Typhoon shelter soft shell crabs - recipe
I love typhoon shelter crab – a dish that was “invented” in Hong Kong. The name is derived from the fact it used to be served on the small fishing boats that took refuge in the typhoon shelters, but it’s now the speciality of many seafood restaurants in the Wan Chai district, where you can order the dish in different levels of spiciness.
The original dish is something to be eaten with good friends who don’t mind the messy, hands-on work of extracting the meat from the shell, and are fine with having garlic breath for a few hours. This version, using soft shell crabs, is a compromise – you get all the crabby flavour without having to deal with the shells. You’ll still have garlic breath, though.
You can use pre-peeled garlic for this dish, but it should be in whole cloves. Don’t use the crushed garlic sold in jars because it’s puréed too finely and often has a metallic taste.
If you can’t find soft shell crabs (frozen ones are fine!), then you can go back to the original recipe and use a large fresh crab (preferably mud crab). But if you want an easier-to-eat dish, buy large fresh whole shrimp or prawns, and split them open by cutting along the back shell, to expose the flesh.
The fried garlic topping is delicious when spooned over plain rice or plain congee, to temper the flavour.
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