Yet crab retains its mystique. It’s beloved for its delicately flavored, finely textured meat—and for its fatty, rich roe and tomalley, culinary categories unto themselves. Now large, live specimens from the far corners of the world, like snow crab from Japan and red king crab from Norway, are this season’s luxury signifiers.
The meal’s current star is male snow crab, transported from Kanaiwa, a port town in Ishikawa prefecture, to New York in two days, at a wholesale cost of as much as $675 each. Three are needed for each evening’s seating of eight people. All December seatings are sold out, but January spots are available.
Mekumi’s chef Hajime Kumabe keeps it simple to convey just how good the ingredient is: “We almost never add anything else—just a little salt as seasoning.” Among the 18 to 20 courses are kani gayu, a delicate rice porridge made only from crab, crab broth, rice and salt; mokuzugani, or Japanese mitten crab, simply grilled over binchotan charcoal; and kobako gani, a female snow crab boiled immediately after it’s caught by fishermen in Japan, trained to do it to the restaurant’s specifications. Its meat is arranged with both its internal and external roe and served in its shell.
The restaurant’s king crab might just be the crustacean for the job. It comes prepared “Mulberry Style,” to reflect the abundant Italian and Chinese flavors on Mulberry Street, running through New York’s Little Italy and Chinatown. Priced from $175 to $200 per pound, a large one could tip the scales at upwards of $2,000. It is, potentially, the most expensive item at a place that is, for many people, what luxury is all about.
