Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas berries

Berries after dinner for a healthy Christmas.

Snowball of events

On 02 December 2012, he succumbed to dreams of and cravings for the King Crab. Made a trip to the nearest NTUC Finest at Thomas Plaza and lifted 2 bags of King Crab ($79/kg) out of the freezer. Walked past the fish counter and found Chinese Mitten Crab going for just $7.90 for 2. Wow, few weeks back, he saw them at $23.90 each. Grabbed the last four before going to check-out. Total damage was about $130.

The bags of King Crab were pre-cooked. A quick check on Wikipedia here showed that this was to preserve the value of the catch. King Crabs cannibalize each other when they get annoyed with one another, and dead crabs release toxins in the water which would kill the other healthy crabs. So the fishermen would cook and freeze them, that's why we usually get them as such.

Claw of the King Crab versus the Chinese Mitten Crab. Put 2 teaspoons of salt and crushed some garlic in the water to boil, before steaming the crabs for 10-15 minutes. The Mitten Crab was small, but very sweet. However, everyone seemed to enjoy the King Crab better, possibly for the better meat yield. Of course, the flavor was very good too, the Dad said it was like scallop.


And on 08 Dec 2012, when the littlest brother came back from his Cambodia community involvement trip, they decided to celebrate by cooking the other bag of King Crabs. Only to realize that the Mom and Dad had already taken 2 of the legs days before. Just couldn't get enough of it.


And on 09 Decemeber 2012, after his mandatory physical training session, he dropped by the supermarket and bought some huge flower crabs. Cost about $12 for 4. Same cooking method, garlic and salt in the steaming water. Sweet and delicate flesh. Very affordable too. He would buy another 5 again just few days later. These male ones as shown in the picture are uncooked. How to differentiate the gender? Males have blue tinge on the fringes, while females are red. Also, pointed tail flaps for males, and a broad rounded ones for females (with appendages to carry eggs). But when cooked, they turn orangey-red.


 

On 16 December 2012, got hives and the whole body swelled pink after getting a very painful bite from a mosquito-like insect. Sent it to its maker, and it almost sent him to his about 30 minutes later. Went to the doctor for a very painful injection from a huge syringe, and till today, the skin of the injection site still feels numb. Got a second opinion from his own family physician and felt more reassured... but that didn't last long.

Seared some Canadian scallops on 18 December 2012 just in case Doomsday arrived before he finished up the food in his fridge. The Mom asked for second. First batch was done with oil, black pepper and garlic, second batch was just oil and black pepper. Too bad he didn't have any butter, but it was still good enough to have people fighting over it.