足不出”沪“吃螃蟹 - 2014年11月11日

FOR gourmets, the autumn hairy crab season is a highlight of the year. Now is the time to enjoy the delicate meat and tasty roe of the bristly crustacean.

Yangcheng Lake, about an hour’s drive from Shanghai and 3 kilometers northeast of the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, is considered the eastern China capital for hairy crabs, but you don’t have to venture that far to enjoy this culinary specialty. Look no further than Songjiang.

Songjiang crab

Hairy crabs are bred in the district at farms along the Huangpu River. This year’s harvest is being hailed as one of the biggest in recent years. All you need is the money to fork out for crabs.

Local experts say that male crabs this year are up to 200 grams each, with females weighing at more than 150 grams. The going local price — about 100 yuan (US$16.4) per half kilo — is comparable to last year. That’s a pretty steep cost given that much of the crab is inedible carapace, but it’s much less than the price of prized Yangcheng crabs.

Hairy crabs are no longer bred in the Huangpu River itself because of environmental issues. That practice ended in the 1980s as the river became polluted. In recent years, aquaculturists have introduced eco-green cultivation techniques to re-breed the species in Songjiang’s Maogang Town.

In order to produce the best quality, experts from Shanghai Ocean University and the Shanghai Aquatic Products Research Center spent 11 years selecting and pairing crab species.

“Simply speaking, the crab’s parents need to be of the best quality,” said Wang Chenghui, a crab expert and professor from Shanghai Ocean University. The species Wang and his team bred is called Jiangnan 21.

Hairy crab need fresh water, abundant waterweeds and nutritious food.

Breeding center

The crab breeding center is located along the upper reaches of the Huangpu River. Water used in the breeding ponds has been treated to ensure purity. Aquatic plants named hydrilla verticillata are grown in the ponds to help keep the water pure and provide food for the crabs.

“Water and breeding techniques largely decide the quality of a hairy crab,” said Professor Wang Wu from Shanghai Ocean University. “People shouldn’t think that Yangcheng Lake crabs are the only ones worth eating.”

The annual harvest of crabs from Yangcheng crabs totals about 2,000 tons. Of that, 300 tons find their way into Shanghai markets. China as a whole consumes about 750,000 tons of crab every year.

“So your chances of eating a real Yangcheng hairy crab are a few tenths of a percentage point,” Professor Wang said.

No matter. Locally grown hairy crabs can be just as tasty. They win medals year after year in national tasting competitions, scoring as high as 85 out of 100.

Eating hairy crabs is a bit of a messy, laborious affair. You pull off the legs and claws, open the shells and scrape, suck and crunch until you have extracted every last morsel. True aficionados say the only way to cook a crab is by steaming. Crab feasts are often accompanied by traditional Shaoxing-style yellow rice wine.

Hairy crabs have been part of Chinese culture for generations. The 17th century playwright Li Yu is said to have written that his heart “lusted after them.” A largely expat social rugby team in Shanghai calls itself the Hairy Crabs.