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When I was an unsqueamish 4-year-old, I tried snails in a French restaurant. When I was 5, I wanted them for my birthday dinner.

No, I have never lived this down. For years it was the punch line that capped my mother's humorous tales about her little gourmet demon seed. After everyone had a good chuckle over my voracious appetite as a baby, toothless pronunciation of the word "eggplant" and childhood experimentation with homemade marshmallows, she would unveil the snail story to peals of laughter.

John Kessler writes food features and a column about food and more for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution E-mail John Kessler Recent Kessler columns Your fool-proof checklist for Thanksgiving  Hours of low-temperature cooking yield tender, juicy meat  Different things to sample on my new dining menu         More John Kessler Related: John Kessler's blog: Food & More John Kessler's recipes Meridith Ford Goldman's Table Talk Jeanne Besser's Feeding Frenzy Evening Edge Atlanta Restaurant reviews and search Recipes from Atlanta restaurants Favorite Atlanta recipes

As she told it, she went to a fancy food shop and got me a half-dozen escargots, which I schluuurped down to my brother's abject horror. He was the kid who wanted hot dogs for his birthday.

What I remember about my early infatuation with snails was not the slippery critters themselves but the abundance of fresh garlic and real butter.

Now that I'm cooking the birthday dinners, I do not field strange requests. In fact, I usually get the same one, for king crab legs (click for recipe).

The tradition started with my middle daughter, who found that king crab was just like the faux-crab surimi she learned to eat in sushi bars but much, much better. After a couple of years, I tried to expand her palate to crab cakes made with fresh jumbo lump crab that came from more local waters. No dice. She liked the ritual of shell cracking and butter dipping.

My oldest daughter then asked for king crab, along with a spinach salad and a cherry pie for dessert. Would she be interested in lobster? No, she didn't want me to personally murder her celebration dinner.

Then my youngest daughter asked for the same menu — now and forever the Kessler clan birthday feast. I knew not to ask about serving any crustacean other than frozen king crab, but I did get smarter with the presentation.

After watching my kids get poked and cut by the spikes on the shell, demanding endless help from their hungry parents and arguing over the too-few shell crackers, I began cutting the legs into 3-inch segments and snipping the shells open with a pair of shears. Everyone enjoyed a civil and injury-free meal.

The food snob in my head doesn't like serving expensive frozen shellfish, but of course the piggy-boy in my stomach loves it as much as the girls. I've tried the fresh king crab in season in a couple of expensive restaurants; it is lovely but served in a small portion and gone too soon. I can only imagine fresh-cooked king crab.

Carvel Gould, the chef at Canoe, traveled to Dutch Harbor in Alaska's Aleutian Islands to join a red king crab fishing crew. He told me the flesh is like "having jumbo lump in this large, massive chunk — so incredibly sweet, silky and buttery." One can only dream.

By the time my wife's birthday came around, I suggested king crab, and she readily assented. This time I had a plan. Not only did I cut the crab into segments, I cut away part of the shell, exposing the sweet meat. I then smeared the pieces of crab with the compound garlic/parsley butter the French call beurre d'escargot and then broiled the crab segments until they were buttery, garlicky and sizzling.

And at first bite, I was 5 years old again.

King Crab Legs, Like Snails 6 servings

Hands on: 30 minutes Total time: 40 minutes

More from EveningEdge.com: Easy seafood recipes (30 minutes, 5 ingredients)