great video

I'm stunned.

I thought piling crabs into a big metal pot and steaming them alive was bad. This woman was pounding a knife into their chests! That's hardcore!

Crab snuff movies. Huh. I couldn't get through the whole thing. "Say hello to my little friend ..."

Yup, that's a savage way to dispatch a crab...or anything else, for that matter. Steaming in the microwave? Gack! I'll stick to the Murlin way, thanks!

I've always felt I'd prefer the guillotine to being boiled alive. Nothing in this video has changed my mind about that.

I've never heard of cutting live crabs like that, but a careful stab just behind the head is widely believed in New England to be a more humane (less inhumane?) way of killing a lobster before steaming or boiling. Though I was taught as a youth that they die instantly when plunged into boiling water head first, I have watched them squirm for the better part of a minute too often to believe that any longer. I suspect the same may be true for crabs, though I wonder whether Amanda's chum knows where a crab's vulnerable point is.

Another excellent contribution from Amanda. She certainly does a better job than those pieces of fluff on the Food Network.

ugh. another reminder of why i think that picking crabs is totally barbaric. chop the poor thing in half? gack!

Hmm...well, if she'd whacked harder, and dispatched the crabs with one whack, I would have found it a little easier to deal with. Not easy, mind you, just easier.

But, after dropping a few lobsters into pots of boiling water...I think cutting is better.

I feel like a wimp, unwilling to kill what I'm willing to eat. This has been a concern of mine for some time, actually. Makes me feel like a hypocrite.

I know what you mean, Lissa. I usually sidestep the issue by having hubby do the dirty work, but I recognize it as such and still have some qualms.

What's with the microscopic type face? Jeez, are you trying to make us insane?

I should mention that I found the microwave steaming method quite interesting. I'm not a big fan of the nuke, but it does heat up the house a bit less than a big pot o' boiling water.

(I've noticed that over the last week or so, blog pages sometimes refuse to load, and when they do, the page format is shot to hell and the font is small, with no white space. It isn't repeatable, so I haven't said anything.)

I get a LOT of weird behavior here. When I load a page that I have loaded before, I have to instantly reload/refresh it to get the current comments. It's really annoying. Even on a brand new post, when I see it the first time, the "MOST RECENT COMMENTS" are NOT the most recent comments. Bad software, very bad software.

I don't really want to contribute to this disgusting vivisection dialogue, but am I to understand that you put live crabs in a microwave? I am so indignant. I think you just turned me vegan. Meat is murder! Aw, crap, I don't wanna be vegan. I don't wanna be a pirate. I don't wanna be a cowboy. I've been drinking homemade lacto-fermented grape juice, am I hallucinating? Naw, there's no alcohol, the lactobacilli turns the sugar into lactic acid and CO2, like in yogurt. Then what's wrong? Why am I thinking about a dream about canaries? I like canaries; they had a lot of them in Madrid. King Lear is the best Shakespeare play maybe, but the Scottish one is good too. My life without meat? That's crazy talk. Hey Sprouty. I don''t want that nickname. I favor Duke or Slick or Hey You or Shut Up or Defendant.

Shock the monkey? I think not. Crab Week is making me crazy. Make it end. What next? Mayonaisse Week? The horror, Mista Kurtz, the horror.

Alright, I just went to the fridge and smeared cow's blood on my face and am singing the Doors song The End. I had to do it, my only friend. Oh bondage, up yours.

... and the world ends not with a bang but with Xray Spex.

... and SCENE!

I think you secretly love Crab Week. Also, don't forget the crab-related mystery product. EL

In that I do relish a dollop of alienation, maybe ...

How can I have a crab mystery product if we know it's crab? Okay, I accept the challenge.

It's crab-related. That covers a wide range. For instance, Crab Helper. EL

Oh Owly! You made my day with the Xray Spex reference. Check out their video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEjkPRp60bU

Expect the unexpected. Now I must go into a mystery trance.

Good work Amanda! You do a great job of getting the real scoop...

OMG, thank you for not spelling out the name of the Scottish Play. It is bad luck to say the name in a theater, even the Theatre of the Absurd we often have here.

Great to see west coast crabs getting their due!

Sorry, Steve Morris--I'm originally from California and I have to say we never ever ate crabs when I was growing up. It's just not the same thing as bashing crabs here.

Dahlink, no dungeness?

Regina, I don't remember ever seeing Dungeness on a menu when I was growing up. Or maybe it was there, but I was too busy happily eating halibut and abalone to notice. Does anyone still eat abalone these days? It was BIG when I was a kid.

In the late seventies I had my first taste of dungeness in a San Diego restaurant and so thought that everyone in California ate the stuff. I love dungeness and that is why I ask. Abalone is something that I have only read about, never eaten. Remember something about an issue with them being killed off by some virus some years ago.

Actually, now that I think about it, my great aunt always used to order the "Crab Louis" salad when we lunched together, but I have no idea where that crab came from.

Ahhh, the subtleties of the Pacific. Abalone, spiny lobster, spot prawns, halibut, crab... Thank you Amanda and the Sun for getting the word out!