While lunching at the Kashi restaurant in Annangrove a couple of weeks back, I overheard an interesting conversation between a patron and the owner. The patron, obviously a sea food lover, ordered his choice of crab, and then beckoning the owner with a somewhat embarrassed look, asked, "If you don't mind my asking, how do you kill the crab?"
The owner, quite generous in sharing his knowledge on the subject, nonchalantly replied, "We freeze them. Earlier, people used to put them in hot water, but that's not legal anymore. So we just get the crabs, and put them in the freezer. They die, and then we take them out and do the rest of the cooking."
The patron, his face shining with this newly gained wisdom, nodded his thanks. "Thank you so much. I bought crabs once, to cook at home. But I wasn't sure how to kill them. Now I know what to do."
What happened to those lucky crabs, I wonder. Are they out there somewhere crawling along, blissfully unaware of their good fortune, which postponed the inevitable?
The interesting point in all this is the notion that there is a more humane way to kill. Who decides that freezing a living being to death is a gentler way of killing than dunking it in piping hot water? I mean, you are killing the poor thing, anyway, so why the token show of consideration for the creature's feelings? "Sorry, old boy, you gotta go, because I would like to eat you. But don't worry, I will kill you in a way that doesn't hurt too bad."
It must comfort the crabs to know that we do actually care for them.
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