The dish hairy crab

EDITOR’S NOTE:

We have just been to Shanghai at the invitation of Amway. We were joined by media from Taiwan. Eating hairy crab in season at that time (October-November) was an experience not to be missed. We had a precursor the other month when Shangri-La’s Chinese executive chef Kenny Yong came up with a Shanghai Hairy Crab Foodfest at Tea of Spring – with crabs flown in direct from Shanghai. It was quite a success. —M.A.Tan

Outsiders sometimes malign Shanghai’s cuisine. Around China it’s widely regarded as too sweet, and overseas it has never gained the attraction of spicy Sichuan or Guangzhou-style seafood.

But one Shanghai-area specialty has become a seasonal fixture among Chinese all over Asia: the hairy crab, named for the hairlike growth on what corresponds to the forearm. In Shanghai, these small freshwater crabs make their way into dozens of dishes – from drunken crab roe dumplings to creative fusion offerings – though the most traditional and popular preparation is simply to put the trussed, live crab in a bamboo steamer over boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes. Diners then laboriously extract meat and dip it in a sauce of vinegar, shredded ginger, and maybe a little sugar, drinking it all down with warm yellow rice wine.

Once an occasional delicacy for many Shanghainese, the crabs have become more accessible as the city has grown more affluent, and these days hairy crab is a favorite at family dinners during the colder months. The season officially begins in the ninth lunar month (this year, Sept. 29) for female crabs and the 10th month for males.

Some people prefer their crab in the first six weeks or so of the season, while others like them more after the cold northwest wind starts blowing, typically in mind-November says King Wong, executive Chinese chef at the Portman Ritz-Carlton in Shanghai. He explains that the crabs become more active as the weather turns colder, giving the meat more elasticity.

The History

The hairy crab has a long record as a Shanghai favorite. The restaurant Wang Bao He says it was serving them 260 years ago, when it was just a bar. The crabs were a bar food, like tapas, but then they became more popular than the booze – and today (after some interruptions) Wang Bao He is still in the crab business. The crab craze has started to gain its current proportions as incomes rose in 1990s.

The crabs even have a legend attached, according to which an evil monk – responsible for the unjust downfall of a benevolent and lovelorn snake spirit (which had taken human form) – attempted to escape the anger of the gods by somehow hiding inside a hairy crab. That worked as far as it went, but instead of divine punishment, his soul now meets retribution every year at the hands of hundreds of crab lovers.

The dish isn’t unique to Shanghai, but is popular throughout the surrounding Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, whose waterways are the crabs’ home. The most prized come from Yangcheng Lake, near Suzhou, where all three restaurants listed below have crab farms.

Wang Lan, who runs Shanghai-based AASCC Catering, calls the lake a “paradise” for crabs, and locals swear the meat from its crabs is sweeter. David Laris, an Australian-Greek chef who moved to Shanghai more than five years ago, calls the Yangcheng crab “fantastic.” But as crab demand has grown and spread, provenance has become an issue.

“Much of the crab now is exported to Hong Kong and Taiwan, where it gets a premium,” says Mr. Laris, who designs annual hairy-crab tasting menu at his restaurant, Laris. “Most people suspect that it’s very difficult to get the real thing in Shanghai.”

One practice is to surreptitiously drop an outside crab in the Yangcheng to make it look like that’s where it was fished from. The Ritz-Carlton’s Mr. Wong says that’s called “giving the crabs a bath.”

Efforts by suppliers of genuine Yangcheng crabs to guard against fakes went high-tech five years ago, when they started using lasers to etch serial numbers on crab shells – but counterfeiters were soon at work with their own laser machines. Since then, Yangcheng crab farmers have tried to improve the registration system, including establishing a phone number consumers can call or text-message to confirm their crab is legitimate. But the faking goes on.

The Setting

Even diners with crab experience may find the hairy crab a chore, requiring an effort disproportionate to the yield of meat. But for Shanghainese, that’s half the appeal.

“It’s an opportunity for the family to sit down together,” says the Ritz-Carlton’s Mr. Wong. “Preparing the crab creates an environment to communicate with the family.”

The Ritz-Carlton’s Summer Pavilion restaurant has a six-piece tool kit to help diners extract meat from the crab, but Mr. Wong says crab cutlery can include up to 18 pieces, including specially designed forks, mallets, and scissors. At home, diners may attack the crabs with just fingers and teeth.

According to the principles of traditional Chinese medicine, crab is a “cold” food, making it unsuitable for winter eating. That’s why it’s paired with a sauce containing ginger, a “hot” food, and is traditionally served with the yellow wine, another hot food. (Mr. Laris takes some license by pairing the crabs with Champagne – Dom Perignon.)

The Judgment

The key to making the most of your meal is picking the right hairy crab. A healthy crab raised in a clean environment, experts say, will have bright yellow hair and a rich green shell (that’s before cooking; the shell turns red when the crab is steamed). “Those crabs that have been raised in muddy ponds usually have dark hair and the tips of their legs are black,” says AASCC Catering’s Ms. Wang, who grew up in a town outside Shanghai. “They mature on a fairly poor diet and have an earthy taste,”

The female crab is prized for its bright orange roe, and Ms. Wang says the way to check that a crab is sexually mature is to look under the triangular flap on the underside. If it’s yellow, then it’s set for the steamer.

The Source Wang Bao He Restaurant

This crab restaurant calls itself Shanghai’s oldest, though it has shut down during some of the country’s more turbulent periods. It has two locations, the older in a colonial-era building near the historic Bund. The menu boasts of about 80 crab dishes.

603 Fuzhou Rd., by Zhejiang Road 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. About $30 a crab.

New Flower City

One of a chain with five restaurants in Shanghai and one in Beijing, it exudes some old-Shanghai charm thanks to its white linen and traditional furniture.

538 Wulumuqi North Rd., by Huashan Road. 11 a.m. o 10:30 p.m. Female crab, $29; male crab $35.

Fang Liang Xie Yan

“Fang Liang’s Crab Banquet” is a more upmarket affair; in place of a common dining room, it offers private rooms for two to 25 people.

2/F, 524 Heng Shan Rd. 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. About $38 a crab; a better deal may be a crab banquet, which start at $88 for five crab dishes.