Note:
(a) The report said you must "prise open the shells."
(i) prise (v): "chiefly British variant of 5PRIZE"
(ii) prize (vt; etymology: prize "lever"; First Known Use 1686):
"to press, force, or move with a lever : PRY"
(b) Li Yu (author) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Yu_(author)
(李漁; 1610—1680; the presumed author of 肉蒲團 The Carnal Prayer Mat)
(c) The author quoted her friend Haichen as saying, "The pillowy, finger-like lungs and plasticky pyramid of the stomach should be discarded."
(i) A crab has gill (not lung), and can breathe in the air by keeping the gill moist.
(ii) Richard Fox, Invertebrate Anatomy OnLine; Callinectes sapidus Blue Crab. May 30, 2007. http://lanwebs.lander.edu/facult ... es/callinectes.html
("Figure 11. Dorsal dissection of a mature male crab. The digestive cecum, gonads, and gills have been removed from the left side.": the samefigure also shows "heart"--the text following the figure states, "The soft, white or gray heart lies on the midline posterior to the stomach and between the flancs")
pièce de résistance (n; French, literally, piece of resistance; First Known Use 1839):
"the chief dish of a meal" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pièce%20de%20résistance