Gourmets take bait for prized crabs | Food and Entertaining

Peter Hardwick | 1st December 2008

Berny's Herries Street Fish Bar in Toowoomba has received its first shipment of Red King and Alaskan Snow Crab, made famous by the Discovery Channel's Emmy-nominated series.

FOR local fans of the hit television series World's Deadliest Catch, the wait is over.

Berny's Herries Street Fish Bar in Toowoomba has received its first shipment of Red King and Alaskan Snow Crab, made famous by the Discovery Channel's Emmy-nominated series.

“We got 130 kilograms and 20kg has already sold on the first day ... and word isn't even out yet that they're here,” Berny's Herries Street Fish Bar proprietor Glen Barrett said.

“I was told they were better than mud crab and it certainly has a sweeter taste.”

At $59.99kg for Red King Crab meat and $45.99kg for the Alaskan Snow Crab meat, they are certainly a little more expensive than your average muddy, but if early indications are anything to go by, the exotic catch will certainly be popular.

The World's Deadliest Catch series follows the skippers and crews of eight crab-fishing trawlers who risk their lives in retrieving the prized catch from the depths of the treacherous Bering Sea off Alaska.

Mr Barrett was one of the first seafood proprietors in Queensland to be offered the crabs which are imported from ports on the Bering Sea coastline and sold through a Brisbane fish market.

After a story in The Chronicle last month alerting readers to the crabs pending arrival in Toowoomba, Mr Barrett had a huge number of inquiries from across south-west Queensland.

“We had people from Charleville ringing us after the story went in the paper,” he said.

“And we've got some rail orders going out west to St George and Dirranbandi and other parts.”

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