Sao Tome: Petisqueria Santola – Feasting on Spider Crabs
If there is one place you must always revisit when coming to the country is the crab shack restaurant on the west coast – Petisqueria Santola. On the western side of the island, in a tiny village of Santola, there is a restaurant (more of an oceanfront wooden shack) where you can try this delicious spider crab that is fished out from deep waters off the coast here. This crab is not sold in the markets, and the tiny restaurant has a full monopoly on catching them. The restaurant is very simple and you sit on benches with wide-open no-glass windows as sea breeze welcomes you – but the food is well-worth it! The massive spider-crabs come steamed, with a wooden hammer to open them and you end up getting the crab stuff all over you, while you savor this delicious crustaceans. But wait! At the end, your waiter dismembers the remaining parts of the crab and mixes all that with crab juice and crab caviar and some beer for the final “desert”. Crabolitious!
