Two weeks ago I made two different dinners from a 16 oz can of lump crab meat. One night I made a Thai style crab fried rice, and on another night I made a creamy lemony crab pasta.
I inherited this lovely can of crab from a shoot over the summer, and it’s been sitting in my fridge ever since, like a misfit toy waiting patiently to be played with. Here’s a perfectly focused and impeccably lit picture of the can.
It used to have a sticker in the top right corner that said “LUMP” but I deftly peeled that off and gave it to John to add to his laptop.
I was craving takeout the night I made the crab fried rice, but quickly scanned my brain (which is like sifting through a bin of junk at a Goodwill) and realized I had all of the ingredients to make it at home myself.
I cooked some rice and spread it out on a sheet pan to cool and dry out a bit. I chopped some ginger, galangal, and lemongrass, then scallions, cilantro, and a few thai chiles. Then I made some scrambled egg with lots of oil over scary high heat - it poofs up and cooks into this airy amazing thing (another way to describe my brain).
My mise was ready, and so was my heart.
I basically start stir-frying all of this in order of what needs to cook the most to the least - aromatics first, then scallion, then chiles, then rice, then egg, then crab, then cilantro at the end. Along the way I sprinkle in some soy sauce and fish sauce and lots of lime juice. Sadly I had no cucumber slices. Pity me!
I don’t have any fun (“fun”) process shots of the creamy lemony crab pasta, but it kind of went like any other: saute onion and garlic in lots of butter, deglaze with wine, add cream, reduce, add pasta, lemon, toss toss, add crab, salt, pepper, le fin.
I imagine loyal readers (and also literally anyone) can tell when I’m really into the process of writing one of these posts, and then when I really wanna just get it over with. 2Crab2Applications has been sitting in my drafts forever, but the other night my frenemy Jamie (of alternate meat burger/saxophoning in purple pants fame) mentioned he hadn’t seen a post in a while, and that was just the kick in the pants I needed to procrastinate this one for a few more days before ultimately doing the polka on my keyboard to produce whatever it was that you just read.
It started off strong, but then I got bored. So sorry to those of you who actually pay for a subscription to Laura’s Dinner. I don’t know why you do that. But if anyone else wants to, here’s the button!
This issue’s Tangible Thing is new to me, yet previously owned, and very divisive - three descriptors that each fill me with excitement.
Feast your eyes on Henri Rousseau’s portrait of French naval officer and novelist, Pierre Loti. Pretty sure Pierre is the human and not the cat, but cannot 100% confirm.
This is not the original - we bought this perfect condition replication just a few blocks away from our apartment at a thrift store called Forever Vintage II, for the negotiated price of $20. When I first pointed it out to John, he started laughing uncontrollably, and that’s when I knew we needed to own it.
Here are a few of Henri’s other paintings, all of which I like:
Pierre now hangs in our guest room, which has been desperate for decoration for a while. Good things are worth waiting for.
In a spooky coincidence, that very night John was playing Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night, and upon inspecting the cover art, it reminded me of Henri’s jungle paintings that I had seen and read about, for which he was actually most famous.
I wondered if this art might be Henri’s, too. Wikipedia, as always, delivered:
The cover art for the album is a painting by Australian artist Brett-Livingstone Strong that was hanging in Buckingham's home. The painting is an homage to the 19th-century French painter Henri Rousseau, emulating his colourful jungle theme works such as The Snake Charmer and The Repast of the Lion.
To say “goosebumps!” would be an understatement. I don’t know what to make of this insane occurrence, other than the fact that my destiny seems to be prewritten by the merchants at a Bushwick thrift store.