Tropical Cooking with Travel Man: 8th Main Dish - Savory Crab

Crabs are often the specialties of many seafood restaurants.

Crabs are always included in the regional cuisines of tropical nations, like Philippines. Hundreds (more than 800) of species thrive in land, freshwater, and the world's oceans, mostly in tropical and semi-tropical countries.

Wet markets always offer fresh catch of wild or cultured crabs, like the mud crabs (usually cultured) or sea crabs, ranging from small to big sizes.

You can choose female crabs (with wide abdomen) for its succulent roe or eggs or settle for male crabs for lower presence of cholesterol.

As my latest offering in my tropical cooking, I will be sharing with you how to cook a savory crab dish. We usually stewed it here with coconut milk and added vegetables (like spinach or swamp cabbage or with yellow squash and string beans) or just sprinkle it with salt in a covered pan.

Note: Here's what you should remember with this dish. Crabs have 71 to 85 calories and no dietary fiber or carbohydrates. They provide 15g of high-quality protein, which represents 30 percent of the recommended daily value (DV) based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.

It is also rich in vitamin B12 that reduces risk on cardiovascular disease.

It has traces of minerals, like zinc, copper, iron, potassium and selenium that are needed for energy production of our body, plus the formation of connective tissues and synthesis of protein and neurotransmitters in our brain.

If you would want to travel in my country, you should taste the new crab dish featuring blue crab.

Four new species of crab that sport some wild colors have been discovered near the Philippine island of Palawan.

But their existence in Calamian islands are threatened by the mining activities in the peninsula.

With close supervision of Dr. Hendrik Freitag of Seckenberg, they are now successfully propagating this new added crab variety that is only endemic in the country, especially in Palawan.

When I was a child, I was warned by my mother not to play with crabs on the creek or brook, which she used to wash our clothes.

Catching crabs are not so easy with the clumsy hands I had during my childhood. I usually had this catch net my father made so that I can easily bring them home.

Freshwater crabs (smaller ones) and mud crabs can be catched with special crab traps.

With just the right amount of rock salt, you can cook handful of crabs on the pan.Cover it so that none will escape from it.

If you live in the mountains, hunting for cave or coconut crabs are often the other source of income of the farmers.

Or while enjoying a walk at the seashore, smaller crabs will hide in the holes where some big ones are waiting for you to discover.

Catch it, carefully, then cook it easily!