four pounds worth of claws..they weren't bad...and I needed food to soak up the beer. My uncle however wrote to my dad and said, "I'm not sure Matty likes the Stone Crabs"...me guesses he could tell I wasn't a fan of the mustard.

Listen, they were fine. And I love seafood. But to go this crazy over ice cold claw meat? I don't get it. The chilled claw has no flavor except that of the warmed butter. And there is no more crab to pick...imagine if you ate Maryland Blue Crab and all you got to eat was a cold claw...

My suggestion, and it may IRK the traditionalists, but I suggest you serve em hot, uncracked, and with plenty of clarified butter. Mustard is for Hot Dogs and Pastrami Sandwiches...not crabs. And another thing...cracking the crab is part of the journey. You ask anyone who "picks" Maryland Blue Crabs...and they will tell you it's a religion. It's an event...you drink beer (and you can't drink more than three because you get too engrossed in picking crab while salivating), you conversate, and you get all giddy at the treasures of lump meat you excavate from the cavernal labyrinths of esteemed crab.

Pre-Cracked, Cold, Mustard?

I must be missing something.