Let The Crab Crackers Eat Cake

Last night, eight of us gathered at my pad to get our crab cracking and drink on with the venerable king of seafood (and all edibles that taste good in this world), Jon Rowley.

Crab cracking with entertaining company under the guidance of Jon Rowley

Dubbed The Fish Missionary by Julia Child, the accomplished (yet uber-modest) Rowley has a ton of write-ups on him ranging from publications such as the New York Times and Seattle Weekly.  But this Seattle Times piece from 2008 is one of my favorites.

When I told Jon back in June about my plans to raise funds (via kickstarter) and film a pilot in Japan centered around unique food, lodging, and adventure, he generously offered up his services.  As a big fan of his crab cracking classes where he walks you through his methodology for extracting the most amount of crab meat with the least amount of effort, I suggested we offer up a crab cracking class as one of the kickstarter rewards.  His annual winter oyster picnics are also one of my favorite events in Seattle.

Now I am not going to divulge all of Rowley’s tips as I want you to experience his class firsthand.  But I will tell you, Rowley doesn’t go near nutcrackers when he is looking to crack some crab.  He has developed his own crab mallet.

Thank you Jon for heading up such a fun night last night and a big thank you to last night’s fun crab cracking crew.  I really appreciate how all of you have supported Roll with Jen and constantly encourage me to keep on keepin’ on.

And the cake we had for dessert also gets its own shout-out because it was that good.  For the event, the owner of 4 Boards Back Artisan Cakes, Ruth Donohue, served up a lemon velvet cake with blackberry buttercream.   If you think you don’t like cake, try one of Ruth’s creations as one bite will soon have you bowing down to this patron saint of cakes.

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