Travel Pro Eats #12: Congrejal at Rasaca's Bar and Restaurant in Guayaquil Ecuador!
I hope that if anyone reads this from Guayaquil they do not take offense as the Congrejal is loved and enjoyed by many in this Ecuadorian city on the coast. However I must say this was a major disappointment. A Congrejal basically means crab feast in English. In Guayaquil they fish these crabs out of the Guayas River and are eaten at "Congrajal" restaurants speckled all over the city.
So I figured I'd go to one of the nicest restaurants along the river and get the all you can eat crab dinner for twenty dollars. Keep in mind you can buy lunch everyday for a week with the same twenty dollar bill in this country so it's a splurge here in Ecuador. There for I arrived with an appetite and ready get to work on some crabs.
Back home in the states I can make pretty quick work out of snow crab, which is a decent size and with some time you can eat a bunch of them and fill up. King crab is my favorite. They are huge and offer a lot of meat with little effort opening them. However they are very expensive.
Well, here in Guayaquil it's the worst deal in the world of crabs. You have to spend a lot of time opening them and you get very little reward. The meat tastes good but the crabs are very small compared to snow crab. The legs are so tiny they are basically now even worth dealing with. The claws however offer some decent meat. But you can't just eat the claws and throw the rest away. They may kick you out of the restaurant for doing that, and besides it's just kind of sad for the thing to have to die then you throw away eighty percent of it.
So I found myself at this restaurant for almost two and half hours picking though about twenty crabs total. After all that I time I left hungry! They offered me rice and potatoes to fill me up, but I didn't come there for an all you can eat potato buffet. I ate some anyway because I was hungry. I spent so much time trying to get meat out of these puny little crabs with such little reward that in the end all I got was a lot of frustration, filthy hands, poor photos for this post, and twenty dollars lighter.
Anyone going to Guayaquil I'd recommend skipping out on the famous "Congrejal" the crabs are just too unrewarding and not nearly worth the effort to get the meat out. Being a foodie and loving crab I generally have no problem putting a little work in for a good morsel of crab meat but this was ridiculous, I could have eaten them all day and not have filled up.
Besides that, they don't even offer you melted butter or anything good to dip them in! Just some lime juice with lettuce and red onion mixed into it. Unfortunately two big thumbs down for the Guayaquil "Congrejal". Until next time- Dan "World Travel Pro!"
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Thanks for all the info to not takein the crab fest @world-travel-pro ! I do like crab but like you i find it hard to get the meat , even from king crab ! I much prefer lobster if im going to have shell fish . at least they gave you a mallet haha ! upped and resteemed to share with my foodie followers im my @momskitchen blog , though i have not been on here much . Thanks for sharing !✌👍😀😋
Thanks Karen. Take good care of yourself :)
Gread post Dear @world-travel-pro
wonderful photograpy..
I like It...
definitely very tasty and tasty
crab soup .. nyamiee.... !!
I probably would have stood up and left after 3-4 crabs that I couldn't open, so good job for sticking to it. Were there any locals in the restaurant? They'd probably know if it's not worth going.
I hope other meals in Guayaquil are better than this one!
Yes there many locals and none of there were eating crab!
Thanks for introduce us an exceptional food.It is obviously a delicious food.It is also beneficial for our health.
It increases our nutritional power.So that we can safe our body from undernutrition.
Thanks, @world-travel-pro for sharing.
I will wait for your upcoming post.
@Resteem & follow has done.
Thank you!
Oh my, you left hungry after two and a half hours, that was so irritating. Some of the local people might had the same experience, I think they will understand and not feel offended.
The locals maybe had a meal where it was a huge place of rice and potatos and one tiny crab. Seemed like I was the only one there that was trying the "all you can eat special"
Not being an eater of crabs, those looked a decent size to me! 😁
Hilarious, though not to you at the time obviously, that you felt hungrier than when you started. Did the locals have a better technique or was it really simply because the crabs were "small"? 😊
The locals mostly were not even eating crab! They were ordering plates of food loaded with typical rice, beans, potatoes and drinking. I suppose they knew better not to waste their time or money! Google King crab and snow crab, you will the a huge difference in size. This crab had a fat body, but it's the legs you want and they were tiny. I should have known better.
That's hilarious - that the locals weren't bothering with it. 😊
this restaurant is very simple and clean suitable for eating rame rame and this food is delicious, I was carried away hungry by looking at this photo :)
it would taste so good
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