大閘蟹，初体验

Recently, Tung Lok group restaurants are offering Hairy crab (大閘蟹) for $45 each. We decided to try one in the Lao Beijing(老北京) restaurant located in Tiong Bahru Plaza.
The Hairy crab was steam and served in a medium sized steamer basket(蒸笼). It comes with several "items" to assist in the eating and were "nicely" presented by the waitress. We were taught on how to "eat" the crab (such as which part of the carb are inedible and what are the various "items" for?)

The dark coloured sauce (on the top left of the picture) was actually the sauce to be dripped on the crab meat. It contains mainly vinegar and some other spices. The bowl of "soup" with lemon was meant for washing your hands. The blue paste in the small saucer was actually tooth paste for washing too. The tooth paste can "kill" the smell of the crab and the lemon will able to removed the oil.

There were two spoons provided. One was for the waitress to open the crab and removed the lungs. She claimed that the lungs was too "cooling"(寒) for our body and were not suitable for consumption. The other spoon was to use for scraping the "eggs"(蟹黄)(the most delicious part for some).

All the legs will be cut off individually (for ease of eating) with the specially designed Scissors. It has a long "nose" on one side, to push the meat out from each legs. And a short blade on the other side of the scissors to cut open the shell.

The crab was quite small and not much meat from it. As the crab was steam, you can really taste the freshness （鲜甜味） of the crab meat. It taste similar to Cold Crab that i tried several years back.But personally i prefer eating crab with stronger taste like cooking with black pepper or chili. But hairy crab still worth a try if the price is reasonable.