From a photo-essay "narrated" by chef Eric Ripert with delicious little details about what goes on behind the scenes at the world-famous, Michelin 3-star NYC restaurant Le Bernadin:
When serving crab, it is very important to get out each tiny piece of shell that might have been left behind and that is a difficult job. To make the task easier, we inspect the crabmeat under a black light. The shells glow under this light and they are easy to pick out.
Behind the Scenes at Le Bernardin (aveceric.com, via @blam)
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Sounds like something Alton Brown would do. Brilliant!
I for one am worried about the man's hands. Isn't UV light carcinogenic?
Black light can also be used to find scorpions. (How scorpions found their way into the crab meat, I wouldn't know.)
Hmm... I wonder if it would be possible to detect a paradies with one of these lights. It would certainly be useful!
I dunno, but I think I might want to risk a bit of shell in my crab meat, rather than have someone pick through every cubic millimeter of it with their fingers. Seems a little yucky.
Yeah. Shell good. Fingerprints bad.
silly rabbits, as a 30 year vet of high end NYC restaurants, rest assured our hand are all over your food.
@annonymous #2: Depends on the type. Your basic "blacklight" may or may not be perfectly safe; but it is likely one of the safer things you'll run into at the club. UV B, not such a good idea(hence sunblock). The "hard" UV, the really short-wave stuff, that they use for disinfecting surfaces and wiping EPROMs is not to be messed with lightly.
This explains why I have never been served a black velvet Elvis painting at any of the finer seafood restaurants. I had often wondered about that.
I found out I had crabs with a blacklight
I for one, welcome this innovation. Nothing ruins a beautiful meal quicker than a skull grating crunch in a buttery soft crab cake.
Also, I expect hands to be all the hell over my food.
Would agree expect hands to touch you food, though at Le Bernadin I would expect those hands to be immaculately clean. If you don't want hands on your food I would suggest growing all of your food yourself. And if you've ever bit into an errant piece of shell, I think you would prefer the random bit's of dander that may get into your food by someone handling it.
How do you think that crab meat got out of the shell in the first place?
http://somd.com/news/headlines/2009/9843.shtml
"If we took the bones out it wouldn't be crunchy, would it?"
Mmmmm...crab and scorpion cakes. Good flavors, a little bit of crunch and just slightly stingy.
#14 Thank You!!!
This is old... on crab cleaning lines in the cannery I did this in late 70's.
The more expensive the food, the more it's been handled.
@ #1, see @ #17.
Every crab pound on the Chesapeake has been doing this almost since the invention of blacklights. It's so taken for granted, why is it news?
Unless of course, you're not from around there and don't know how crab cakes are made. In which case: cool story about quirky uses of technology!