Fried Shrimps and Fried Soft Shell Crabs

About 4pm in June 4, 2009 at a parking lot in Ishikawa prefecture in Japan, a person encountered a mysterious incident. It was a clear and calm day. But he heard noise sounded like raining behind him. He turned around and found out approximately 100 tadpoles fall from the sky. Some were alive and others were dead. This strange incident happened one after another. Two days later, June 6, 2009 around 7:30 am, 50 miles south from the place of the first incident took place, an old woman witnessed roughly 40 tadpoles fall from the sky.

The local weather station denied the possibility of tornado, which might take away tadpoles and small fishes from rivers and rice pads and release them from the sky. Some people hypothesized birds might be the cause. Birds might drop them from the sky. But is it possible to be approximately 100 tadpoles at once from the sky?

In the book, “Kafuka on the Shore” by Haruki Murakami, one of the popular novelists in the recent era, there are a few incidents in which thousands of fishes suddenly fell from the sky. There is no rational explanation about the cause or effect of these events in this story. They just happen and become forgotten, which makes readers anxious and uncertain about the realities and fall into the Murakami’s unrealistic world.

One summer day in 2007, while I was eating fried shrimps and fish with my husband under the big oak tree in our back yard, the same kind of episode occurred on front of us. A small fish suddenly fell from the sky. We knew there was a big bird nest on the oak tree. So we immediately identified the source of this fish. My husband quietly and quickly moved the fish and we in a minute continued eating without any concern. Delicious crispy shrimps, a fish from the clear blue sky and our pleasant lunch surrounded hysteric chicks’ voice. All of them reminded me of the Murakami’s world.

When I read the recent articles about “tadpoles rain from the sky”, I can’t help but cooking fried shrimps, eating them and waiting for something felling from the bright blue sky. I called this picture surrealistic but my husband called it is grotesque.

Ingredients:
4 soft sell crabs
1 lb shrimps with their heads and shells on
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (or Cajun seasonings)
2-3 cloves of garlic

Directions:
1. Wash the soft shell crabs and shrimps well and cut off shrimps’ whiskers. Season them with salt and black pepper (or Cajun seasonings).
2. Coat the crabs and shrimps with the flour.
3. Chop the cloves of garlic half. Heat the olive oil and the garlic in a fry pan. Fry the crabs and shrimps for a few minutes.
4. Transfer the crabs and shrimps into a serving plate and sprinkle lemon juice.