You have probably seen the videos and photos online of raw marinated crabs sitting in a tub of dark liquid from nose to tail and all the legs and claws in between; with just their eyes sticking out from above the water line.
Well today was finally the day I got to try it for myself. Admittedly, I was curious about this one, as I have never seen anything else like this on the market, not to mention I didn’t know you could even eat crab raw like this.
This is courtesy of one of the chefs at the popular Japanese fusion, hot spot Black Rice Izakaya. I am a fan of their aburi and have never had a bad meal from out of their kitchen, so immediately knew I would like this. This is their line of Korean-style marinated crabs, prawns, salmon, and octopus in soy or spicy sauce. This is Jinmi by Chef J. Orders can be placed via their IG @jinmibychefj, with pick up and payment due at Black Rice’s physical location.
The following is what we ordered, everything except the salmon, as I found the shrimp and octopus a bit more unique and peaking my interest.
Starting with the feature, the Premium Soy Sauce Marinated Crab. We went with the female spring and it included roe. At 0.55lb-0.61lb for the medium, this was plenty.
The package warns that you have 7 days to consume, but it is recommended that you eat it on the day of our one day after your purchase. And that you want to make sure it is chilled properly in the meanwhile.
Served in a very savvy leak proof plastic tub, you peel the plastic tab back and pop open the top, and the crab is ready to eat. No cooking or prep necessary.
It might be off putting, soaking in its black bath, but the water is a tasty marinade of light soy, if you need a little more flavour to your crab.
It is advised you remove the crab from the plastic and on a flat surface, pry the shell from off of its back, starting from the end. This is an easy lift with a satisfying pop.
From there you can either man handle the crab and split it in half, but a knife is much easier. This allows access to its innards which are squeezed out and what you are eating. I recommend using the top of the shell as a dish, seeing as most of the guts and meat are already in here. As is, the texture is quite overwhelming: slippery and mushy, gelatinous like fat, but a lot more liquid than solid. This all is furthered by the fact it is served and eaten cold.
Your order comes with a pack of seaweed sheets to have in conjunction. I recommend having it with this and rice as a great base, offering texture and something more mealy in the mouth.
What you get is a umami flavour unique onto itself. Creamy like uni, but more musky. Truly, I have never had anything like this and for that reason alone I recommend this.
Looking for something less exotic? The Premium Soy Prawn is a great option, served in a sealed packet you rip and pour out. The same soft and melty raw texture above, in the same black soy marinade, but without any shell to crack open. De-shelled, but not deveined, so if that irks you, be warned and you might be better off ordering the salmon instead. As it would be basically be salmon sashimi. Whereas, you don’t often get offered such large pieces of shrimp raw like this. This was another textural dish that if you could get past, it is quite the delicacy. Very different from the crab, where it is a lot more firm, and the taste of the shrimp is a lot more pronounced because it is a lot more recognizable.
However, if not their trademark crab, I recommend the octopus. This is an entire eight legged octopus from tentacles to head, served whole in a bag of their thick spicy sauce. This one is sous vide, steamed, and mixed in sauce. The texture of the octopus is a lot more firm so you get more chew and the consistency of the sauce helps to cut into any uncomfortableness you might have with the others above.
I would recommend cutting it down to more manageable bite sizes, and having it with rice as well, as the spice is quite potent.
In short this was quite the experience and a fun dinner and activity for your next meal in. Adventurous appetites only.
