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Zhejiang chefs find easier and tasty ways to eat crab
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In the abundant waters of Zhejiang Province, where hairy crabs have been treated as a delicacy for centuries, cooks in ancient and modern times have used their imaginations to invent many crab recipes that go beyond the simple boiling or steaming the crustaceans.
Today Shanghai Daily introduces three Zhejiang crab dishes that save you some of the trouble of cracking the shells and extracting the edible parts.
Crab bun
(蟹包)
This creative dish invented in past decade shares similarities with the shelled crab offered to then-US President Richard Nixon during his historic visit to Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai in 1972. That is, without shelling a crab, diners can enjoy crab meat and roe.
The dish has only two main ingredients: crab and egg. People recognize the dish once they see it: A sheet made of egg is wrapped around the crab meat, and crab roe is sprinkled on top.
Cooks do not add much seasoning but still pour some vinegar into the meat so the bun tastes similar to boiled or steamed crabs.
Where to eat:
• Dahua Hotel
Address: 171 Nanshan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8718-1888
Crab steamed in orange
(蟹酿橙)
This crab cuisine, called xieniangcheng in Chinese, has a recorded history of nearly a millennium. Crab was on China’s imperial tribute list and the crab cuisine was also featured prominently on the imperial banquet menu during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), which had its capital in Hangzhou, then called Lin’an.
Hangzhou cooks came up with the recipe in what was then the dynasty’s capital city because they wanted to find a graceful way of dining on crab.
When the dish is served, the orange, with its top cut off, is placed in a glass cup or a bowl. The sliced white crab meat and the golden crab roe are inside the orange and mixed with the fruit’s flesh and other seasonings.
The crab meat absorbs the fragrance of the orange. Juice from the orange also cuts the crab roe grease and adds an appetizing flavor. It is eaten with a spoon, and diners are advised to take their time to savor the flavor.
The recipe has been adapted by generations of chefs. Now the stuffing may contain crab, pork, chufa and egg. Chufa, also known as tiger nut, earth chestnut or earth almond, produces a tuber with a slightly almond taste. The seasonings often include ginger, pepper, salt, vinegar and alcohol.
When the tender crab meat is steamed with the creamy roe and flesh of the orange, the flavor is delicate and complex — sweet at first, then a bit sour before turning sweet again.
Where to eat
• Zhiweiguan Restaurant
Address: No. 10, Yanggong Causeway
Tel: (0571) 8797-1913
Address: 83 Renhe Rd
Tel: (0571) 8701-8638
• Louwailou Restaurant
Address: 30 Gushan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8799-7416
• Yee Chino Restaurant
Address: 12 Dongpo Rd
Tel: (0571) 8708-6858
Crab pot
(蟹煲)
Rivers are a good source of ingredients for soups, such as shrimp, fish and crab. People in Zhejiang Province like to eat soup made from crabs when the crustaceans are in season and the roe is fat enough to help make the soup thick and tasty.
The dish is not called crab soup but crab pot because the crab and other foods are boiled together in a large pot, just like hotpot. People can add favorite ingredients to the pot, and usually a crab pot is cooked with tofu, chicken feet and potatoes, with soy sauce added for flavor.
Crab shells are included in the crab pot, but they are there mainly for decoration. The crab bodies are cut into halves, and people need to hold the legs with chopsticks or their hands and bite to get to the meat.
Given that there are many ingredients in the pot, crab is not the only thing that contributes umami. A loanword from Japanese, umami can be translated “pleasant savory flavor” and is considered a fifth basic flavor. People taste umami via receptors for glutamate so it is considered distinct from saltiness.
The chicken feet make the soup thick and rich in collagen, soy sauce makes the soup smell and look appetizing, tofu absorbs the soup’s features and gives it a structured mouthfeel, and the boiled potato is a good match with the soup’s saltiness.
The soup can be made spicy, and root vegetables can be added as one likes. It’s a great meal with some rice and a mug of beer.
Where to eat:
• Fat Brothers’ Crab Pot
Address: 1216 Xuelin St
Tel: (0571) 8533-3823
• Jing Jing Restaurant
Address: 284 Shengli River Food Street
Tel: (0571) 8832-1278
• Crab Port’s Crab Pot
Address: 93 Jiaogong Rd
Tel: (0571) 8882-7577
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