Perhaps one of the most awesome experiences thus far in Chile for me was the first time I ever ate a Crab literally from the shell... I've eaten crab meat before but it was already precooked "Red Lobster" or "Fish Daddy's" style and I never knew where the heck this meat came from. Better yet, I was oblivious to what the real texture of a crab felt like and I had forgotten what it looked like as well. Now seriously folks... I was really hoping that after we had picked up the red little guy from Lenga that we were going to do a "crab" boil like we do crawfish out in Louisiana... But of course I was in for the fishy treat of a lifetime! This meant that if I wanted dinner -- I better have somehow figured out how I was going to "get to" this crab meat-- of course I had no clue where the crab meat came from on the actual crab (HAHA). The joke between my Chilean teenage brothers Benjamin and Nico became the battle between me and my little red "cangrejo"... The shell was insanely tough as a rock and so were the huge legs --I'm here thinking "where's is this crab meat...maybe it's in the body somewhere." My Chilean teenage brother Benjamin sees me looking straight into the tiny black eyes of the little red crabby guy and whispers over at me, "Amaris, why are you staring at it? You gotta open it and eat the inside of it"-- I'm here thinking, okay how do I get this guy open? I take another huge stare at the little red guy once again and by now I'm thinking I'm in Anthony Bourdain's "Chile" travel episode. After staring at my crab friend for a long while, I brace myself for a true fresh fish experience!!! I really didn't want to crack him open because I felt as though he was staring back at me telling me to not eat him LOL! At this point you might think I was silly and perhaps hallucinating a bit... But seriously, I'm sensitive to fish here folks and those small tiny black eyes were giving me the stare of "death" (HAHA). Anyhow, so my Chilean pop saw me struggling to "crack open" the little guy and decided to bring over a handy wrench from his tool box. Y'all are probably wondering--or at least I hope haha--what about my appetite 15 minutes after receiving this little guy as an appetizer-- Well, I had no choice but to hand over the job to the Chileans in the house-- fresh fish was their forte and the fresh crab eating experience was getting real! After a few wrench cracking noises out in the backyard, my red crab friend was brought back in pieces. I lifted the top shell and saw the insides. I couldn't help but think "OMG"- oh my gosh!!! This was a huge joke of course because normally folks don't eat the insides (something I didn't know until much later)... But since I didn't know, my Chilean teenage brothers decided to ask me to dig into to a yellowish mushy item oozing out of the crab. I dig my fork in and give it a try and as they are asking how it tastes, I'm wondering whether or not to swallow the apparent crab brains I had just taken an awesome bite of, or swiftly tuck into the side of my teeth until the real crab meat made it's way towards my taste buds. I made the attempt towards the first option and slowly answered, "this is an experience Chicos, for real". They start laughing out loud and reassured me (with laughter of course) that few folks eat the inside of the crab and the "real crab meat" is actually in the legs of the crab. In real text terms I gave them the -________- face. I graciously thanked them for leading me to the brain meat and proceeded then towards the crab leg-- where the actual crab meat became much more familiar.... Finally after adding a hint of lime, I was beyond excited to eat fresh crab--- perhaps the photo below shares a bit more of my experience...
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Cheers to more Chilean Crab Experiences... ☺️
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