Vendors serve the crab meat mixture packed back into its own scrubbed shell, so the 'plate' is the crab itself.
Picked crab meat is cooked with tomato, onion, and chile, then packed back into cleaned crab shells, breaded, and fried until golden. Seafood stalls along Veracruz's boardwalk and fish markets sell them as a handheld snack, usually two or three shells to an order.