Eating Shanghai crab

So strong is the love of Shanghai crabs by many a gourmand

that a few flew off the pictured plate before I could even
take the photo despite the camera already being in my hands
when the plate arrived on the table!

An easier way to partake of Shanghai crab roe --
inside of seasonal Shanghai crab roe xiao lung bao!

Years ago, I struck up an e-mail correspondence with a woman who told me that she started watching Hong Kong movies in order to learn how to use chopsticks. Some readers may laugh but I have to say that, like her, there are indeed things that I have learnt from watching Hong Kong films -- and not just the kind of Cantonese words whose knowledge I've shocked many of my Hong Konger friends with either!

For example, I first got to know of the existence of a the culinary delicacy known as Shanghai crabs (or hairy crabs) through watching The Soong Sisters, Mabel Cheung's 1997 biographical drama about a real life trio of influential sisters who all married prominent men who all had important parts to play in the affairs of China. And subsequent cinematic encounters with those prized crustaceans only strengthened my resolve to try eating them at some point.

Then one momentous day, while my mother and I were visiting Hong Kong, a family friend invited us to her home to partake of Shanghai crabs (and much, much more). As we settled down to get our first taste of the delicacy (complete with an accompanying sweet dip made out of vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and ginger, and glasses of 10-year-old Shaoxing wine into which a sweet pickled plum is inserted to add to the flavor), this friend told us that the crabs we were eating were male crabs -- whose "eggs" were considered to be better.

Rather than puzzle how male crabs could have eggs, we just concentrated instead on enjoying the feast of crabs set before us -- and it was only after reading an article in The South China Morning Post about the creatures that I got to realizing that the "eggs" in question actually weren't really eggs. Instead, the most prized element of the day's repast -- that we had been happily devouring -- was none other than Shanghai crab sperm!!!

If truth be told, I am very glad that I learn this fact after I had eaten Shanghai crabs -- because this way, I know that the taste of the Shanghai crab sperm is so divine that I really don't care what it actually, really is. (Alternatively put: yes, I am happy to eat it... time and time again!) Instead, what tends to get in my way of wanting to eat Shanghai crab is that I have found it impossible to eat without making a thoroughly embarrassing mess of my place at the table.

Consequently, I've only felt comfortable enough to eat Shanghai crab in private -- among friends and family members who will excuse my mess... or help prevent it by peeling and generally opening different parts of the crab for me! (Something I did on Friday night.) Or eat its most prized parts -- i.e., the sperm or roe -- in the form of such as Shanghai crab roe-filled xiao lung bao which are to be found when Shanghai crabs are in season at restaurants like Din Tai Fung and Victoria City Seafood Restaurant. (Like I did on this past Saturday night!) :b