Eating A Cromer Crab

Today, I was at Cromer as part of our guided tour of Norfolk for my brother's girlfriend. It started off ok when we arrived, but once we were making our way towards the beach and the pier, it began to rain. It wasn't one of those trips I was considering in bringing my camera anyway, but despite the rainy conditions, I wished that I did as I managed to see edible crabs. As you may know, edible crabs are one of my invertebrate targets this year, however, the way that I found this target today may be considered as cheating. This was because I was peeking into the buckets of the families who were crabbing from the pier and discovered that a few of them had an edible crab.

I know it is kind of cheating, but as these are wild crabs that were hauled up from the sea beneath the pier, so I am still going to count it. But, for this particular target, seeing an edible crab isn't enough. I decided that I should eat one too. The Cromer crab is a bit of a delicacy around these parts and the dish plays a big part in Norfolk's identity. And so, it would be wrong of me not to buy myself a Cromer crab for my evening meal.



My Cromer Crab salad

I don't often eat crab. I'm not exactly a fan of seafood as it is, but I have eaten crab on occasion. The taste and texture usually put me off a little bit, but this time, after drowning it in vinegar and a sprinkle of salt, I have to admit it tasted pretty good. Though there wasn't as much meat compared to how much is crammed into a tin of tuna, the addition of vinegar does give it a similar flavour. Not bad at all and it goes well with my salad. Now this was one tasty way of ticking off a target species, but don't expect me to eat any insects or spiders anytime soon.

The empty carapace of my Cromer Edible Crab