Why Crab Is the Most Luxurious Thing to Eat in Winter

There is no elegant way to eat crab straight from the shell.

I quickly realize this during a recent dinner at Muku, the new Tribeca 10-seat counter specializing in kaiseki—a traditional Japanese multicourse meal emphasizing seasonal ingredients, delicate flavors, and artful presentation. The restaurant—which was awarded one Michelin star just two months after opening in September, believed to be the fastest star in the city’s history—presented over two weeks in November a special menu devoted to Japan’s most beloved premium winter specialty: crab, or kani.

As we take our seats, the unsuspecting guest of honor is already center stage. Fresh off a long flight that morning from Japan, she’s brownish red, glistening, and slightly squirming 10 gangly limbs. Chef Asanuma quickly dispatches the snow crab, deftly sectioning the legs and body with a few soft, swift crunches of a long blade. A small ceramic countertop stove fills the room with the cozy scent of campfire, and we’re soon presented with two charcoal-grilled sections of crab legs alongside a crab-liver sauce the color of pistachios. I briefly attempt to extract the tender meat politely with chopsticks and a small wooden spoon but soon abandon the supplied implements altogether in favor of my fingers; glancing around, most other diners have already done the same.

When it comes to eating crab, I’m a completist, and I have relished fresh winter crab since the crack of my first claw. I have fond memories of my father bundling me up for predawn crabbing off piers in the San Francisco Bay. Dungeness crabs often occupied pride of place alongside (and sometimes instead of) a roast at my family’s Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and it’s the only treat I crave for my December birthday. I’ll never forget the gratification of my grandmother inspecting an intricate body segment and deeming my work “good.” My partner jokes that crab is the only food I’m willing to put in real effort for, and he’s not wrong: Aside from crustaceans, I have little patience for eating with my hands. (My regrets to chicken wings, ribs, and corn on the cob.) As a child, elders noted that my skinny digits were ideal for piano playing; I think they’re perfect for picking crab.