Unbelievably Fresh Dungeness Crab in Eugene

We have been in Eugene, Oregon for six weeks and it has rained almost everyday. The gloomy grey, rainy weather has meant we have spent the majority of our time indoors and not done a lot of sightseeing, but it was all worth it as Oregon Dungeness Crab season is here!!! We had no idea until I saw a Facebook event for dungeness crab. Unfortunately that event sold out but I had seafood on my mind and had to have some. I started researching Eugene seafood and found the Fisherman's Market. Don’t have time to read this now? Pin it for later!

Fisherman's Market

We headed to Fisherman's Market, which is owned and operated by an Alaskan commercial fisherman since 1989. I had two oyster shooters (Thursday’s special) and the crab cocktail. The crab cocktail was delicious and I loved that all the hard work had been done for me. It paired deliciously with the white blend wine on happy hour. Penguin had the crab melt based off the recommendation of an employee and he said it was amazing. Not too heavy or greasy, and went great with the red ale also on happy hour. We also took a whole, cooked crab ($7.99/lb) home for dinner that night. If you ask, they will cut the crab in half, take out the guts and put it on ice.

Later that night we squeezed some fresh lemon juice, heated up some butter for Penguin, butter flavored coconut oil for me, and had our Oregon Dungeness Crab from Fisherman's Market. WOW! It was so fresh. We now understood the difference in really fresh seafood. You do not need a lot of lemon or butter to eat this crab. It was delicious on its own with no seafood taste at all. The right tools made eating the crab at home much easier. We love our crab forks and recommend these from Amazon. Our crab scissors are old and rusty and a pain to use so if I was buying new tools I would get this set from Amazon that includes the sheller knives. We paired this incredibly fresh Dungeness Crab with the Four Graces 2018 Pinot Blanc (from Willamette Valley) that we purchased at Costco and it was perfect!

Cajun Crab Boil Bag

When we were at Fisherman's Market we noticed they had Cajun boil bags to go. Each bag feeds two people and the bag is only $40. They ask for a 48 hour notice since the bags are prepared in-house. We knew we had to try one so we called and ordered one.

No seasoning is required as Cajun butter is already in the bag. You just add the entire bag to boiling water and cook for about 15–20 minutes. This bag was very good and so much food! The Cajun butter was delicious and it made the crab taste even better. The steamer clams were our second favorite in the bag but we loved it all.

We paired the Cajun bag with a 2016 Erath Pinot Blanc (from Oregon) and a 2018 Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Chenin Blanc Viognier (from California). We purchased both at Trader Joe’s, but liked the Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Chenin Blanc Viognier better.

What is included in the Cajun Crab Boil Bag?

½ Dungeness Crab ¾ lb Mussels
¾ lb ez Peel Shrimp ½ lb Andouille Sausage
¾ lb Crawfish Whole Ear of Corn
¾ lb Steamer Clams Roasted Medley Potatoes
Cajun Butter

What would we do different next time for the Cajun Crab Boil Bag?

Put the lid on the pot.
- We didn’t think to add the lid until half way through and we ended up having to boil ours for much longer than the recommended 15-20 minutes.
Sample seafood from the top and bottom of the bag to make sure everything is hot and taste a few different pieces of seafood.
- We only sampled a piece of sausage from the top and it was hot but when we dumped out the bag a lot of the seafood was cold
- We had to put it back into the bag and continue boiling
- After boiling for longer we sampled a shrimp, sausage and mussel from the top and bottom of the bag and everything was hot this time
This is A LOT of food for two people!
- We couldn’t eat it all at once. We had two bowls and leftovers.
- To keep the seafood hot (while you eat your first round) dump out the hot water and put the bag back in the pot with the lid on
  - This will keep the seafood warm but not continue to cook it
  - We left ours in the hot water and the shrimps got a little overcooked by our second bowl
We saved most of the sausage, potatoes and corn for the next day since those reheat well and there was no way we could eat all that food

Fisherman's Market Review

We highly recommend Fisherman's Market! We both give it a 5/5 rating!! Everything we had was amazing. The Dungeness Crab is unbelievably fresh and the Cajun Boil Bag is tasty, simple to cook and so much food. We were impressed by all the different sauces they had and cannot wait to dip their fish and chips in them next. Head down to Fisherman's Market today and enjoy Dungeness Crab season!

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