Dungeness crabs don't have a lot of meat in the legs. You pick a lot of meat from the body, altho the leg meat is tastiest. But you would never serve just Dungeness legs. That would be just plain strange.

Where we live, we get Dungeness from local waters, but in other parts of the country, I guess I'd opt for the frozen Alaska King crab.

I like crab legs....and I use a little pair of "scissors" that I got from the dollar store to cut them open, instead of using a cracker. Works on the claws too.

We have blue crabs here and my favorite is soft shelled blue crabs. (that is when the crab is growing and shedding it's old shell, and is soft for a very short time).

We also have stone crabs.

King crab....less work....or East coast Blues.

Dungeness legs are served and sold here often. And they're really good. Sweeter, richer taste than King. But the best part is at the top of the legs where the cartilege is. Never had blue.

Another vote for Dungeness. I think it is far more flavourful than any other type of crab. Although I did really enjoy the softshell crab I had in New Orleans recently - I had never had it before.
Jane

A vote here for blue, especially soft shell spread all over the picnic table on newspaper with potatoes & corn. Yum!

/tricia

I'm with Linda on this - King Crab is my favorite, and there is nothing wrong with frozen crab. Unless you live in Alaska, it will be frozen, as the fishermen cook and freeze the crabs on the boat, as I understand it. The regular supermarkets here defrost them before selling them, but the Japanese market sells them frozen, and so then I can defrost it myself, and it keeps better this way. I sometimes buy it already defrosted on a whim, but I have to fix and eat it the same day, which is not always convenient.

Dungeness crabs are just way too messy, but I will order them in a Vietnamese restaurant where I get the whole crab. Then I need a large towel in my lap while eating it.

Lars

You can get live King Crabs in many Chinese restaurants. They are reasonable, but not cheap. I absolutely recommend you try live King Crabs. Simply awesome, and I don't use the word "awesome" lightly.

I had soft shell crabs last week, almost awesome [ :-) ] I am going to get some more soon.

dcarch

Love seafood ,love crabs and can get anything we want here in north east but yes crab legs are good I zap a few minutes in micro anddip in Kellers butter mmmm

I vote for king crab since they freeze better. Once you taste the fresh dungeness, you are not gonna like the frozen ones.

A little "funny" about East coast blues. The seafood company that my husband used to sell to (he was a shrimper for 45 years), shipped blue crabs to Maryland. They also sent their gallon containers from Maryland, and the Texas company filled them with oysters and shipped them back. The containers said "Chesapeake Oysters". :))

I bet there isn't one person in a million who could tell a Eastern crab or oyster from a Texas crab or oyster. I don't believe there is any difference. Any difference is only in how fresh they are.

I love crab. King Crab legs are wonderful. But I'll take Dungeness crab first. Maybe because I can buy fresh - Live - Dungeness crab year around. King crab legs are always available but are precooked and frozen. I've only seen live king crab once at a seafood shop in Duncan. It was huge and so was the price. If I remember correctly the price was just under $300.00. We can have a feast of Dungeness for under $30.00 for two.

~Ann

I didnt say everything came from north east but at grocers I can get anything.

We had Alaskan King crab this week and it was good. It came frozen so I thawed it under cold water, dried it and grilled it on the bbq after the steaks had finished cooking. It didn't take long. The only problem was the saltiness. Should I have soaked it for longer to get out more of the salt? Or is that normal?

Fresh king Crab legs are not salty.

The preparation process added salt to prevent spoilage. I would think soaking them will also make them less tasty.

dcarch

Donna, I haven't tried King crab on the grill. I like that idea. Our neighour loves king crab. And a couple of times a year we get together and feast on King Crab. I usually take scissors and make a cut up the legs before steaming them. I put just a small amount of water in the bottom of a large pot and layer the legs on a steamer basket. Since frozen king crab has already been cooked, reheating is all that is really necessary. I haven't had a problem with king crab being too salty. I wonder if steaming removes some of the salt?

~Ann

Ann, I think in Vancourver you can get live King crabs in just about every Chinese restaurant.

I don't know how much, because Every time I had them, I got treated. I think they are $10 to $15 a lb.

Really worth the price.

dcarch

Y'all are a bad influence. I went to the store over the weekend and bought a pound. Chowed down, and what was left I ate the second night got. A sort of concoction that was mornay-ish. Yum!