ISO CRAB

[montrealeater]

I'm looking for good (i.e. at least lump) crab in Montreal. Picked, ready to go, and hopefully fresh. Not sure if this exists here, or if it does, when. Also willing to try canned lump crab - I've tried all of the usual standard brands and the only one that was even OK was President's Choice, but ... yeah, it was still not great. Any fishmongers or ethnic stores out there that can help me? I'm willing to try any preservation method, but fresh is obviously the ideal.

*the reason I'm asking - Olive and Gourmando are doing a crab and shrimp salad right now that is so, so damned good I have literally had one every day for the past week. It's getting expensive! I would like to try to reproduce it. If anyone has tried it, ideas on how to recreate that lemony dressing are welcome.

[RhondaB]

I know that La Mer sells good crab & may carry several varieties. They will definitely cook it for you but not sure about it picked. You can call them & ask. Same for Akins in JTM - saw cooked crab yesterday but unpicked. At one point last year Akins had lump crab for sale.

[montrealeater]

I think I am a messageboard psychic (how useless)! My inbox had no replies so I wondered if I'd missed some and came to check out the board and there was your response, posted 1 second ago. Now how to parlay these shamanic skills into cash?

Thank you for the 2 recs. I am kind of sad to hear that picked crab isn't really something that's widely available, because I love crab but am also lazy and impatient, ha. I'm going to call both La Mer and Akris and get the scoop. If not I found some canned 'jumbo lump' crab meat on Amazon that according to reviews is pretty good, so I may also try that.

Thanks, RhondaB!

[Gregoso]

Please come back and report - i too have been looking for some tasty crab!

[Simon Patrice]

I'm not 100% sure but I think Les délices de la mer/Atkins at JTM used to sell frozen crab meat. You might want to give them a call before going though.