PIRATE’S Life For Me

Get your battle face on; it’s time to eat some crab! Visit Captain Melo’s Seafood Camp in Tinseltown for All-You-Can-Eat blue crab for just $14.99.

If you’re new to consuming crab, be prepared for a hard-core dining experience – cracking crab is not for the faint of heart. (Crab lovers will tell you it’s all part of the fun.) As far as work for return on meat investment, blue crabs are smaller than snow or stone crabs. (Marylanders say tastier, too.) That’s not to say they’re not worth it! Here are some tips and tricks to get the most out of your blue crabs – without expending too much energy.

First things first. Order a $2 margarita on special – small but definitely worth two bucks.

Now, to the business at hand. Your instinct may be to tackle the easiest part first, but hold your horses – don’t break the legs off yet. Flip the crab over and look for the middle seam. Wedge your whole crab into the silver trap of the cracker, lining the knuckles right along that seam and squeezing until you hear a CRACK. This will open up either the right or left side, which gives you access to the sweet, sweet meat within the sharp protective shell. Now snap the legs off. They’ll pull plump sweet lumps as they detach. That’s the good stuff.

Once you’ve pulled the meat free, utilize melted butter freely or stick with pure, unadulterated crab. The Cajun, Old Bay-style seasoning is one of their Jamaican chef’s secrets. It’s delicious, but makes the whole operation slippery – I nixed it. But you do you – there is no wrong, only more crab.

We also tried the app sampler ($15.99), which is a bit of a smorgasbord. It includes chicken wings, conch fritters, fried dynamite shrimp, mozzarella sticks and onion rings. The onion rings are really small, and the fried goods are average. This is a seafood spot, and your stomach has bigger fish to fry. Captain Melo’s offers other weekly specials and a good 50-cent oyster deal on Sunday. I recommend taking advantage of the specials, but if you’re craving seafood another evening of the week, feast on large-scale boiled plates with potatoes, sausage and a variety of seafood like clams, oysters, mussels, crabs and more.

After all that crab and all those margs, we wanted to finished off with a sweet creamy Key lime pie. Dessert is not an option right now at Captain Melo’s, so factor that into your dinner plans. Pro tip: CamiCakes Cupcakes is just around the corner.

You may feel a little like Thor, demanding round after round. I applaud your efforts. You probably won’t feel like you got enough out of the evening unless you leave with a few small cuts from the honorable blue crab shell, anyway. Any good warrior should expect some battle scars. Wear them proudly. The strong win at Captain Melo’s, and I believe in you. Here’s to your next round!