Centolla, crab or king crab: what you are ordering

The king crab fished in Magallanes is Lithodes santolla, the same species SUBPESCA records as southern king crab, distributed between regions X and XII. In English it is called king crab, and that is where the trouble starts.

«King crab» does not name a species: it names an entire family. Alaskan king crab and Magallanes king crab share that commercial label and are different animals, from different waters, under different rules. An English menu saying «king crab» and nothing else is not lying, but it is not saying which one either.

«Cangrejo» has the opposite problem: in Spanish it is so broad that it distinguishes nothing. It works for ordering, not for knowing what will arrive.

What to ask, in each language

• In Spanish: «¿es centolla o centollón?» Two different species, and the difference shows in the bill.
• In English: «is this southern king crab, Lithodes santolla?» The scientific name cuts the ambiguity in one stroke.
• In either language: «fresh or frozen?»

Why this matters more than it seems

Among the public queries associated with king crab recorded by Google Trends, those about identification and translation — what it is, cangrejo, crab, king crab — outweigh those asking for recommendations. People do not first ask where to eat it: they ask what it is. A menu that settles that before the diner raises it does work no ranking does.