Battle: Crab

I'm still a relative Seattle newbie, and before last week I was a crab virgin. Sure, I'd had lump crab meat in all its snooze-inducing reincarnations, but I'd never actually had Dungeness crab, and I'd never experienced the pleasure of tearing into a big ol' crustacean leg.

So when I was invited to a media dinner for The Waterfront Seafood Grill's upcoming "Cult of the Crab" promotion, I jumped at the opportunity. Here's the idea: for the months of March and April, the Waterfront's chefs will be flexing their culinary muscles by making any and all - and I mean all - things crab. Crab mac and cheese, crab chow fun, you name it.

After reading about crab tempura and crab vol-au-vent on the menu (and hearing mutterings about crab for dessert), I was a little surprised not to hear Mark Dacascos's voice ushering us in to Kitchen Stadium. Mark didn't show, but Challenger Steve Cain filled us with every possible incarnation of the not-so-secret ingredient from start to finish.

The menu will change frequently over the next two months. Be sure to check out the Crab Bloody Mary, if you want some wow factor and have $30 to spend on a drink that could double as dinner. It's your usual Bloody, pumped with tobiko (in the liquid) bubble tea-style and speared not with celery, but an 8" leg of crab. This is not an occasion to introduce crab to anyone shy about seafood.

My favorite, besides the unbeatable experience of loading my plate with a Barents Sea crab leg the size of a medium female forearm, was the dessert. Yes, that's right, crab for dessert. In the final minutes before the buzzer, Cain plated up a feathery goat cheese flan, topped it with a crab and Bartlett pear salad, and drizzled the whole shebang with a textbook-perfect vanilla bean beurre blanc ($12). Big points for originality.

WATERFRONT SEAFOOD GRILL 

2801 Alaskan Way, Pier 70, Seattle

(206) 956-9171

Open Mon. - Thurs., 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. (bar open until midnight)

Fri. - Sat., 5 p.m. - 11 p.m. (bar open until 2 a.m.)