Where to eat whole king crab in Punta Arenas
What to ask, what to tell apart and what to expect before ordering a whole king crab in the capital of Magallanes.
Sea
Strait of Magellan, channels and fjords: crustaceans, molluscs and austral fishing.
Guides and answers
King crab or false king crab: telling them apart before you pay
Two different species, two different prices, and a confusion one question resolves.
Seafood available by season
What depends on closed seasons, what depends on the sanitation programme, and what depends only on the weather.
What king crab costs, and why
The five things that set the price, and the only published price we could actually verify.
Centolla, crab or king crab: what you are ordering
Three names for one animal, and a confusion that spans two languages and two hemispheres.
King crab in Punta Arenas or Ushuaia: it is the same animal
The species does not change at the border. The rule changes, the season changes, and who caught it changes.
The collusion case over buying Magallanes king crab
Seven companies, eight executives and conduct charged between 2012 and 2021, before Chile’s Competition Tribunal. No ruling.
Why king crab goes to China, and what that means for the local table
Seven buyers take almost everything and export it. That is where the two things felt in the city come from: that there is barely anywhere to buy it, and that it is expensive.
How to buy legal king crab, and why the informal one is cheaper
What the authority requires, what to ask for, and what you are really buying when the price does not add up.
Why legal king crab cannot cost what the illegal one costs
A formal venue buys squeezed from above and sells squeezed from below. The gap is structural, and it is worth knowing what it is made of.
Products
Magellanic king crab
The crustacean that defines the Magallanes table. Trapped in the cold waters of the strait and the channels.
Scallop
A sweet, firm-fleshed mollusc, served raw, grilled or barely seared.
Sea urchin
A dived, intense, seasonal product. Eaten raw, almost always untouched.
Blue mussel
Southern Chilean mussel, the base of broths, rice dishes and preserves.
Clam
A soft-bottom mollusc with a mineral flavour, present in broths and steamed dishes.
Oyster
A farmed product, served raw. In Magallanes its presence depends on supply from other regions.
Austral fish (salmon, robalo, southern hake)
A group of cold-water fish on the regional table, of mixed origin: wild-caught and farmed.