Tarabagani

Crack open a thick leg and a single fibrous block of meat slides out, its springy bite giving way to a clean sweetness. Called a crab, it is technically closer to a hermit crab, in the decapod suborder Anomura. Look closely and it has only three pairs of walking legs; a fourth pair is folded away, tucked inside the shell. Cooking firms the meat further and helps the fibers pull apart cleanly, and because each leg holds so much meat, even one piece in a hot pot carries real presence.

Crab pots sunk to the seafloor along the Okhotsk Sea and the Nemuro Strait coast, baited to lure the crabs in, are the main way it's caught rather than trawled. Like any crustacean that grows by molting, a freshly molted individual has a thin shell and thin meat, so timing the season matters for flavor. Landed catches are usually boiled right at port and eaten plain, though grilling the shell adds a toasty note some diners prefer.

It lives near the cold seafloor, and Hokkaido's chilly coastal waters are its main fishing grounds. Its kinship with hermit crabs shows in an asymmetrical abdomen, thought to be a remnant of once curling into a snail shell. Growing slowly over time in such cold water is said to pack its thick legs full of meat without letting it turn watery, and fishing peaks in winter precisely because that's when the meat fills out most.