A CRUSTACEAN ADVENTURE
Afew months back after I had my espresso fix at Frog Caffee on Torres Street in Davao City, I noticed this restaurant called RD Crabshack behind this whole compound of dining places. My curious mind kept flashing the restaurant image until it was time to go back for my monthly visits to our CACS school there. It seemed very celestine that I was to have dinner with Dianne Luceñara and her husband, Jedi.
Dianne is very well known among Davao and visitor foodies because she started the successful Facebook and Instagram blog called Davao Food Guide. Coincidentally, the two took me and Chef Francis Roman to RD Crabshack.
RD Crabshack is one good example of a farm-to-table restaurant. This is owned and operated by June and Boyet Katigbak who also own fishponds in Pagadian where the crabs and shrimps are grown. The couple guarantees every crab served in the restaurant are good. The thin or lightweight crabs are sent back to their farms to be fattened and harvested on another day to be offered at the restaurant again. The menu is massive and has myriad styles of cooking the crab, shrimps, and prawns. Seasonal specials are announced on their blackboards such as what we had for starters which is the large-sized baked mussels with cheese and cream. Starter number two was a pomelo and shrimp salad. Though many restaurants in Davao seem to put this salad in their menu, I would say that the simple presence of fresh, silky, and firm shrimps coupled by sweet pomelos in Davao make this one of the dishes recommendable in this restaurant. Another would be the shrimp kinilaw that would be very Pagadian. This in Davao would be a novelty itself because Davaoeños like tuna or malasugue kinilaw. June tells us that this ordered by the residents because it provides a different texture and the natural sweetness of the shrimp is balanced by the vinegar and calamansi juice. Small prawns are well ordered mainly steamed in garlic or their version of cereal prawns. Being a classicist when it comes to seafood, the steamed with garlic ought to be enough so that would not mask any flavors and the freshness of the prawns.
The crabs arrived on our table and one immediately sees that these are choice with their size. In our foodie tradition, Dianne and Jedi ordered three platters of crabs namely steamed with garlic, chili crab, and Arthur’s Style. The sizes for the crabs were ideal for picking through the thick, moist meat, and full pincers. The chili crab of course, had to be savored and by sipping and sucking the spicy coating. The Arthur’s Style seems to be a delicate sauce of coconut milk and turmeric. I might have preferred stronger and defined flavors if done in this manner. Nevertheless, the crabmeat interiors were pristine and marvelously meaty. At the end, we had the crab rice and though full packed to the brim I just had to pack in a few spoonfuls because of the rice that was amazingly studded with bits of orange red crab fat. It surely would be great to repeat a feast like this and definitely this one is going to be part of my Davao City List.
As I end this crustacean adventure, I could hear the late crab claw cracking exposing the luscious, moist, and juicy flesh!