One of the reasons that I love food is that you can relive a meaningful memory or revisit a favorite meal even if you are 1000 miles away from its original taste. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area I look forward to crab season every year.There is no better dungeness crab than the ones that come straight off the boats and straight to the wharf, just waiting for me to take them home and enjoy every sweet, succulent bite. As soon as dungeness crab season arrives I am at the market to buy a large crab, fresh sourdough baguette and a lemon. After a long day of work, dungeness crab is the perfect reward as well as a complete and tasty dinner for one.
Dungeness crab has more meaning to me beyond its mouthwatering taste. It was one of the last meals I had with my Nini (grandma) before she passed away. I had gotten home from work and she was so excited to have found fresh crab at Whole Foods in the middle of May. Being the end of crab season, neither of us expected much from the crab as far as taste but thought we might just take advantage of what was most likely going to be the last dungeness crab we enjoyed until November. My Nini and I had our own special routine when it came to eating crab. She would break off the legs and break the body in half and place it in a bowl on the table, along with a bowl for the shells, a lemon aioli for dipping, sliced sourdough bread and room temperature butter. We sat down and with the first bite we both looked at each other, happy that she opted for the two crabs instead of only one, because it was the best crab either of us had ever had. Nothing needed to be said because the smiles on our faces said it all. We sat there in silence breaking the shells apart to get to our gifts of rich and delicious crab meat only taking a break to sip our wine or take a bite of bread. Words cannot explain how delightful this crab was or how special this moment was between a granddaughter and her grandmother.
I still have yet to have a crab as good as this but I try every year over and over to find one. This is not to mean that all other dungeness crabs were bad, they were all tasty and I enjoyed every one, just none compared to those two crabs and that moment. Unfortunately that moment can't be recreated, but every time I sit down with a bowl of dungeness crab legs and bodies broken in a bowl waiting for me to dig in, I think about my Nini and I feel a little closer to her in those moments. You see, food isn't just something we eat. It is something that awakens the senses,elicits emotion and replays memories of the past.
The only question I have for you is whether you hoard your crab, getting all your meat out, gathering a perfect little pile, or if you can't wait an extra minute to enjoy each tender bite as you crack it and eat as you make your way through the pile of crab legs sitting on your plate? Me...I am a hoarder. I gather the perfect pile, mixed with meat from the legs and body (best part in my opinion), and then sit back and relax after my hard work of cracking, with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and enjoy each bite only taking a break to butter a crusty piece of sourdough bread.
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