Posted on by David Drucker

Alaskan King Crab at Sun Sui Wah




It’s that time of year again, when the Alaskan King Crab turns up at the Sun Sui Wah Restau­rant on Main Street. It’s a com­bi­na­tion of spec­ta­cle and cui­sine that only lasts for a few weeks. This year, we got togeth­er with a bunch of friends and had one.

David wrestles the crab


I got my turn hold­ing him. I have to admit that for a moment it did remind me of one of the crea­tures from Alien. I always won­der who was the first per­son to try eat­ing what looks like an enor­mous insect. Nev­er mind, as you can see, all’s well that ends well (in our stom­achs, that is):

Cooked Crab. Very Yummy.


Thanks to Irma Cho for these fun photos.

5 Replies to “Alaskan King Crab at Sun Sui Wah”

  1. Wow.…I had no idea that they were that big! I have only had the legs before and they were small­er than that. So do you need a group of peo­ple to do this? What is the sauce on the crab? I read some­where else that this was the time for Alaskan King Crab but did­n’t know the whole rit­u­al. Do tell more?

  2. Hi MJ —

    I think you could get away with a crab for 1 per­son, but it is a lot of meat, to be sure, although you have to work to get it out of those legs. For 4 peo­ple it might be more rea­son­able. For our table it was a nice first course, and the noo­dles helped to make it more substantial.

    The sauce is a sort of cream sauce (a bit like Fet­tuc­cine Alfre­do with­out the cheese), flavoured light­ly with gin­ger and a hint of sesame oil. I saw oth­er crabs served with­out the sauce; I think they were steamed with gar­lic. Sun Sui Wah spe­cial­izes in this dish, and I thought the sauce was just light enough, even if it did make for pret­ty messy eating.

    As for rit­u­al, it’s pret­ty much the bring­ing out of the crab by the wait­er, and the chance for many to get their pic­ture tak­en hold­ing it like I did. They are real­ly impos­ing, since they are still mov­ing around (although not as dan­ger­ous­ly as a lob­ster with pincers).

  3. YUM YUM YUM!!
    I was just think­ing how cool this is and still think­ing how cool it was to read about Antar­ti­ca and it occurs to me that I’ve nev­er asso­ci­at­ed any crus­taceans with the south­ern cold places…there must be some?

  4. Hi Bethany!
    I asked Pam if there was any­thing they ate out of the Drake Pas­sage and she said that although there were things on menu of the ship that said ‘Argen­tin­ian style’ or ‘Chilean’, she did­n’t eat any­thing that was par­tic­u­lar­ly caught there, nor did she ‘throw any lines over the side to catch any­thing’. She did notice one fish­ing boat in Argen­tin­ian waters (at night). It was like a fac­to­ry ship, with pro­cess­ing machin­ery and lights as they worked, so there must be some sort of fish in those cold south­ern seas. There’s still lots of krill, which is what the pen­guins, seals and whales all eat.

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