TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Activities of stripping out prawns, lobsters and crabs starts at five every morning in The Holy Crab restaurant. The restaurant is located on Jalan Gunawarman No. 55, South Jakarta. As the name implies, they serve seafood only, especially crabs.
Many kinds of boiled seafood are arranged on the table, complete with the crab mallet. This is a typical way of serving seafood in Lousiana, United States, which is adopted by the restaurant.
The ambiance of Lousiana will caught the attention of visitors when they entered the 150-person capacity restaurant. Blues music is played in welcoming the guests.
Blues and jazz music has a close historical relationship to New Orleans, the biggest city in Lousiana. The walls are decorated with pictures of sea urchins like clam, shell, scallops and starfish. The shells can also be found on the corner of the bathrooms.
On the left side, the wall is painted in red and having a texture like a container wall. There are wooden chairs and tables on this side.
To ‘conquer’ the American crabs and lobster, visitors have to pay a more expensive price. One Dungeness crab from North America weighed about 700 grams can be priced at Rp1.2 million. The price is equal to the total price for Canadian lobsters, king crab claws and snow crab claws. All are written as seasonal price.
“Because we are importing, the price cannot be fixed,” said Reza Prayudi, the chef of The Holy Crab.
The authenticity of Louisiana dishes are preserved despite of using the local ingredients. The restaurant serves Cajun sauce as the mainstay. Cajun is Louisiana’s typical sauce.
“Cajun sauce can be combined in three different spiciness levels,” said Reza.
In addition to Cajun, guests are offered the option of garlic pepper sauce. I decided to take this sauce for 700-gram Papuan crabs (Rp319,000) and 500-gram fresh water lobster (Rp200,000).
Before the ‘battle’ with the sea creatures was started, the waitress had prepared the white paper mat. When asked, I opted to have the sauce separated from the dish so that I can adjust it to my taste.
Once the prawns and crabs arrived, the business was started. The hottest level of Cajun sauce was poured into the crab and the garlic pepper sauce for the lobster. And don’t forget to sprinkle the citrus juice on them. By using the tweezers, I crushed the crab piece by piece.
The meat was chewy and delicate. However, the effort to extract those meats was rather exhausting. There were not many meats under the hard skin crabs but the Cajun sauce and the flavor of spices enhance the savory meats.
The sweet fresh water lobster captivated me until the last chew. The meat was abundant and the garlic pepper sauce just caught my tongue.
To make the feast more rich, I ordered variety of side dishes: seafood chowder (Rp35,000), Cajun Fries (Rp25,000), and crispy Soft Shell (Rp65,000).
The thick chowder soup plus the diced seafood deserves the praise. The cream successfully blends the seafood without making it taste too much. It also suitable as the companion for the Cajun’s fried potatoes.
Last but not least, the soka or soft shell crab fried with flour was easy to chew and swallow. My battle with crabs ended with a glass of iced tea (Rp25,000). The iced tea eased my tongue and it was a good choice since The Holy Crab provides free flow iced tea.
DIANING SARI
