Looking for lump crab meat

[attrayant]

Having grown up in Maryland, crab meat made frequent appearances on the daily menu. Crab cakes, crab chowder, crab dip, crab pot-pies and many more.

 

How is it that I can’t find this ingredient in any supermarket in Bangkok? I’ve been to all the upscale places like Villa and Gourmet Emporium Whatever-it’s-called.

 

Seafood is a big industry here, so I’d think it would be available if not plentiful. Is there anywhere else I should be looking?

 

 

[Gulfsailor]

Check at a fish market. I regularly buy a bag 500 gram or 1kg pure meat at my local fish market. Very fresh and yummy. 

[wayned]

I have found and bought  it in plastic bags in the seafood department of Macro in Nakhon Sawan.   They have/had lump, back fin and claw meat. It needs to be cleaned thoroughly to remove the cartilage.  I have also found it in cans through Delishop online, but they are closing.  I also have found frozen soft shell crabs packaged by ARO in different sizes in the frozen food department at Makro, I had two sauteed for dinner yesterday.

 

Maybe I am just getting old but the seafood here just doesn't have the flavor that it did in the US..  I spent my summers in high school raking cherry stone clams, $5 for 1000,  on the flats in the Indian River inlet north of Bethany Beach Delaware and harvesting fresh 'peeler crabs" in the marshes.  I always carried a knife and opened the clams at will when clamming.  The seafood here just doesn't have that "salty sea" taste as it did in the US.  I've bought oysters in the shell directly off the boats in Koh Samui, and, yes, they were good and plump but just didn't have any flavor.  Sorry I got off track maybe it just my wore out taste buds.

[FritsSikkink]

8 minutes ago, wayned said:

I have found and bought  it in plastic bags in the seafood department of Macro in Nakhon Sawan.   They have/had lump, back fin and claw meat. It needs to be cleaned thoroughly to remove the cartilage.  I have also found it in cans through Delishop online, but they are closing.  I also have found frozen soft shell crabs packaged by ARO in different sizes in the frozen food department at Makro, I had two sauteed for dinner yesterday.

 

Maybe I am just getting old but the seafood here just doesn't have the flavor that it did in the US..  I spent my summers in high school raking cherry stone clams, $5 for 1000,  on the flats in the Indian River inlet north of Bethany Beach Delaware and harvesting fresh 'peeler crabs" in the marshes.  I always carried a knife and opened the clams at will when clamming.  The seafood here just doesn't have that "salty sea" taste as it did in the US.  I've bought oysters in the shell directly off the boats in Koh Samui, and, yes, they were good and plump but just didn't have any flavor.  Sorry I got off track maybe it just my wore out taste buds.

Maybe you bought it at the wrong places.

[wayned]

8 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Maybe you bought it at the wrong places.

What are the "right" places in tour opinion?

[FritsSikkink]

7 minutes ago, wayned said:

What are the "right" places in tour opinion?

Don Sak, Surat Thani, where they catch it locally. Buying it at the Macro loads of  miles from the sea won't get you fresh produce.   

[wayned]

51 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Don Sak, Surat Thani, where they catch it locally. Buying it at the Macro loads of  miles from the sea won't get you fresh produce.   

You obviously didn't read my original post completely!  I lived in Koh Samui from 1997 to 2004 and bought all of my fresh seafood at the seafood market at the small town between Chaweng and Lamai.  You got there early and waited for the boats with the fresh seafood to arrive.  I now live in Nakhon Sawan province and buy fresh seafood form the Wednesday walking market.  Fresh shrimp from the shrimp farms over near Supanburi and other still live fish, catfish and tilapia that come from local fish farms and are still alive and flapping until the vendor cracks then on the head with a mallet. The quality anf freshness of the seafood is okay, but I will say again: The seafood here just doesn't have that "salty sea" taste as it did in the US. 

[Oxx]

TOPS sells pots of pasteurised crab meat, including "jumbo" lump.  Better than frozen.

[FritsSikkink]

7 hours ago, wayned said:

You obviously didn't read my original post completely!  I lived in Koh Samui from 1997 to 2004 and bought all of my fresh seafood at the seafood market at the small town between Chaweng and Lamai.  You got there early and waited for the boats with the fresh seafood to arrive.  I now live in Nakhon Sawan province and buy fresh seafood form the Wednesday walking market.  Fresh shrimp from the shrimp farms over near Supanburi and other still live fish, catfish and tilapia that come from local fish farms and are still alive and flapping until the vendor cracks then on the head with a mallet. The quality anf freshness of the seafood is okay, but I will say again: The seafood here just doesn't have that "salty sea" taste as it did in the US. 

Because the shrimp farms aren't in the sea.

[KittenKong]

15 hours ago, wayned said:

Maybe I am just getting old but the seafood here just doesn't have the flavor that it did in the US.

No, it doesnt. Why? Because the water around much of the US is cold and here it's warm. If you want flavour you want seafood that has grown slowly in cold water. So the waters around northern Europe are also fine for seafood.

[kjun12]

On 10/28/2018 at 2:41 AM, FritsSikkink said:

Maybe you bought it at the wrong places.

NO.  I think he is 100% correct.  Thai seafood including shrimp and crab do not have the taste of US seafood.

[melvinmelvin]

51 minutes ago, kjun12 said:

NO.  I think he is 100% correct.  Thai seafood including shrimp and crab do not have the taste of US seafood.

agree,

I am kinda disappointed re the taste of seafood here (when I compare to back home).

 

[melvinmelvin]

On 10/28/2018 at 12:22 PM, KittenKong said:

No, it doesnt. Why? Because the water around much of the US is cold and here it's warm. If you want flavour you want seafood that has grown slowly in cold water. So the waters around northern Europe are also fine for seafood.

maybe so, so fish here is kinda broiler fish because of the warm water?

 

Anyway, I have tasted better shrimps than the ones I buy here.

Also, when buying shrimp dishes in restaurants I am surprised by the rather tame taste.

 

Where I come from (southern Norway) all shrimps sold "fresh" are trawled in the sea, no farms.

Normally you cannot buy raw fresh shrimps as here, if you want that you need to make a deal with a boat.

Now,

the shrimps are cooked on board the fish trawlers, boiled in ocean water with plenty of sea salt added.

Taste is just fine.

Here the shrimps are boiled in fresh water with no salt added -- > tame taste.

 

 

[KittenKong]

^^^ Fish, shrimp, crab: the cause is the same as far as I know. If you are from Norway you will know what cod is like: masses of flavour and solid texture. That's the slow growth in cold water again.