Old thread — Best to eat: abalone, lobster or Dungeness crab? Would the results be different today?

Ken Jones

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#1
Posted by Ken Jones on July 16, 2007

Which is best to eat—abalone, lobster, or Dungeness?

Posted by pinfish

Dungeness, I think it has the most flavor without adding stuff to it

Posted by Sharkman20

Abalone…lightly breaded and quick fried in garlic butter. MMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Posted by SturgeonSlayer23

Dungeness then lobster…I find Dungee more of a hungry mans’ food. Lobster seems like you have to savor the flavor too much, although it’s great when you have time. Haven't tried Abalone yet, but I'm sure its good with garlic butter, like most foods. -SS23.

Posted by Raidersfan1

Dungeness for sure although bugs are good at Benihanas

Posted by JEZ

Dungeness tops, lobster 2nd, clams/mussels over abs.

Posted by Skunken Q

Raw abalone by far.

Posted by Ken Jones

Raw?

Posted by Skunken Q

Sashimi abalone

Posted by illcatchanything

Lobster

Posted by catfished

1 Abs, 2 Bugs, 3 red rock crabs

Posted by orkspace

Abs, all the way.

Posted by FakeFisherman

Dungies

Posted by Matty

I love lobster, but it's way overrated.

Posted by la mosca

Abalone in Mexican Cocktail (Coctel)

Posted by Danthefisherman

Dungeness by far. Lobster cost too much...Abs aren’t worth the diving accidents...and Dungeness just taste better.

Posted by dompfa ben

Crabs and Abs, no contest. Crabs and Abalone are the only two in this survey that are worth eating. Our local lobsters taste gross—like wet newspaper, and I heard recently, that eating spiny lobster is a leading cause of baldness and impotence. Best to just throw those lobsters back if you catch them incidently.

Posted by Danthefisherman

Actually there’s no point in eating those dungies that come into the SF bay to spawn...they fill up with the mercury polluted water and taste like battery acid...

Posted by Red Fish

“Actually there’s no point in eating those dungies that come into the SF bay to spawn...they fill up with the mercury polluted water and taste like battery acid”

Hmm... how do you know what the ones that come into S.F. Bay taste like Dan??? Just jk/ing....lol...

Posted by Danthefisherman

Err...someone told me?
 
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Ken Jones

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Staff member
#2
I wonder how much the results reflected the geographic area the person lived in with those in SoCal preferring lobster and those in the Bay Area preferring Dungeness? And, would the results be different today (for a variety of reasons)? Of course it also always depends upon the three most important items I mentioned in PFIC, 2nd. Ed. (the key to good versus bad fish) — properly preserving the catch, properly cleaning the catch, and properly cooking the catch.
 
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Ken Jones

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Staff member
#3
I must admit that I love all three — although I rarely have the chance to eat any today. When I lived in Boonville and taught at Anderson Valley H.S. I had some students who loved to go ab'ing but didn't like to clean or eat the abs. They would bring me their abalone. I would clean and pound the abalone before rolling it in Italian-flavored bread crumbs and cooking it in butter or butter-flavored Crisco oil. Sublime! Crab I prefer to eat simple, just the crab meat and some salad/bread, while the lobster I prefer to eat broiled with just a little melted butter. Having said that, I love crab cakes, the wonderful crab dip my wife makes for holidays, both crab and lobster Newburg, lobster thermidor, and just about any other recipes that incorporates one or the other into a meal. As said, I love all three as well as almost any other seafood.
 
#4
1) breaded and garlic butter fried abalone, 2) broiled lobster, 3) dungeness. Abs just have that perfect combo of savory and sweet but only when cooked like they do at Domenico's on Monterey Fisherman's Wharf. Lobster has a butteryness that dungeness can't match. The best dungeness I ever ate was at Giovanni's in Morro Bay. Cooking matters most for all three, as you say Ken.
 

Ken Jones

Administrator
Staff member
#5
Too bad abalone is so expensive. I rarely will pay the high price for real abalone but I do eat a lot of "poor man's abalone" — calamari.