There are dozens of ways to cook crab. It can be boiled, fried, braised or sautéed, sometimes with other ingredients such as pork, mushrooms, tea leaves or seafood. But the most famous and favored cooking method, the one that drives Shanghainese crab-lovers crazy, is simply steaming the crab with ginger and herbs. It’s then served with dark rice vinegar, a trace of sugar and minced ginger.
Before steaming, the crab’s legs should be tied with strong twine and the crab should be flipped on its back for a while so that its shell collects the delicious roe of the females and the gao of the males, a glutinous whitish substance. Then the crab should be tossed into a pot of boiling water, cooked alive.
After about 20 minutes in boiling water, the crab turns a gorgeous shade of tangerine. That means it’s time to eat!
Many people find it quite complicated, tedious and messy to eat crab. Sometimes little hammers and special implements are used to crack the large claws and ease out the tasty flesh.
However, for die-hard Shanghainese, 10 fingers and a pair of chopsticks are the only tools needed.
First, remove the shell. The yellow fat and thick reddish roe of female crabs is underneath. October is the best month to eat female crab because of the extra roe that aficionados die for. Crabs are harvested before they swim out to the ocean to mate. November is the time to eat males for their gao, which is under the “lid” or shell.
Then pull the crab apart. After eating the roe, gao and the yellow fat, pull off the legs. Replace the shell to keep the body warm.
Eat the legs first. You can either use a chopstick to push out the white, sweet meat or you can suck it out, as most locals do. The leg shells may need to be cracked. The process can be laborious but the result is rewarding.
Then, eat the body, after removing the inedible parts such as the cellulose-like gills. The body is segmented with very thin shells, so you need to patiently dig out the meat with chopsticks, or other implements.
Note: While crab meat is scrumptious, don’t eat too much. According to traditional Chinese medicine, crab is “cold” or yin, so it’s best to accompany a meal with rice wine, which is “hot” or yang, to balance the energy in the body.
