Orange and Red

Expensive ingredients aren’t always needed for a delicious dinner, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. When the weather’s nice it feels like I get cravings for seafood. Which is why I went to my local fishmonger and bought an eyewatering amount of crab and shrimp.

A seafood boil requires little preparation since everything is just thrown in. When I crushed the fresh garlic under my knife panic set in my heart. I’m not used to these things; seafood is a great love of mine, but it is reserved for people who know what they’re doing. I rarely do anything with it myself because in a way I don’t trust my hands with a fifty-dollar bag of snow crab.

FIFTY DOLLARS!

I generally buy cheap cuts and make them delicious or make whole chickens go a long way, this was one damn meal. I waited for a few liters of water to boil, which made the pot pop every so often fraying my nerves further. Shrimp takes 3-4 minutes to cook, and the crab legs need 5 to simply reheat. The room for error is small.

When the lid rattled, I sighed and unwrapped my haul. The spindly crab legs clicked against the side of the pot as I tossed them in.

2 minutes passed and large handfuls of shrimps splashed in the red liquid. The boil subsided and I could smell the faint salt of an ocean breeze in between the mounds of what I assume were paprika and mustard powder.

3 minutes went by and I hesitated to pour out the water. I was afraid of the 10 lbs that sloshed in my grip. When I finally drained the seafood, my shrimp was overcooked.

It hit me hard, but it was over.

I’ll do it better next time.

It’s important to spend a bit more sometimes.

The shrimp was overcooked, but that crab made me forget all about it. Not to mention the stick of butter mixed with garlic.

By Swan Yue