King of Crab

Third time's the charm - for our third night at the grill this weekend, Alaskan king crab legs were the star, brought to us by Michael's grandfather, Chad. After a change of plans this afternoon, we convinced that family they should come to our place for dinner - bringing the crab legs with them, of course - offering us an opportunity to show off our house and our Lucy dog to Michael's Aunt Robin and Chad's son, Scott.

Precooked crab legs are the epitome of simplicity when it comes to preparation: simply thaw and serve, or throw onto the grill to warm them up before eating. But it's in the eating, you see, that crab becomes messy, and I admit to squirting my tablemates once or twice in my effort to pull out every last piece of succulent crab meat. Fortunately they were good sports about it. And seeing as we were all in the same boat, passing around kitchen shears and digging into the flesh with our forks, it really could have been any one of us. Due to its size, however, king crab does have one advantage over Dungeness. It may be messy, but you get to your reward much faster than with the smaller Dungeness, and with legs the size of Lucy's , you do reap a substantial reward.

Some enjoyed their crab in salad, while I reveled in simply pouring melted butter over the exposed flesh. OK, that came out sounding a little cruder than I intended, but crab brings out my gluttonous side. Perhaps that's why God made eating crab such a chore - it keeps us from overindulging, unless you pay the high price for prepared lump crabmeat. But there's a certain satisfaction in working for your supper, at least when that supper happens to be crab.

Steel Me Away

Michael's father is in town this week and is, naturally, staying with us. The only unfortunate aspect of this situation is the fact that our guest bathroom is currently what is known as a 3/4 bath - except in this case the missing quarter is the sink. There is still a big gaping hole where a counter top should be, with twisty little pipes poking up ineffectively from below. Oh, well, it could be worse. It could be the toilet that was missing.

Last night we treated Rick, the above mentioned father-in-law, to dinner at Steelhead Diner in the Pike Place Market. He and his lovely wife, Beth, have been more than generous in treating us to past dinners and more, particularly on our recent trip to Las Vegas, so I felt we should return the favor, although unfortunately Beth wasn't able to be here on this visit. I think it may have been the first time we managed to escape a restaurant having eaten with Rick and not had him pay at least part of the bill. I had to be very adamant about this.

Steelhead made for a nice splurge, especially if you like seafood (and I love seafood). Having chosen the crab cake as my entree, I was thrilled to find it live up to its promise of "lump" crab meat. Whole pieces of dungeness crab leg meat made up a good half of the baseball-sized cake. Hands down, this was the best crab cake I've ever had, and it alone is enough reason to visit the Diner. Rick, meanwhile, chose the king salmon special, which was nothing short of divine. They sure know how to take advantage of their position in the Market to get some fine fish; this one practically melted in the mouth.

Other delights include fried Beecher's cheese curds and a deep chocolate cake coated in toasted coconut and topped by a scoop of coconut ice cream. Needless to say, I felt more than a little full by the time the meal was over.

The other good news is that Steelhead has a happy hour! Tuesday through Friday, from 2 until 6, they offer $2 off appetizers and $2 local bottled beers. While hardly the skinflint deals you can find at some other restaurants around town, it's still a good opportunity to get your fried cheese curd and crab cake fix for a little less cash.

When Crabby Is A Good Thing

Lately I have been very lax about posting on this blog - my apologies! And while I rarely write about anything other than the most recent events (blogging just feels fresher when you're writing about what's currently on your mind, rather than something that happened a week ago even if that something was ostensibly more exciting), I would like to take the opportunity to share some photos from the lovely lunch I had with Leslie at Joule a couple of weeks ago. We all need a little Dungeness crab in our lives! Unless, of course, you have a shellfish allergy or, like Michael, have an inexplicable aversion to the crustacean. But the rest of us know where it's at - and Dungeness crab has got it going on!

The meal started with a refreshing mizuna and fennel salad...

And was followed by braised chard with bacon (so cute!)...

Alongside tender ravioli filled with creamed Jerusalem artichoke...

And the piece de resistance, whole fried Dungeness crab! It took Leslie two hours to eat her half of the crab, but I think she would agree that it was worth every finger-licking bite. So very, very worth it.