PCA members and guests got their Dungeness crab fix Thursday night at a delicious Dungeness crab event put on for us by McCormick & Schmick’s Harborside Restaurant and the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission. Although it’s true that you can never have too much Dungeness crab (the food of the gods — in Oregon, anyway), a lot of attendees had to ask the servers to bring a doggy — er, a crabby bag to carry home what was left of a whole crab.
And that was after sampling generous portions of crab croquette, crab-mango salad and crab cakes. Oh, and shall we talk about the appetizers? Smoked salmon, loks, scallops, shrimp, calamari, clams . . . am I forgetting anything?
Nick Furman, executive director of the Dungeness Crab Commission, had to talk over the roar of the Happy Hour that was in full swing directly below us. But in a strong voice fortified by years of eating crab, he shared with us that the crab harvest in recent years has been terrific. News reports that it was in trouble after the season opened December 1 applied only to the ocean waters off of California. There the haul has been somewhat slight. In Oregon, the crab supply is ample.
One reason for that, Nick said, is that Oregon’s commercial crab fishermen are sticklers about following the rules concerning sex, size and season. In other words, they don’t catch crab outside of the official season, which lasts through mid-August, with the peak during the first few months; they don’t keep the females, which are left to do their job of reproducing; and they don’t keep crabs smaller than 6-1/4″ wide.
Nick also showed us a video about crab processing. After watching the speedy processors, who can remove crab meat from shell in seconds flat, we all seemed to agree that cracking crab should be a leisurely pursuit. With plastic bibs around our necks and nutcrackers in hand, we dug into our whole crabs at our own pace. Volcano fudge cake and vanilla ice cream awaited as the dessert. Just before dessert was when most people requested a crabby bag.
Thanks, McCormick & Schmick’s and thanks, Nick Furman, for a delicious and educational program.
