[boatbums]

My mom was from New Orleans and there is something special about Lake Pontchartrain blue crabs!

I have fond memories of going to this place on Esplanade in the French Quarter and our family sharing a HUGE platter of fat crabs spread out on a big newspaper lined table. We didn't even need the crackers because we could crack open the claws with our teeth and scoop out the luscious, sweet, white meat with a butter knife! I was queasy about opening the bodies and cleaning out the lungs and stuff to get to the big lumps but I got used to it. No need for sauce or butter, they were so good. Dang! I'm gonna need to get some crabmeat now.

A really good party dip is to take a pound of lump crab and gently stir it into a stick of butter that's been melted with an 8 oz. package of cream cheese, the juice of a lemon and some freshly grated black pepper. Serve it warm with some captains wafer crackers. Yum!

[Jamestown1630]

'A really good party dip is to take a pound of lump crab and gently stir it into a stick of butter that's been melted with an 8 oz. package of cream cheese, the juice of a lemon and some freshly grated black pepper. Serve it warm with some captains wafer crackers. Yum!'

That sounds good - but I had to look up 'Captains Wafer Crackers'.

This reminds me- there's something I've loved since early childhood, when my father took me to a bar with him, and the bartender gave me a coke with a cherry in it. They also gave me these 'waffle' crackers that had cheese inside. I've only found those crackers a few times since then, and I think they were made by Old London; but they don't seem to made anymore. The last time I found them was in a drugstore in Pennsylvania about 20 years ago... :-(

[Trillian]

When we were in Italy, my dad used to catch crabs and octopus (and probably several other things I don’t remember). I remember him on the edge of the rocks, repeatedly whacking them against them to “tenderize” them.
One of my favorite things to do was take part of an octopus and tie it to a long stick. I’d use it to lure the crabs out with it. Some of them looked very hairy (molto peloso).
I have some pretty strange memories.