For my last appearance on Valley Dish, I asked the host, Tram Mai, what she would like to make.  After some 15 cooking appearances, it was the first time to make something of her choice instead of my choice or a specific themed assignment.  Tram requested a dish she had back in her college years in Los Angels at a restaurant called Crustacean.  After much online research, I compiled several people’s take on the roasted crab and came up with my own rendition.

The roasted crab is outstanding, but I think the real star of the dish is the garlic noodles.  The key is to find thick spaghetti, also known as spaghettoni or bucatini.  I found them at Whole Foods and in the Italian specialty aisle at the “big fancy” Fry’s on Tatum and Shea.

As for the crab, although the version we made on the live show used Dungeness crab, I’ve also tried with the pasteurized canned crab found at Costco and it tasted exactly the same… plus it’s more economical and so much easier!

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