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After spending most of my life as a Midwesterner, I was never really into seafood, especially the sort of seafood that required dissection to consume. I remember walking by the lobster tank at Meijer when I was a little girl and thinking the moving crustaceans might make a nice pet.

The past few years I have been more adventurous when it comes the fruits of the sea. I love scallops, oysters and mussels. So when I drove by the Maine Avenue Fish Market on my way to the DMV back in November my curiosity was piqued. Yesterday, I made my first visit to the over 200-year-old open air seafood extravaganza under Interstate 395.

The scene at the market is a little overwhelming because of the wealth of vendors to purchase from and the aggressive selling style of the men and women working the barges. Since this was also practically my first time buying seafood to cook at home unless you count the Whole Foods shrimp ring, I decided to cruise around the veritable seafood mall to see what was being offered and for how much.

A little research on crabs before leaving on this adventure produced the information that female crabs have sweeter meat than male crabs and that a dozen, depending on size, can cost anywhere from $10-$60. However, this research ended up being supplementary to the wisdom of the vendors and market-goers who happily haggled and offered up advice for buying and cooking.

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After pricing out a dozen medium female crabs at Jesse Taylor’s, Pruitt’s and Captain White’s, I was able to strike a deal at Captain White’s and bought 14 crabs and a bag of seasoning for $14.

Also at Captain White’s I sampled steamed shrimp, seafood bisque and ordered a delicious Styrofoam container filled with fried shrimp, oysters and hush puppies. Venturing onto the covered dock with tall lunch counters was one of the more eventful aspects of the visit as the gulls and other birds flocked a little too close for comfort, waiting for a piece of shrimp to drop on the table or floor.

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All-in, two hours spent at the market yielded a belly full of fried, a bag of crabs, a jar of oysters and some scallops to take home for a Saturday night seafood feast.

I dissected no less than six crabs last night and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

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