The Boiling Crab

Its been quite a hectic week this week. Which is why I haven't cooked anything new. Aside from not being home due to a few birthday celebrations we attended this weekend, we literally haven't slept in our house for a few days. You see, we were out of water for a few days due to a plumbing problem. So we stayed over my parents' house for 3 nights. Long story short, we ended up having to re-pipe the whole house due to the plumbing leak. What a nightmare that was. Unexpected expense, and unexpected trashing of our house. Hubby had to pull everything out of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets to make room for the plumber to open up holes all over the house. After all was said and done, all we have left are unfinished walls to paint (the plumbers patched up the walls, but didn't paint), a mess of things to put back in the cabinets, and an empty wallet :(

Our spirit is still up, however, and we're now trying to look past this whole ordeal, because for one, hubby has some major reviewing to do for his upcoming board certification exam. So to help lift our spirits, we decided to help celebrate 2 birthdays this weekend. A surprise birthday party for one of my cousins held at one of my aunt's house. And afterwards, we headed to Koreatown in the Mid-City of Los Angeles for an 18th birthday celebration for one of our nephews at the Boiling Crab.

This restaurant has been popping up all over the San Gabriel Valley and Orange County. Its a Louisiana style seafood restaurant where you eat all the seafood the natural way - using your hands without utensils including a plate. You use your table as a plate. Sounded fun. So I've been dying to give them a try and was excited to hear that they opened one up closer to our area and that we were invited to eat dinner there for our nephew's birthday.

Knowing that we had a large party, I should've also known that the wait for us would be super-duper long. My brother had previously warned me that the wait for this restaurant is pretty long. 45 minutes, maybe? But a 45 minute wait is pretty standard in many restaurants nowadays. So it didn't bother me. After 45 minutes, then an hour had past, we still weren't seated. It was cold, and we were getting hungry, and other parties were being seated before us. My daughter had to go to the bathroom and even that had a long wait, because, guess what, they only had one stall. As busy as this restaurant was, and that everything was eaten with your hands (ie; peeling shrimps and crabs), you'd think they'd have more restrooms if they're choosing to provide restrooms for their customers so they can wash their hands. Almost everyone coming out of the restrooms were there only to wash their hands. Maybe they can add handwashing stations instead for those patrons and leave the restrooms for those who really need to use the bathroom. Just a suggestion.

When we were finally seated (after an hour and a half-long wait), we were greeted by this:

We left it to my brother-in-law to do the ordering. While waiting, my daughter had to go to the bathroom yet again. And because the wait was so long, the food had started to arrive. We started with the fried catfish with a side of fries and tartar sauce, which was quite yummy.

And of course, we can't go anywhere without having calamari. Unfortunately, this was what was left when we got back from the restrooms. But that, too, was really good, with a little kick to it.

And finally, for the main course, we had the shrimps, flavored with "the whole shabang," but mild. Although I thought it was still a little spicy. Apparently it wasn't as spicy as what the restaurant considers "medium" that the other side of our table had. The shrimps were served in a plastic bag, that included some corn that we ordered.

Despite our long wait, the food was quite good. Messy, but good. My daughter was even wondering why we got to eat messily with our hands and no plates. It was a pretty good experience overall. But I don't know if it was worth the hour-and-a-half wait though.

We left our with our stomachs full and our tables looking like this: