Crabs are one of my favourite food. I love their succulence, their taste, their aroma when they are cooked.
But everyone has heard horror stories of how they are caught by unscrupulous means, with poison or chemicals. But if you ask the seller how they were caught, she'd tell you they were caught with bait. So you are never sure unless you buy from someone you know. That's why we eat crabs so rarely, even though we prefer it to other meat.
Last week, the vendor gave me a brilliant sales pitch, telling me how fat her crabs were, how honest the catchers are, and how she eats them herself. After making her almost swear on the Bible, I bought some, overriding my better judgement.
Well, the crabs were not very fat as claimed, and the worst thing was- they had worms! So we threw the lot. And the worms were really hard to discern among the crabs innards.
Why do tiny things like crabs have to have worms? They are a known hazard with pork and other meat, but crabs? Anyway, for the uninitiated, crab worms can cause a disease with the really fancy name of paragonimiasis. It usually affects the lungs, causing fever,cough, blood in sputum, and other tuberculosis and pneumonia-like symptoms, though it may also affect the brain.
But if you cook your crabs well, you probably won't get the disease. That's why paragonimiasis not that common among Mizos, and is seen more in the Chakmas and other tribes who eat crabs raw, or undercooked.
So, love your crabs, but for me, they've rather lost their appeal.
8 comments:
as a child and even when i was older, the smell (certainly no 'aroma' for me!) of crabs (river crabs) being cooked was the one thing i could not stand. i was simply and inexplicably allergic to the smell of cooked crab and anything it came in contact with. i tried eating a leg/claw once or twice and simply could not. then i married a girl who loves crab and had to perforce at least taste a piece or two every time she cooked crab, which was more or less every time we went shopping and found crabs on sale. even then i never really developed a taste for it, specially river crab which have a very strong smell and taste. but, sea crabs i could eat without much problem and i even started to like them.
my wife's craving for crabs peaked when she was carrying our first child and we basically ate and ate crabs (sea crabs, that is). then, just like that, she became allergic to crabs after our son was born. she would break out into rashes every time she ate crabs. this soon developed into allergy for other seafood like prawns, lobsters, etc.
and so, happily for me, we stopped eating crabs. my wife misses them like crazy and even after almost 20 years still looks longingly at crabs in the market. me, i haven't even tasted crabs for about 20 years now and don't miss it at all. but i do miss the prawns and lobsters.
I've heard of cases like yours, people who break out in hives simply from the 'aroma' of crabs cooking. The psychological aspect must play a part, but the rashes are visible proof of the allergy :P One man's food is another man's poison, eh?
I think paragonimiasis is seen only in freshwater crabs and not in sea crabs.
Crabs with worms? Ewwwww that's the first time I heard of it. My sister broke out in huge rashes over crabs when we were kids and never touched them again but I was able to keep enjoying them until just a few years ago when I suddenly developed an aversion too. Maybe it's the chemicals or sth but I haven't touched them since either. And I don't particularly miss them.
Hi Calliopia..yep. crabs are off the menu.I am a finicky eater and the worms have put me off for life. Yuck!
Now these are some crabs I wouldn't mind you giving me... :-) looks juicy!
Crabs one of my fav seafood. My friend Matt too is allergic to crabs and he can't even have the crab flavored chips (wafers) that I make at home. Feel really sorry for him.
I had Mizo chakai last week. They were kind of small but nice still.
How did u know about Paragonomiasis?
Thats my line of work actually
I succumbed! H brought home chakai from a co-worker and they were fat and healthy, and had no worms and I went at them for an hour. lol. A tui ropui, Illusionaire pe phal leh lovang che.
@OP, guess what I do :D
I LOVE crabs! Yummy!
though one of my cousins do get rashes when he ate them so we had to give him an Avil tablet quickly. Now he quit trying to eat one.
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