Crab or krab? I love it! Crab dip, crab salad, Crab croquettes know as deviled crabs in Tampa. They are fat torpedo shaped breaded spicy crab rolls, topped with hot sauce , crab with garlic butter or lemon butter, crab stuffed into big ole mushrooms... Crab and chilau (Chill-ow) whole crab and crab meat cooked in a spaghetti/enchilada sauce. Eaten on spaghetti outside on a newspaper covered table or at the beach so you can jump in the water to wash off! It's a Tampa fusion dish from the early 1900's. The crab dish comes with nut crackers to break open the shell and I dare you not to drip sauce all over yourself!
Like the Cuban sandwich the deviled crabs and crab 'n' chilau they are all Florida inventions . The last two to bolster the blue crab industry when the economy was so bad bad in the early 1900's. Anyone could (and still can) go to the gulf or bay and catch blue crab.
Then vendors would go up and down streets selling the Deviled crabs for 5 or 10 cents each.
Sorry I digress..a lot!
Like the Cuban sandwich the deviled crabs and crab 'n' chilau they are all Florida inventions . The last two to bolster the blue crab industry when the economy was so bad bad in the early 1900's. Anyone could (and still can) go to the gulf or bay and catch blue crab.
Then vendors would go up and down streets selling the Deviled crabs for 5 or 10 cents each.
Sorry I digress..a lot!
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