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Best crab legs in Northern VA?


wantarace17

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At Chesapeake Bay Seafood house a customer would have needed to eat 32 plates of crab legs for the restaurant to "break even" on the price. A little worthless tidbit for all you guys who think you can out eat the all you can eat money wise. :)

Sorry for putting them out of business. My bad. :evilg:

Seriously though, interesting stat. But where did it come from?

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You could jump in a time machine and go to a Chesapeake Bay Seafood House. Man I miss that place.

I worked there as a waiter for six months. Family Fish House was their main competitor. It was like $7.99 for all you can eat crab legs.

But you can get the same meal right now, minus the hush puppies and cole slaw. See my earlier post.

And no, they did not serve Alaskan King Crab legs. They were snow crabs. ;)

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captain billys is so overrated and expensive, go to Capt Johns in Cobb Island...way better :)

That is your opinion LOL I've been there, and both times the crabs came out water logged, havent been back... never happened at Capt Billys , to me anyway..plus they have tons of cool Redskins stuff on the walls :cool:

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Clusters. You had 20 clusters. And that's a lot.

:doh: Yeah, Clusters. haha. I go to a place down here thats 30 bucks all you can eat.

On a side note- I could have sworn they (Ches Bay) had Alaskan King crabs. But either way, I would always order the crab legs and then just order other stuff to try and then go back to the crab legs. I do miss that place. Them and Farrell's.

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Damn this crab talk brings back memories from my BD every year in North Beach...my grandfather used to buy me a bushel and we had a big party...sniff sniff..miss those days! I'll sit there 12 hours and eat yummmmmmmm

Sorry didnt mean to hijack the thread with md crab house talk...there used to be a good crabhouse on lee highway between fairfax circle, and maple avenue vienna that was really good..but with the growth boom in that area they got forced out...not sure if they moved and stayed open or not..cant remember the name of the place..

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The best is cracking the large part of the leg just so, allowing you to extract the meat from it as one whole piece. Then dip that morsel into the melted butter... nirvana.

Oh hell yeah. It's so satisfying to pull it out in one piece, you get that huge slab of meat that almost looks like a candy bar. Doesn't get much better than that.

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Oh hell yeah. It's so satisfying to pull it out in one piece, you get that huge slab of meat that almost looks like a candy bar. Doesn't get much better than that.

Indeed, I used to flap it around at my mother when I got the big ones like it was my tongue...first time I did she said "JEFFREY TOP THAT" then 2 minutes later she says "Hey Jeff do that again" :ols::ols: good eats good times haha

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The big pieces are awesome, allows to to eat so much more. I am going to take my own crackers next week. Because the one's they have are flat out garbage.

I might change my dinner plans and go tonight. My girl loves 'em too. It's a match made in heaven. Only problem is I am trying to cut back on my drinking and if I go tonight, I will probably through back a dozen beers too. haha.

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Buy 2-3 clusters per person. Make sure they're thawed. Put a big pot or a crab pot over the stove. Add half inch of water. Put something on the bottom to keep the legs out of the water. Bring water to boil. Place two-three clusters in pot. Place lid on top. Steam four minutes.

Replace hot clusters in pot with cold clusters. Eat hot clusters while pot cooks new clusters another four minutes.

Repeat. Etc.

This is exactly what I do. But I fill the pot nearly to the top with water, bring it to a boil, and just drop the legs right in.

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Well, I've never boiled legs. I would be afraid if you boiled them the shell would become too soft and not crack properly. For example, even if you steam them too long, the shell softens too much. Four minutes steamed is about right - cooks the meat and leaves the shell crisp enough to crack. That way, you take that big long leg, and after breaking the joints, snap it right in the center, pull off the ends, and there you have a nice long thick chunk of hot crab meat about as thick as your thumb and 3x as long. :)

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I actually think G&M's is overrated. Their crabcakes are huge, but I've had several others that are better. The Crabcake Factory in Ocean City is actually my favorite for crabcakes.

Captain Pell's is the best I've found in Virginia fro crabs, although I'm generally looking for blue crabs and not crab legs.

Anyone closer to the western Maryland erea should check out Liberty Road Seafood near Frederick. They have some great all-you-can-eat deals featuring steamed crabs, crab legs (usually King Crabs or Dungeness), shrimp, oysters (any way you want them), etc. Now I'm hungry!

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Well, I've never boiled legs. I would be afraid if you boiled them the shell would become too soft and not crack properly. For example, even if you steam them too long, the shell softens too much. Four minutes steamed is about right - cooks the meat and leaves the shell crisp enough to crack. That way, you take that big long leg, and after breaking the joints, snap it right in the center, pull off the ends, and there you have a nice long thick chunk of hot crab meat about as thick as your thumb and 3x as long. :)

I never boil them either. I put them in a steamer pot. You have the water on the bottom and another pot with holes sits inside and above the water. I like to give the legs a good coating of Old Bay and steam them for about 4 minutes like you said. If you cook them too long the meat will be difficult to extract from the shell. The legs you buy at the store are already cooked so they only needed to be heated up and four minutes is about perfect.

I buy them all the time for my wife and I. They are usually on sale for $3.99 a pound so we eat them often. One thing to keep in mind when buying crab legs from the grocery store is to make sure they are completely thawed. Otherwise you are paying for the weight of the ice instead of actual product.

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  • 3 weeks later...
I take it that MD crabs are not in season yet, where are the crabs coming from, say from

Captain Pell's? Asia?

No they are not, sometimes early april is when they start popping up if the weather is warmer...they taste better when it gets even warmer out from may to november..peak eating time starts in june though

Not sure about crabs themselves but when you buy just crab meat in a store..By law, the crab meat container must list country of origin on it if it not from the United States

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No they are not, sometimes early april is when they start popping up if the weather is warmer...they taste better when it gets even warmer out from may to november..peak eating time starts in june though

Not sure about crabs themselves but when you buy just crab meat in a store..By law, the crab meat container must list country of origin on it if it not from the United States

Most of the crap we've seen in the stores (Phillips or Chicken of the Sea) are harvested in Thailand. We've seen some Louisiana stuff as well.

If you buy G&M Crabcakes, they use crabmeat from Louisiana.

NOTHING beats Maryland crabs though, but I don't have to tell a Southern Marylander that!

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