Hairy crab 大闸蟹 season is here!

I've never been a fan of crabs-- the labor that goes into digging and cracking is usually much more than the satisfaction I get out of chewing on the small chunks and thin threads of crab meat. This year, however, I've finally begun to appreciate what so many Shanghainese and Hongkies have taken for granted, the exquisite taste of hairy crabs.

I began this season of crab eating at my generous friend Jimmy's house. We each had a pair of male and female crabs. You don't really have to get crabs from YangCheng Lake 阳澄湖, since they are more expensive and you can never be sure they're the authentic ones. Crabs from Tai Lake 太湖 and KunShan 昆山 will do just fine, as long as you pick the alive and kicking ones. Fall and early winter are the perfect time to eat crabs, and it's recommended that you eat the male ones earlier on in the season and move on to the female ones as they grow fuller in size and flavor later in the season. The major difference is the yellow/orange stuff under the crab shell 膏黄 - the male ones are more gooey and the female ones are solid (uh, sperm and eggs?? just eat it! these are the best parts of hairy crabs, albeit super-rich in cholesterol...). The simplest way to cook the crabs is to steam or boil them. Before cooking them, you should put the crabs in fresh water for awhile to get any dirty stuff out of them.

Crab eating tests both your skill and patience. Jimmy, whose ex-girlfriend was Shanghainese, taught us some tips on eating the crabs. For example, you should take out the crab heart, a tiny white hexagonal thing from the crab chest because that's the "coldest" part of the crab. Crabs are considered "cold" in Chinese medicine, and you should drink some yellow rice wine like Shaoxing 绍兴酒 or HuaDiao 花雕酒 while eating the crabs. You can also dip crab meat in a vinegar and ginger mixture to both disinfect the meat and counter the meat's "coldness."

A week after the feast at Jimmy's, my local friend Diego took me to a crab restaurant on Julu Rd near Ruijing Rd called JingYuanXieWang 金缘蟹王. We got a table on the curb side because all the tables inside were reserved already. The crabs are from Tai Lake, but tasted just as nice. We had warm coke with ginger after the meal to warm our stomachs.

Now I'm pretty obsessed about eating crabs, so I'm thinking about throwing my own crab cook-out party in the few next week... yum~