Miami part 2-Joe's Stone Crabs

If you watch any travel food show to Miami, chances are that they will talk about Joe's Stone Crab restaurant. Stone crabs have a small body, but huge claws (to be able to crack oyster shells). The crabs are harvested by only removing one claw (so that they can still eat), which grows back the next year. They are seasonal in Florida from Oct 15-May 15 and we luckily got there the last weekend of the season last May. These crab claws are amazingly sweet and meaty, which has landed them on my favorite foods list.

We got to the restaurant around 8 PM and it was a packed house. The wait ended up being over an hour (which was ok with me since I filled the time by drinking wonderful Cosmos at the bar), which was impressive considering how large the restaurant is and the fact that it was a Tuesday night!

We started with oysters. I love oysters, but living in the Midwest means that we don't eat them except when traveling to the coasts.

Our sides were their famous hash browns (super crispy) and cole slaw (a mayo-apple cider dressing which was sweet & tangy). That dish is melted butter for the claws, but I prefer their mustard sauce that is at the left of the fork.

Two orders of select stone crab claws. Better than king crab legs or lobster! I could live on these.

And for dessert, their famous key lime pie. We aren't big dessert people, but we can't pass this pie up. Last trip, we had ordered one, but we realized that we needed another one! Really amazing.

Can't wait to go back!!!