Look Closer
Friday Feast
Posted by Viewfinder (Bradenton, FL, United States) on 7 August 2007 in Food & Cuisine and Portfolio.
Ok, we interrupt the previously scheduled Panhandle Days series today to introduce you to a feast of Cajun fried soft-shell crabs. These are blue crabs prepared at their best. Had these last Friday night at a wonderful cafe on the bayou, in Pinellas Park, FL (metro Tampa). Side dish of French bread, "dirty rice" and remoulade sauce for the crabs. Plus bread pudding with whiskey sauce for dessert. Louisiana cuisine in Florida, at its finest.
For those who do not know, when blue crabs grow, they molt their old shell; beneath the molt is a new, soft shell that will quickly harden into their new size. Before the hardening happens, it is time to harvest that crab, clean out the gills and mouth/eye parts, pop it into batter, and fry away. Then you eat the whole thing, soft shell and all.
Nikon D50
1/60 second
F/4.8
48 mm (35mm equiv.)