Lunch at ManWah

I’ve been to Man Wah for lunch twice since I’ve started living here and it is one of the best dim sum places that I've been to. Fook Lam Moon is a very close second for me, and what makes these two places that I have had really good dim sum at is simply really good execution of food.



My first lunch here was just a small sampling of their dim sum and to my surprise everything that we had was really good. I expected it to be good and for some dishes to fall short but I’m glad to report that everything that we had was GOOD. One of the best things that we had was their signature Black pepper beef puff pastry and this was probably the best thing that we had that lunch. The beef is pepper with a bite and pastry is paper crisp and not greasy, and well layered to for enough textural bite but light and airy, really amazing.

 

 My second lunch here was during the hairy crab season where they featured a hairy crab menu. The menu featured some of their signature dim sum – black pepper beef puff pastry and hairy crab dishes. Whilst the roe is the most prized of the crab and was featured against a bowl of white rice – I felt that there wasn’t enough of it to enjoy it because much of my hairy crab fest experiences are more like "death by hairy crab until the next season", the other dishes used the overlooked parts such as the crab legs that were sautéed with Shanghainese rice cakes. In addition to the menu, we ordered a serving of crab meat and roe tart and this was the highlight for me. A little over the top tiny tart, flaky pastry cup packed with probably the amount of roe and crab that almost equated to a crab. Concentrated hairy crab flavor, now this is what I’m more used to with hairy crab – excess, over the top and now I had my fill to the next hairy crab season. Man Wah didn’t disappoint.





The food is excellent and the XO sauce condiment is something that I could pile on to most things. In addition to that, it is a room with a view and with fabulous service. All in all this is a very good restaurant.

Man Wah
(at Mandarin Oriental HK)
5 Connaught Road West
Tel: +852 2825 4003

Hairy Crab Happy Hour – less mess more flavour

It was October when we were in Shanghai and it was (still currently) that time of the year again when 大闸蟹/Da Zha Xie (hairy crabs) plump up and are perfect for savouring their roe and oil. They were everywhere. We stayed along Wulumuqi (middle) street and the streets were lined with stores selling these compact roe bundles in abundance.

Hairy crabs are a food that I associate to Shanghainese food but on our hunt for Tu An Xie Wei Guan - that a local recommended to us, I soon realised that feasting on this delectable delicacy that not everyone in Shanghai gets to enjoy. Two locals, the lady whom recommended us to the restaurant and another whom we asked for directions had never even tasted it because it too expensive. So, I’m very grateful that I have had the privilege.



This year in my hairy crab adventure I’ve found different and easier ways of savouring the hairy crab. Nothing beats using your ten fingers to rip apart the crab, then dipping the roe in vinegar and eating off the shell and licking your fingers and finally proceeding to pick of the remaining flesh but this processing is sometimes a very messy and tedious affair.

These are my newly discovered ways of eating hairy crab (hassle free) in no particular order of preference:

1. Braised Shanghainese noodles with hairy crab cream, Liu Yuan Pavilion, Hong Kong



2. Hairy crab xiao long bao, Ding Tai Fung, Shanghai



3. Hairy crab and roe with mung bean sheets, Jesse, Shanghai



4. Hairy crab roe with tofu, Liu Yuan Pavilion, Hong Kong & Tu An Xie Hui Guan, Shanghai


Hairy crab roe with tofu, Tu An Xie Hui Guan, Shanghai


Hairy crab roe with tofu,Liu Yuan Pavilion, HK



Liu Yuan Pavilion
3/F The Broadway
54-62 Lockhart Road
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Tel: 852-28042000

Ding Tai Fung
Second floor, South Block,
Xintiandi, Shanghai, China
Tel: 86-021-6385837

Jesse
41 Tianping Road
Xuhui, Shanghai, China
Tel: 86-021-62829260

Tu An Xie Hui Guan
1 Gao'an Road
Xuhui, Shanghai, China
Tel: 86-021-64451206

My Short lived Hairy Crab Season

I was 7 when I had my first taste of crabs. I had a pincer of a flower crab. A few hours later I broke out in hives and never touched a flower crab again. Thankfully, mud crabs, snow crabs, Alaskan crabs and my recent venture with Hairy crabs have not left me with red patchy blotches on my skin.

The hairy crab starts 10 days after the Mooncake festival. Starting from September through most of autumn, the gourmands come out with their mean crab scissors and crab meat pickers looking for the pregnant female hairy crab and the sweet fleshed male. I had my first “snip and pick” at my first hairy crab at Lei Garden during a dim sum lunch last week. Having shared the crab with a few others, the rich lava like roe only whet my appetite for more of those little crustaceans and so agreed to sign up for a special culinary class on authentic Shanghainese cuisine at the Raffles Culinary Academy by Chef Calvin Soh – Combination of Shanghai Cold Platter(Drunken Chicken, Herbal Tea Egg and Marinated “Fen Pi”), Steamed Shanghai Hairy Crab, Herbal Shanghai Hairy Crab and Tong Tsui (Double Boiled Hashima with Chinese Angelica and Red Date) roe enriched Shanghainese Hairy Crab – featuring the Shanghainese Hairy Crab.



Although the hairy crab season only ends in December, after that culinary lesson and dinner, my hairy crab hunting season has been abruptly cut short. On the 5th November, 2005, after a grueling 1 ½ hours of snipping legs and pincers, I devoured two whole hairy crabs by myself – a steamed Shanghai Hairy Crab and an Herbal Shanghai Hairy Crab. I was so clumpy with the scissors and the crab eating apparatus, such that as they announced, “ok, finish up your first crab because the second one is on its way”, I had only finished picking the meat from ¾ of my crab and I had to snip of the plates onto the second plate of crab. The meat was sweet and the roe was rich, but it took too much from me, I’m retiring from this hairy crab season.