A couple of days ago, I met up with a dear friend of mine and we decided to have lunch at Dome Cafe. I ordered my favorite Spicy Olio Pasta, and recommended my other favorite pasta, the Creamy Seafood Pasta to my friend.


We chatted and laughed, and soon our food arrived. We dug in our plates like hungry piranhas - or at least I did. My friend makan dengan penuh sopan-santun!


Halfway through our meals, I saw my friend "digging" something out of the mussel...





and she took out a baby crab! I was like, whoa!! How did it get in there?



It was almost like the mussel was pregnant with a baby crab - which of course didn't make any sense. I was jakun for a minute. I have never seen a crab that small! And especially one that came out of a mussel!


At first I thought the mussel must have eaten the crab, which is why it was found in its stomach (or whatever it is called). The poor baby crab! But it turned out that the crab actually "lives" inside the mussel and gets food, oxygen, "shelter" and everything from the mussel. It's a parasite! (I googled that). And no, it's not a baby crab. It's called a 'Pea Crab' because of the obvious reason: it's just the size of a pea.


So maybe that explains why some mussels taste a bit weird and slightly crunchy.
Must be the pea crabs! Eww.

Labels: Food and Recipes