Dried Crabs and Pickled Garlic

Japanese crab bag
These are some snacks that Dave and Kanari bought back from Japan for us. They are some kind of glazed dried crabs with sesame seeds stuck all over. They are incredibly fishy, slightly sweet and surprisingly moreish. Inside the crabs, it is quite powdery and a little like fish meal. The crabs look as though they have just been dried out without opening them up so I guess they are pure, unadulterated crab.

We were in the Market Porter at Borough Market when Dave gave us his crabs. There were a few unsuspecting victims in the bar that we persueded to try these fishy-little buggers. The porky guy in the green rugby short was one of these poor sods. The look on his face is nothing to do with him crunching up a dried crab, he looked like that before. The dried crabs did go very well with the pints of beer we were all drinking.

A dried Japanese crab
Porky fellow eating a dried crab
More dried crabs

A sachet containing a pickled garlic
An inocent bystander
Dave and Kanari also brought back some pickled garlic cloves for Fran. We tucked into these in the pub too. The scared looking guy is John and he is holding the bag of pickled garlic. They come individually wrapped in little packets to keep their vinegary freshness in. They are sweater than you would imagine but they are also quite sour and midly garlicy too. Unfortunately, I cannot suggest anywhere you could buy these without a trip to Japan although China town is always a possibility. We get our wasabe there… Mmmm… Wasabe…

A pickled garlic