Man, this is hard. If you're talking just bringing me a plate of one or the other critters, then, probably lobster. I
HATE cracking and pulling the meat from crab legs. I've done the Maryland crab bake thing, found it a PITA. But, if I can pay someone else to do that and eat a crab cake, then, that's another story.
When I was a kid, my mom used to take me out for lobster on my birthday (surf and turf, actually). We used to go to the same restaurant every time, but when I was 12 or 13 or something, we tried another place that had live lobsters. I got to pick one out, they brought it past, the whole thing. I wasn't traumatized by the idea of them having to kill it, etc., but when they brought it to me and started detailing all of the internal organs that are considered "delicacies," I kind of lost my appetite for it. Took me a while to get back into it, but I'm OK now.
Ah, looks like it was the tomalley, or "liver" (digestive system). Yeah, I distinctly remember that part. From
a site on how to eat a lobster: Quote:
They may also encounter the gills, the circulation system, and green "tomalley"(the digestive gland) and in a female lobster, red "coral" or "roe" (the unfertilized eggs). Hard-core lobster lovers eat the latter two.
I'd be OK with the roe. I can wrap my head around that. Not so much the digestive system. Probably the same reason the thought of menudo doesn't do much for me.
Edit: And, who the hell doesn't love shrimp? Crap, my 5-year old loves shrimp. Although I will say that eating about 4 bowls of shrimp at a happy hour, mixed with gin and tonics, does
not do the trick.