by Fred Thompson
Fred Thompson has been hooked on crab for more than 30 years. He’s been everywhere in his search for the best, from picking and panning the blue crabs of the Atlantic to savoring Florida’s stone crab claws to watching the watermen of Maryland at work to choosing a Dungeness at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf to checking out the soft-shells at New York City’s Fulton Fish Market. This man knows his crab, and in Crazy for Crab he shares his expertise. It begins with a comprehensive chapter on the basics, describing every type of crab available, how to buy it, how to clean it and how to know when you ask the fishmonger to do this for you, and how to cook it and crack it. He also talks about substitutions: let’s face it, crab in any form is a sweet, rich taste experience, and it is perfectly acceptable to substitute just about any variety of crab for another in most of the recipes in this book. All this invaluable information is accompanied by easy to follow how to drawings and illustrations of the various types of crabs.
