and as chris says, same goes for crabs. when you crack a cooked crabclaw and you find a thin shriveled semblance of crabmeat hanging inside, then that’s a crab that’s been out of water way too long. but crack one that has meat immediately bursting out from right under the shell (and you even curse when the shell shreds embed into the chunky crabmeat), then that’s a freshie!!!

so buy and cook on the same day. but if not, then buy and steam immediately, then store in freezer.

I was assigned the task of cleaning two big specimens that our friend Edward had haggled for and bought from a fisherman right at the beach. Ordinarily I would just do my thing and get done in no time at all. However, I made the mistake of looking at the spots in the elongated bodies that, curiously, seemed to ‘blink’ alternately (for want of a better phrase). Edward told me that THAT is a sign of freshness, that the critters were recently hauled up from the sea, and that they were still alive. *Gulp!!* I felt so guilty, especially when I happened to also look into their (pleading but unblinking) eyes. I almost failed to do my assignment. However, with a whispered apology to the two critters and thanks for helping to sustain us, I quickly ripped out the heads, removed the plastic-like thingies at their backs, took out the innards, and rinsed both in the foaming sea. (Oh and did I mention that my friends threatened to put ME on the spit over the fire if I didn’t clean the cuttlefish? hah!) I marveled at how my entire fist fit inside the body cavity; the critters were really big.

Yummy grilled cuttlefish for lunch!

My qualms and my guilt rose to the air together with the smoke from the cooking fire right there on the beach.

I’ll never forget that day in Bolinao :-)

I honestly cannot bear to cook fish that was alive a few seconds before hitting the pan, except for hito – which I do not really like anyway. The way crabs and shrimp struggle against the heat of a pot turns me to jelly. Paano pa kung isda? Kaluoy kaayo!