Mid-autumn is not just for mooncakes, but hairy crabs too.

Hairy crabs are on the menu at Wu Kong Shanghai Restaurant (R/F, Alpha House, 27-33 Nathan Road, Kowloon, 2366 7244; 13/F, Times Square, 1 Matheson St, Causeway Bay, 2506 1018), where the chefs temper the strong tang of the meat and roe with rice cakes. It makes for a delicious dish even though the taste may not be as ‘crabby’ as some might expect. For those who prefer to really know they are eating crab, Tin Heung Lau (18C Austin Ave, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2366 2414) has a reputation for fried crab roe and roe with noodles which preserves the full flavour. The restaurant serves Hangzhou cuisine, which doesn’t use as much flavouring as cuisines from other Chinese areas and is a change from the Shanghai cuisine to which Hongkongers more traditionally turn for hairy crabs.

At Shanghai Lu Yang Cun Restaurant (11/F, World Trade Centre, 280 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, 2881 6669) crab roe is served with sea cucumber, meatballs, dumplings and tofu. The chef recommends warm Chinese rice wine or a Western white wine with the crabs to balance the oiliness and richness of the roe. Imperial Kitchen (5/F, The Lee Gardens, 33 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay, 2577 2018; Shop Unit 603, Level 6, Telford Plaza II, Kowloon Bay, Kowloon, 2751 8338) has come up with some new ways of serving the hairy crabs, although whole crabs are also on the menu. Crab leg meat cooked with fish maw is one. A speciality at Yat Tung Heen (Basement 2, Eaton Hotel, 380 Nathan Road, 2710 1093; 2/F, Great Eagle Centre, 23 Harbour Road, Wanchai, 2878 1212) is stuffed scallop with shrimp and hairy crabmeat on a menu that will run from early October till November.

Hairy crabs will also be served at Lai Kwan Seafood Restaurant at the famous Lau Fau Shan (10 Shan Tung St, Lau Fau Shan, 2472 1421) in October but the eatery has offered a variety of other species of crab since August. Lai Kwan is bit distant from the city but has a long history and an enviable reputation for seafood.

If you would like to buy the crabs alive in bulk, look out for the ‘hairy crab street’ in your district – in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island it is Pak Sha Street, for the New Territories it is Chung On Street in Tsuen Wan, and for Kowloon, it is Granville Road in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Jiang Ji Co Ltd (50A, G/F, Granville Rd, Tsim sha tsui, 2369 9669) has been
a reliable source of hairy crabs for supermarkets and restaurants. The company actually specializes in crabs and provides different species whenever they are in season. This is a good place to order a dozen if you like to take them away raw, or Jiang Ji will steam the crabs for you.

Wah Kee (476 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay, 2836 6411) has also established a good name for their hairy crabs – you may even have bought the crustacean from Wah Kee’s seasonal stall in Citysuper in the past.

But no matter where you eat the crabs, remember to drink ginger tea afterwards. It is said to neutralize the upsetting ‘coolness’ the crabs could bring to one’s stomach from living in lakes.

Crabalicious

For most people the chill of the first autumn winds brings on thoughts of warmer clothes and the winter to come, but the minds of hairy crab lovers turn to the sweet flesh and creamy roe of their favourite dish. That chill is the sign that the crabs will become more sluggish, fatten and mate – soon the females will be bulky and weighed down with gleaming red roe. Although hairy crab season may have already opened in September, for connoisseurs it only really gets going just after the mid-autumn festival, usually in mid-October – when it is time to start frequenting their favourite hairy crab restaurants.

What makes the hairy crab so special? After all, a crab is a crab is a hard-shelled, six-legged sea creature with nasty claws. While it is true that people who just want something nice to eat probably won’t be able to tell the difference between a hairy crab and any other unless they see the telltale ‘mittens’ of hair on the claws, aficionados say that the flesh and particularly the roe of the hairy crab are the most delectable of all. The fussiest of the fussy will insist only on hairy crabs from the Yang Cheng Lake in Suzhou, where, locals say, sunlight and the shallow waters encourage a perfect environment for the crabs with the furry forearms to live and breed. Still, hairy crabs are also farmed in about 600 sites throughout Jiangsu and it is not uncommon for such cultured crustaceans to be passed off to the uninitiated as their more desirable wild relatives from Yang Cheng Lake for a vastly inflated price. So, if you’re setting off for your first excursion into hairy crab territory and don’t know all that much, it is probably best to make friends with someone who does and make sure you learn to distinguish the mittens from
the misfits.