[I ate] the Echizen Crab

Echizen crab refers to male snow crabs caught only in specific ports of Fukui prefecture. It's widely regarded as the top of the line snow crab in all of Japan, and it comes with a hefty price tag, to boot (~10,000 yen for the set meal in the picture). The yellow tag you can just barely see peeking out from underneath the crab's body in the first picture denotes its authenticity.

In terms of flavor, it's up there with one of the best crabs I've ever had. That said, I'm no crab connoisseur, so don't stone me. Its flesh was very buttery, and its guts (also called mustard in some regions of the US) had an incredible rich flavor, stronger than any other crab I'd had. I would say its flesh is comparable to the west coast rock crabs, but less sweet and more buttery.

The restaurant/rest stop was called Kaneichi, and was one of the many stops my friends and I made along the way during our road trip up the western coast of Japan.

71-335-1 Kuriya, Echizen, Nyu District, Fukui 916-0422, Japan