The Food Place @ Raffles City

It’s that time of the year again – the hairy crab season.

The October and November period is the time for harvesting the tiny crustacean; while they are definitely not the biggest in size, it is often touted as the king of crabs (maybe with the exception to the Alaska king crab).

Almost every decent Chinese restaurant will be offering this delicacy; it’s either you have this, or be square. And they are also not exactly cheap, the better quality ones can cost up from fifty to hundreds of dollars. I was invited to a tasting session by Food Junction recently – they are the first and only food court in Singapore to offer hairy crabs.

The highlight of the hairy crab is definitely the rich roe within; the main difference of the male & female hairy crab will be the latter having more roe.

Here’s the step by step guide provided by Food Junction on “How to eat Hairy Crabs”

Step 1: Lift flap on the underside of the crab. remove the heart.

Step 2: Pry open the toe shell to enjoy the roe.

Step 3: Remove gills

Step 4: Hold on to the legs & break the body in half.

Step 5: Cut crab leg into smaller segments.

Step 6: Push it through to the narrower segment of the claw into the other to extricate the flesh in the latter.

Step 7: Remove Pincer from **** and snip into smaller segments.

Step 8: Cut along the sides of the pincer to extricate the flesh.

The hairy crab set consists of one crab and ginger tea, with the necessary tools like the scissors and gloves (if you need one). We also had some side dishes of steamed pork dumpling (xiaolongbao) which I found to be ordinary; the skin cracks when I tried to lift them up. Order the fried pancake instead, it is a better appetiser and fares much better than the xiaolongbao.

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of crabs in general. I don’t understand why people spend so much time and effort to pry out so little meat hidden within the shell; fine I admit, I’m lazy – I don’t like to get my hands dirty! Anyway if you are keen to have a hairy feast, the hairy crabs will be available at three Food Junction food court (Bugis Junction, Great World City and The food place @ Raffles city) from now until 20th December; with the male ones priced at $18.80 and the female one at $23.80. I will like to thank Pris & Racheal and Food Junction for the invitation.

Long story short, if you like my review please do come by ladyironchef . . . for the delicious in you