Marabukakaw, Spotted Hard Shell Crab

marabukakaw in sinigang

In Ilocos we call this crab “marabukakaw”—a kind of hard shelled brown crab with three spots in its back. Commonly found in the rocky part of coastal in Ilocos it is called “camilo” in Batangas (as what I search online). But aside from these names, I could not get the English name except it’s a hard shelled 3 spotted crab.

Hard as may it seem with its brown shell but it’s a delicious food among Ilocanos particularly in coastal areas. It’s a rare you can find this crab in the market in our place. This is usually being sell by the fish vendor who roam around the villages.

Just like any crabs the most common for this food is sinigang. Of course it can also be cook over the heat we call “tinuno”. There are other recipes but this is the common for this crab.

Sinigang, the tamarind based soup is usually for homecook. You just need the usual ingredients which is tamarind fruit (for sour tasting), onions, young leaves of non-hot chili or kamote and of course the salt and other seasoning.

Cook as sinigang. Just like that… just add the marabukakaw or hard shells crab and serve in the table. As I have said, the shell is hard so you need some knives to crack the shell from the bottom.

The rock may be hard as rock but the taste is yummy as… well, seafood. You going to love it.###