A Dinner Guest Brought Crabs And Stunk Up My Place

GOOD QUESTION

A few hours before the small dinner party I was throwing for close friends, one guest called to ask if she could invite a mutual friend. I said, "Of course!" -- it was a buffet and we had more than enough food. 

The new guest ended up arriving over an hour late. We were all hungry, and I was getting antsy. I was in the dining room when I was suddenly overwhelmed by strong odors.

I went to the kitchen to investigate, and what did I see but our late-arriving guest pulling crabs out of a cooler and handing them to another guest, who looked almost as confused as I felt. She told me the crabs are cooked and she has everything needed to shell them.

I was annoyed, but I said, "OK, add it to the buffet!" Honestly, I wish I had asked her to put them back in the cooler and leave them outside. I worked all day on a big dinner, and it was waiting.

I explained to the other guests that it would be a few more minutes before we could eat, that some crab needed to be shelled. The entire house now reeked of crab!

The dinner ended up being fun; we all had a good time, and people helped clean up after. The only thing is that the house was so smelly I could barely taste my food, and I'm just so resentful that my party was hijacked by such a party foul!

The person who brought the crab did say she thought it was maybe a potluck. I know the crab was expensive, and to her it was a nice gesture.

Should I have asked her to not serve the crab, or was it better to have an already late dinner even later and air my house out days after, knowing that we will laugh about this for years?