For the 2nd time in a week, we went to Saemaesen seafood market nearby the former Saemaesen Depot which was used by the US Military during the Viet Nam war to store and issue ordinance used on the aircraft flying out of U-Tapao Airfield. Anyway, we purchased some fresh crab, squid, shrimp, shells and some rock lobster for our Bar BQ feast for 2. 2 kilo of crab, 1 kilo of squid, ½ kilo of shrimp, 1 kilo of rock lobster, and 1 kilo of shells. We stored the seafood in a cooler we brought along and the ice was provided for free. We used Old Bay seasoning and had lots of freshly made Thai seafood sauce. Here are some pictures of the before and after product. Aloy Mak.
Below: Carbs of multi variety. I stuck to the male blue crab as we don't care much for the eggs in most of the female crab. Prices depended on size. I got the medium to larger size crabs.
Below: More crab, some fish and some of the "rock lobster". All were fresh and still moving around. Well the fish wern't but they looked fresh and were kept in cold iced water.
Below: Shrimp/prawns of various variety and sizes. Again, price was based on size.
Below: Squid.
Below: More squid. and the best part about this is that they cleaned the squid for us at the same cost.
Below: After getting home and cleaning the crab and other seafood with fresh water, I prepared the crab for steaming. I prepared a 30% vinagar -70% water mixture and put it in a pot to boil. I then put a rack on the bottom which rested abouve the top otf the water. The crab were then layed on the rack with a generous sprinkling of Old Bay seasoning place on the top and bottom of each crab before placing on the rack. Then an additional sprinkling of Old Bay was placed on the top of the crab after the 2 layers of crab were onto top of the rack. The top of the pot was pot on and then steamed until the shell of the crab swere all red (approximately 7 min).
Below: and here are the squid, shrmip/prawns and shell grilling on the Bar BQ Grill.
Below: here are the crab when finished. It is important to note here that when the crap are steaming that they should not be in the water that is steaming them as that will make the crab meat soft and mushy. Also, when the crab are finished being steamed, they should be removed from the heat and left to set with the cover on for about 10 min before serving, this will the allow the meat to firm up and also keep the crab meat warm.
The shrimp and squid don't have to be grilled for too long. The shrip shell should be red and the squid should be warm throughout and be firm on the outside but not over grilled.
Below: and the dinner table with the prepared food looked something like this.
Below: top it all off with some iced cold beer and there isn't too much better than that. Aloy Mak!!!!