Location: Gingeri Chinese Cuisine
Lansdowne Shopping Centre
Richmond
Author: My Husband
While shopping at Costco several weeks ago, we saw the seafood stand selling frozen King Crab legs. The product looked nice and meaty, but the prices were jaw-dropping. Christina and I looked at each other and tacitly agreed that we wouldn’t buy any that day. We would wait for next spring – when the crabs are in season – and go to a restaurant to eat them for a fraction of the Costco price.
I’d been meaning to post some photos of a King Crab meal we had earlier this year, but didn’t get around to it until now. Better late than never I suppose…
We ordered a 9.5 lb crab to be prepared two ways. We received two plates of steamed legs and one plate of deep-fried body pieces. The meat was full of umami goodness and the freshness of the product really shone through in the taste and texture. The resultant broth was lip-smackingly good and, surpringly, did not contain much MSG.
For those who have yet to eat King Crabs, the meat’s taste and texture is a combination of lobster and dungeness crabs. It is not to be missed by crab enthusiasts. 
We also had some soup. It was pretty tasty, but it had to be eaten quickly lest it cooled and the corn-starch thickening agent started breaking down.
Yi mein (乾炒伊麵) is a favorite of mine, and this was decent. It didn’t have enough wok-hei (I like them a little caramelized), but the flavours were good. A huge positive was that the noodles were not drowning in oil.
I’ve eaten at Gingeri many times and I must say the chefs do a good job of controlling oil usage. We’ve never had a meal at Gingeri where an excess of cooking oil was used, and we really appreciate that in restaurant food.
This might seem strange. Why did we have congee for dinner? Well, my wife had her wisdom teeth extracted only two days before this meal, so we ordered something that she could comfortably eat. That didn’t prevent her from braving the pain and chowing down on the crabs though. She’s a trooper, my wife.
So, looking at the photos again, spring can’t come soon enough for us. What are good places to have King Crabs? We like Kirin and Gingeri, which are places where we have consistently gotten what we paid for. Other restaurants may sell the crabs more cheaply, but caveat emptor. When we went to another restaurant for King crabs with some friends, we ordered an 11 pounder and got smaller portions that what was served at our Gingeri dinner.
