I Will Fight You for the King Crab Legs in J.J. Johnson’s Afropot

Alex Beggs
It’s an entire seafood boil in miniature and I’ll share it—if I must.

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There are plenty of places in New York to get a pot of mussels in some white wine whatever broth and a side of fries. There aren’t nearly enough places to get a pot that overfloweth with so much seafood it’s nearly jumping out of the broth trying to get back to where it came from. At Henry at Life Hotel, the Afropot is such a thing.

It comes to the table in a wide serving bowl with bright red King Crab Legs mid-showgirl kick. It’s 3.5 pounds of whatever seafood is in season—lobster, crab, mussels, clams, giant prawns with their beady little eyes. Your hands get messy, things get grabby, that’s the whole point. It’s an entire seafood boil in miniature, with spicy coins of Chinese sausage and a fragrant, chuggable, mustard-colored broth.

And oh the brothhhhhhhh. It steams and spreads its perfume, and makes everyone around the table scoot closer and start snatching legs and shells and prawn whiskers. The flavor is seafood forward, shrimp and lobster-y, backed up my fragrant lemongrass, ginger, garlic, and bird’s eye chili (the real stuff from West Africa, per chef J.J. Johnson), and perfectly balanced.

“Everybody is oohing and ahhing,” Johnson says about diners’ reactions to the pot—that would be me, when sharing it with two other friends recently. “People might think of a clambake, a seafood boil in the south, someone from Nigeria or Senegal can taste that dried seafood flavor and it brings them back home.” For Johnson, the dish was inspired by a fish broth he drank at the Ghana fish market every morning before he went shopping.

And while the menu at Henry changes each season, Johnson makes a promise: “That dish isn’t going anywhere.” I promise right back that I’ll keep coming for it.

Go there: Henry at Life Hotel

P.S. Johnson’s cookbook Between Harlem and Heaven just won a James Beard award. Cool! Buy it on Amazon for $22.

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Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit