Crab Encore

I considered this an extension to my earlier Shanghai trip when I headed over to The Murray before the National Day long weekend to check out the collaboration menu with the chef team from Shanghai's legendary Lao Ji Shi 老吉士 restaurant. 

All Crab Menu

We finished our staycation weekend with another dinner at a hotel restaurant, this time Yat Tung Heen at The Eaton for their 8-course seasonal all-crab menu on Sunday evening. Good to see the restaurant has filled to its capacity again during the weekend dinner service, a sign that everything is slowly returning to normal after the latest wave of pandemic has cooled down. 

Seafood Boil

Seafood Boil is always a good option if you need to entertain at home with little time to prepare. Not sure if it’s an American-only thing but you can see different versions of seafood boil dishes served at every household starting at around the July 4 weekend all through summer, from New England to New Orleans and from Chesapeake Bay to San Francisco Bay.  

The Right Time

From the onset Hop Sze Restaurant in Sai Wan Ho looks just like any neighborhood eatery serving home-style Cantonese dishes, but one got the hint this one stands out in this old and worn district, either by a quick glance at their menu with a separate section filled with extravagant ingredients, or by the fine wines on display in the cabinet or brought in by their customers.

Crab Feast at a Yakiniku Place

When our friend A said we must come to his restaurant to have the Japanese snow crab before the season is over, we listened and went one evening along with our other friends J and C. His restaurant, Nikushou, might be better known for its exquisite selection of wagyu beef for Yakiniku, we always had excellent seafood dishes as well, for his connection with food suppliers meant he could always import the best directly from Japan, some rarely seen elsewhere, at least in such quality.

Crabs at Restaurant Petrus

I admit I don't come to Restaurant Petrus often - my last visit was more than a year ago - but I remembered my meal last time was pretty decent and since then I have been hearing good things about its chef Ricardo Chaneton’s cooking too. So I was pretty excited to come with some friends for a dinner earlier this week to try their special “Crabalicious” menu featuring a few crab dishes.

Reunion Dinner at The Chairman

It was a long overdue reunion for the H gang so we managed a quick dinner meet-up at The Chairman one Tuesday evening. The place just slipped out of our mind for a while for whatever reasons so I am curious how their food fare since our last visit.

Crabby Feast

The crab feast at Shanghai Fraternity Association has become some sort of ritual for us during the hairy crab season, courtesy of our friend A and C who asked us to join them and their other friends every year. We always made the best effort to make sure we could join, clearing up our schedule, pushing back any travel plan if needed – well, you got the idea.

Cooking Experiment #3: I am Team Steam

"Are you on Team Steam or Team Boil?" a food magazine raised this question in its recent issue about crabs - referring to the "right" way of cooking them. In my adopted home state of Maryland, famous for its crab dishes using Atlantic blue crabs from the nearby Chesapeake Bay, we are firm believers of Team Steam and the question was not even debatable, period.

Seafood Barbecue in Hachinohe

After leaving the onsen resort of Hoshino Aomori-ya, we made a pit stop at Hachinohe, the second largest city of Aomori Prefecture, before continuing our journey south to Morioka. Specifically we dropped by a local market called Hasshoku Center for a casual seafood lunch.

Contribution to a Potluck Dinner

A good friend of ours invited us to their house for a potluck dinner recently, during which each family - there were 6 families of us - would contribute one dish and a matching wine each. I thought long and hard about what to make and decided on a small dish inspired by Japanese kaiseki cuisine. That was served as one of the three appetizer courses that evening.

Umami is known as one of the five basic taste elements and what I made was loaded with that savory, fresh sensations on the taste buds, by combining umami-rich ingredients such as crabs, shrimps, kelp, bonito flakes and miso. It's a shrimp dumpling in crab miso soup.