Alimango (Mud Crab)

Seafoods are very abundant here in Mindanao and has been compared to be way cheaper than other areas of the Philippines. My favorite seafood is Alimango or Mud Crab (Scylla serrata). Cagayan de Oro Wet Market's prices of mud crabs range from 60-200 pesos depending on their size. In mall supermarkets it usually costs about 250-400 sometimes even more during special occasions like Christmas, New Year, even Graduation.

Mud Crabs have much thicker shells than the blue or orange shelled crabs that we call here Lambay - that seems to have more delicate meat than the Alimango's. Alimango's can be prepared steamed with lots of seasoning, cooked with chili and tomatoes, stir-fried with garlic and oil, or steamed with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and wine, etc. We use the latter way of cooking alimango. Here's a photo of cooked Alimango that costed 150 pesos and had about 3 big sized pieces cooked with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and wine.

The best part is when its female, fat, and heavy - usually has a red/orange fat addition inside we locally call Alege - my favorite part and the reason why female crabs are expensive and have much higher cholesterol content. Crab gender is identified by flipping over the crab and checking the underside triangular shape - "apron", flowery shape and wide angled are female crabs with eggs, pointed triangular shape is male, and triangular and a bit flowery sides is gay. Yep you read right, there are gay crabs too :) Happy crab hunting and eating in CDO :)