Cannundrums: Overview of Unusual Meats: Part 3 (Crab to Eel)

CRAB: We ate lunch at Joe's Stone Crab in Miami Beach, Florida where the waiters wear tuxedos and they serve cold stone crab claws.

At Mike's Crab House in Riva, Maryland we had six steamed blue crabs, which were not on the menu, but I'd read about them. They came with a knife and a wood mallet and it was tedious and difficult to extract the crab meat.

Soft-shell crab is blue crab that has recently molted and the exo-skeleton is still soft. The entire crab, except for the mouthparts, gills and abdomen which are removed, is deep-fried or sautéed. At Old Ebbit Grill in Washington, D.C. they were covered in corn meal, flash fried and came with a Cajun remoulade. We had dinner there with my sister-in-law Mary Cannon Smith and her husband, Doug Smith.

At Mike's Crab House the breading was too thick for my taste, but the crabs were thick and juicy.

At King's Fish House in Rancho Cucamonga, picatta style:

At Tracy's King Crab Shack in Juneau, Alaska I had what may be my very favorite food, Alaskan king crab. I love it just thawed, after being frozen, and then dipped in butter. This was warm, but never frozen. I prefer the just thawed, but this was still wonderful.

Our son, Andrew, cooked us a meal of Dungeness crab.

I cooked dungeness crab with my mother and my daughter, Rachael

and with my granddaughters, Rachael's daughters, Ella and Savannah.

CRAYFISH: We were in a Chinese market and found a bag of wild caught premium Cajun cooked crawfish. I steamed them and dipped them in butter. The yellow is known as "crawfish fat" and comes from an organ that functions as the liver. It is similar to the substance in lobster known as tomalley.

CROCODILE: Crocodile is very similar to alligator, a white meat with very mild flavor. In South Africa we had Nile crocodile several different ways. At Karibu, in Capetown, we had crocodile carpaccio.

Crocodile carpaccio (raw) is the center, white, meat. Ostrich is on the left and springbok is on the right.

On the Zambezi River, near Victoria Falls, on the Zimbabwe side, we canoed down the Zambezi and were served crocodile kabobs at the pullout. It was incredible.

At The Boma in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, we had crocodile tail (white) along with impala.

At Arnolds, in Capetown, I had crocodile tagine (a Moroccan cooking method) and found it limp and flavorless, almost tofu-like.

For a Christmas party one year I got some crocodile striploin (found in the tail). I cooked a number of different kinds of peppers, spread garlic and herb Boursin cheese on them, and then added the grilled crocodile. It was very good.

Raw crocodile striploin

DEER: Anshu Pathak has said that axis deer is his favorite meat. A number of years ago Anshu went to the Hawaiian island of Molokai to work with some hunters to harvest axis deer that are an invasive species there and can be hunted at any time with no bag limit. I got some axis deer rib chops from him and cooked it sous vide, then flash-fried in butter. It rivals bison filet for goodness.

Axis deer in Sri Lanka.

One of Anshu's employees at Exotic Meat Market ("EMM") made his own concoction using axis deer which he shared with me. It was wonderful.

There are lots of axis deer on the Texas game ranches. We had axis deer venison roll ups at Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse in Dallas. It was bacon-wrapped with jalapeno and smoked mozzarella, brushed with a molasses Dijon dressing.

At Incanto, in San Francisco, I had venison that had been shot by the chef in Texas. I'm guessing it was axis deer, but I'm not sure. It was a little gamy and difficult to cut, but had a nice taste.

I've had wild shot mule deer but have no photos.

DONKEY: I learned that donkey meat is very popular in China. Andrew Zimmern said that donkey is a food that Americans would never eat that other countries love. A travel guide for Dunhuang, China said that donkey meat is the top meat in China. When we asked our tour guide to help us find a restaurant with donkey meat, she took us there and ordered for us as Chinese was the only language written and spoken there. One dish was yellow noodles with mushroom, diced donkey meat, tofu and "other materials."

The other dish was chunks of donkey meat cooked in red and green peppers. The donkey was fatty, tender and had a slightly sweet taste. I could eat that dish every day.

DOVE: Anshu Pathak provided me with 12 Eurasian collared doves shot by hunters in Arizona. I skinned and cleaned them, cut them in half and cooked them sous vide, then browned them in a pan with oil, salt and pepper. They had a slight liver taste, were a tad over-cooked and could have used a stronger seasoning.

DUCK: One of the more interesting duck dishes I've had was at Au Cinquieme Peche in Montreal, Canada: duck heart tartare, chopped up raw duck heart. I was not sold on the taste, but it was infinitely interesting.

My friend Jim Sullivan has given me wild-shot duck several times. He marinades the breasts in soy sauce and that works wonders for the gaminess. I got two mallards from EMM that were wild-shot in Scotland. I prepared them in different ways with varying results.

I cooked a whole Muscovy duck in an infrared cooker, covered with hoisin sauce. I also cooked a smaller Pekin duck in the infrared cooker.

I love Peking duck. Below is Peking duck from Diamond Palace in Diamond Bar, California.

Peking duck from Lotus Garden in San Bernardino.

I cooked my own Peking duck at home. It was good, but was a huge amount of work. It is worth paying someone else to prepare.

At the source, Peking duck at Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant in Beijing (romanized as Peking), China.

Roast duck from Chinatown in Los Angeles with Andrew and his friend, Lauren.

Fois gras - mousse of duck liver fattened through gravage (force feeding with corn) with pork fat, truffles and port wine.

Smoked foie gras at Bestia in Los Angeles.

Judy and Andrew at Animal in Los Angeles eating toad-in-the-hole with duck egg.

Salted duck egg.

1,000 year old duck egg. It is a mind-game to try and eat one of these.

Four layers, shell, membrane, egg white (or black) and yoke (below).

Andrew gave me some dry-salted duck egg and dry-salted turkey gizzards for Christmas. I used both, and a Peking duck carcass from Lotus Garden too make my own duck soup.

Smoked duck breast from a Princess cruise.

EEL: We had a whole European eel from the Baltic Ocean at a restaurant on the Curionian Spit in Kalingrad, an oblast of Russia. It was served in a restaurant we couldn't name by a Russian chef we could barely understand, accompanied by a guide who could barely speak English. It was incredibly good.