Quest for hairy crabs – Part 2

After the disappointing experience at Wang Baohe, my husband and I decided to go straight to the birthplace of hairy crabs- Yang Cheng Lake.

A 20mins bullet train ride and a 30mins cab ride later, we arrived at the lake and were confronted with masses of floating boat restaurants. Nothing in China comes in a small package!

We chose one of the supposedly more popular restaurants and ordered the CRABS! Our steamed crabs arrived and their grumpy looking face didn’t stop us from eating them! Having tried it the second time and this was a lot better, it still didn’t quite live up to the fame and the expectations. Malaysian chilli crabs still rock!

Quest for hairy crabs continues…

One of the many local dishes we wanted to sample was hairy crab. Having read some good reviews on Wang Bao He, we thought we’d check it out. The restaurant is known for its crab-feast and is one of the oldest crab speciality restaurants in Shanghai.

On arrival, we were greeted with a drunken business man who threw up along the corridor (NICE!) Instead of cleaning up the mess immediately, the restaurant staff took their time and continued to serve the food to other customers.

Trying to forget the incident earlier, we thought we’d focus on the reason we’re there.. sampling Hairy Crabs! Hairy crabs are generally steamed to retain the natural flavours. Instead of natural sweet meat we were expecting, our crabs were bland and tasteless!

I’m sure there are some good restaurants in Shanghai that serve tasty hairy crabs but definitely not Wang Bao He! The quest continues and in the mean time, Malaysian chilli crab is still top on my favourite list!