Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: Superstar Seafood Restaurant (鴻星),
Unit 1005, Times Square (時代商場) in Tung Loi Wan,
Hong Kong
Superstar Restaurants

Author: My Husband

As a follow up to the post on Lei Garden in Singapore, I thought it might be interesting to delve a little deeper into the delicacy that is the little crustacean also known as the Shanghai Hairy Crab.

These crabs are smaller than the typical Dungeness and are characterized by thick dark hair on their claws. As expected given their smallish size, hairy crabs do not have much meat on them. But their meat is really secondary to what connoisseurs prize most – their rich, sweet, and unctuous roe.

As Christina and I usually travel to Asia in November, our trips often coincide with the period that hairy crabs are in season. And since I am a huge fan of these crabs, we usually end up having at least one hairy crab meal. In Hong Kong, there are lots of restaurants serving these crabs; in fact, when they are in season, the live crabs are often displayed in tanks or refrigerators strategically placed on the sidewalks outside the eateries. During our last trip, we chose to dine at Superstar Seafood Restaurant because they were running a superb deal on a multi-course dinner that featured the crabs.

A picture of the interior of the restaurant – it’s all rather frou frou, but it seems to work.

Here are the tools required for the meal. All diners are also provided with disposable plastic gloves with which to work on the crabs. If you choose not to use the gloves, you will not be able to wash the color or smell of the crab roe out of your fingers for a couple of days.

The meal we ordered included 3 crabs per person, but since I like them more than Christina does, I ended up eating 4.5 of them.

Here’s what it looks like with the carapace taken off. The orange/red stuff is the roe – it tastes like the semi-liquid yolk of Chinese salted eggs with a dose of crab “essence”. It has a rich, luxurious mouthfeel that instantly rewires your synapses and makes you remember the taste for life. That is not just hyperbole dear readers – taste the roe and you will not soon forget.

So here’s how we eat the crab. Pull off the carapace, spoon out the roe and enjoy. Then, using the scissors cut the body in half. Trim off all the legs and the claws and set aside for later. Then, bite into the body and – for lack of a better phrase – suck out the roe. Next, use the scissors and crab pick to liberate the meat from the legs and claws and gobble it up; the meat, while lacking in quantity, is actually pretty tender and sweet. Repeat until all crabs have been eaten.

Hairy crabs are supposed to have a ‘cooling’ effect on one’s body. Eating too many of the crabs in one sitting will upset your digestive system and make you faint, so it is important to balance out the meal with the ‘warming’ effect of a cup or three of spicy & sweet ginger tea. This whole yin and yang deal must have worked for me because after eating the crabs and drinking the tea, I felt just fine.

It is said that the best quality hairy crabs are harvested from Yangcheng Lake in Suzhou, China. However, given the ever increasing demand for these crabs, they are being farmed and harvested from other locations in China as well. Foodies claim that the non-Yancheng Lake crabs are nowhere as good as the real deal, but I can’t comment on this until I know conclusively that I’ve tried both types (apparently, some crabs labeled as the Yangcheng Lake variety are fakes).

Unfortunately, because of the invasiveness of hairy crabs, they are specifically banned from importation into North America. So unless there are restaurants in the US or Canada secretly serving these, your best bet for getting a taste is to stop by Asia during the months of October thru January. Bon appetit!

Location: Lei Garden
#03-00 Orchard Plaza,
321 Orchard Road,
Singapore 238866
(65) 6734 3988

Author: My Husband

The last time Christina and I were in Singapore, we were invited to a dim sum lunch hosted by a prominent businessman. The timing was great – it was the day after we got off the plane, the venue was one of Singapore’s more renowned Cantonese restaurants, and we didn’t have to foot the bill. How could we say no?

When Christina and I are in Singapore, we tend not to eat Cantonese food. Since we have plenty of opportunities to eat good Cantonese meals in Vancouver and HK (our usual stopover point between Vancouver and Singapore), we usually try to maximize our intake of local “Singapore” fare when we are in town. As such, we had never been to Lei Garden and we were both a little curious as to the quality of the food there.

The décor of the restaurant can best be described as late-80s modern. Everything was in good repair mind you, but the décor did not seem commensurate for a restaurant that was supposed to be one of Singapore’s best. We later found out the reason why this was…

Our host and the rest of our dining companions arrived shortly after we did. Since the meal had been pre-ordered, the food started showing up very soon after everybody was seated. The quality of the food was fantastic – the dim sum dishes were creative and refined, both in terms of visual appeal and taste. They only “complaint” I could muster was that the dim sum serving sizes were a tad small, but I’m sure my perspective of dim sum size is skewed (seeing as how I’m used to North American portions). Before Christina could pull out the camera to snap some photos, other guests around the table had already dug into the food – so, no shots of the dim sum.

After the dim sum courses, other dishes were served. These were supposed to be some of the restaurant’s signature dishes, and despite being somewhat full, Christina and I were only too happy to continue eating. The following photos show some of the more memorable dishes:

Treasures of the sea. These dishes comprised abalone, conpoy (dried scallops), sea cucumbers, prawns, fish maw, duck feet, Chinese roasted pork (燒肉), and assorted veggies. The ingredients were braised in a Chinese brown sauce, and served in a hollowed out pumpkin. What can I say? This was AWESOME!

Golden Sand (金沙) Lobster. The lobster meat was dredged in a light batter made with the yolks of salted eggs, then deep fried. This was cooked to perfection. The sweet, succulent lobster meat played off really well against the savory, yolky crispy batter. The serving size was not huge, but it was a pretty rich dish, and it was just the right amount for our dining party.

Hairy crabs (大閘蟹). These were flown in live from Shanghai and were decently large. The crabs were steamed, and then served. I am a big fan of hairy crabs – specifically of the rich, sweet, unctuous roe. And these particular crabs had some really high quality roe in them. If I had to describe the taste and texture – it’s a little bit like eating semi-liquid salted-egg yolk. I will be writing a quick take of hairy crabs in a separate article, and will go into a more detail on how to eat these little critters. During our lunch, we were the beneficiaries of some really excellent service (our host is a very frequent diner at this restaurant), and our crabs were de-shelled and served to us by two waitresses assigned to our table. So we didn’t have to do much work at all. Nice.

It turned out to be a pretty long lunch, and we were the last guests to be ushered out of the restaurant. I would say that this ranks among the best Cantonese meals I’ve had. Some customers have commented that the culinary standards at Lei Garden have dropped over the years, but I wouldn’t know as I don’t have any basis for comparison. Suffice it to say, Christina and I were both impressed and we will be making it a point to go and have dim sum again here when we are next in Singapore.

Oh, as for why the décor of the restaurant is dated – well, during our lunch, the restaurant completely filled up and there was a long line-up of people in the waiting area. According to our host, it is pretty crowded even during weekdays. Given the average price per meal here, closing down for renovations would result in a huge impact on the restaurant’s bottom line. So as long as the crowds keep showing up, the Lei Garden @ Orchard Plaza will continue to have its décor firmly rooted in the 80s…

Location: My tiny kitchen

Ever since I started blogging my recipes, I realize I have a lot of recipes on food that I’m crazy about. Breakfast food is a perfect example. I have posted quite a few breakfast recipes in the past few months – perhaps 4 or 5 recipes if I keep count. I don’t think I have as many breakfast recipes as I have on beef, but there could be a good match between the two.

I love breakfast indeed. I love breakfast especially if I can take the time to enjoy it in weekend mornings. This might not sound right to most people, but I love breakfast even more if I get to make it. Come to think of it, most of my breakfast recipes use eggs – scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, scrambled eggs with porcini mushroom and today, I made eggs benedict. Because ET likes sweets, occasionally I like to surprise him with a sweet breakfast – buttermilk pancakes, sugary Belgium waffles with ice-cream and my version of pain au chocolat. I have eaten some interesting and memorable breakfasts when I was small. My favourite among them is Chinese donut cut into small pieces and dipped in sweet soy milk. Even I miss those interesting breakfasts, I must say egg is still my best choice for breakfast because hey, they are good no matter how you cook them

To make the hollandaise sauce, you will need:
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp of lemon juice
- 1/4 cup of melted butter

Fill a quart pan with water up to 1/3 of its height. The glass bowl will sit on the quart pan later so make sure the water just comes below, and not touching, the bottom of the glass bowl. Bring water to a simmer.

Put the egg yolks and lemon juice into the glass bowl. Whisk the yolks until it increases in volume, about 3 minutes.

Place the glass bowl on the quart pan. Continue to whisk quickly and slowly drizzle in the melted butter. Whisk until the sauce is thicken, about 5 minutes. Add in salt to taste. Remove the bowl from the quart pan and keep it in a warm area.

To make the eggs benedict for 2 people, you will need:
- 2 eggs
- 1 English muffin , sliced in half.
- 4 pieces of English bacon

Bring water in a quart pan and bring to a boil. When water is boiling, bring the heat down to a simmer. Put a sieve in the water and carefully crack an egg into the sieve. Let the eggs cook for 4 minutes and this will give you a runny yolk. Repeat with the second egg.

Pan fried the bacon in a non stick pan until they are slight brown on both sides.

Toast the muffin in a toaster until they are slightly brown.

To assemble:

Place half of a muffin on a plate. Place 2 pieces of ham on top and then carefully slide the poached egg from the sieve onto the ham. If you find the hollandaise sauce too thick, mix a few drops of warm water into the sauce. Spoon a good amount of the sauce onto the egg. Sprinkle with parsley and a few dash of cayenne pepper.

If only breakfast won’t be called breakfast and could be eaten any time during the day, then life would be perfect.