My friends and I went on a tour to visit Tai Lake located in an area called She Shan in Suzhou. Suzhou is about two hours away from Shanghai and is home of the famous freshwater hairy crab. This is the season for hairy crab. When the first autumn chill sets in, many of the aficionados dine on hairy crab. The reason is the chill in the air signals that the crabs move less and thus bulk up with fat and produce more roe. It's a short lived season- ranging from September through December. The crabs are considered a delicacy. They are dark green in color and have fine golden hair on their legs and a patch of dark hair on their claws.We left Shanghai early and arrived at a crab farm where we learned about the different products available from that area. Gingko nuts, mandarin oranges, tea leaves and crab. We went out on a fishing boat and took a tour of Tai Lake and saw how the farmers captured the crabs. We returned from our tour to sample our first hairy crab and to learn how to take one apart. In the States, the crab bashes equip you with plastic bibs, hammers and little picks. Here, you roll up your sleeves and use your hands. No fancy plastic bibs, no cute little hammers. Just you and your ten digits.
The crabs are tied up and boiled with ginger for about 15 minutes. They are bright orange red when they appear and this is where the fun begins. Andrea and I decided to share one. Anne passed since she's not a big fan of shellfish. It's a bit of a mess when you take the crab apart. The legs are used to pry the meat out and there is a bright orange cream that is very rich. The meat was very sweet and it was good. You dip the crabmeat in dark soy with vinegar and ginger. I can now honestly say that I have tasted a hairy crab.Now, I'll just have to get Anne and Andrea to try fried scorpions.
