Making Hairy Crabs at Home

The hairy crabs were a gift from someone, some kind of gift voucher I think — you book through WeChat and then just go pick them up.

I’d never actually cooked hairy crabs before. My wife knows how to eat them, though, so I decided to give it a go myself under her advice.

My crabs came via SF Express cold chain and arrived in a day. When I opened the box they were all tied up tight, bondage-style, with an ice pack thrown in for good measure. My mom was about to stick them in the freezer — glad I stopped her. Here’s the key thing:

You can’t eat a hairy crab once it’s dead!

Apparently they release toxins after dying, so better safe than sorry. My wife taught me how to tell if a crab is still alive — since they’re bound so tight they can’t move at all, you check their eyes and see if they move.

Checking the eyes to tell if they’re alive is a solid method, and I could see the whole box was alive.

The crabs come pre-cleaned, so you can steam them straight away. Get a steamer, bring the water to a boil, put the crabs in belly-up, steam for 20 minutes, and they’re done.

Mix up some ginger vinegar and dig in.

Then my wife volunteered to teach me how to eat them:

“See, this is a crab leg. Poke it through like this, the meat comes out, and you can eat it.” “See, this is a crab claw. Crack it open like this, it’s all meat inside, and you can eat it.” “See, this is the crab roe. You don’t like this, so I’ll just eat it…”