Teochew Favourites

Many food culture have chilled seafood. And there’s one dish in Teochew cuisine that I particularly love is the Teochew Cold Crabs.

Teochew Cold Crabs are made with crabs filled with “Gor”. “Gor” has been mixed up with “Neng” or crab roes, which are the eggs of crabs found in both male and female, or “Bau”, which is the semen of male crabs. “Gor” is the liver of moulting crabs, which are storing the extra fats to help them moult. So think of it like foie gras of crab. You can only eat this in restaurants as they pay the best prices for these and then you pay the premium.

 膏 = “Gor”，蛋 = ‘Neng”，卯 = “Bau”.

The most important part of this dish is the crab. The crabs used must be of a good size and moulding at the right timing. Then all you need is to use the basic ingredients to enhance and bring out the natural sweetness and flavour of the crabs.

The most familiar stage of the mud crab is that of the mature crab, wherein the male mature crab is known as the ‘meat’ crab, or 肉蟹, and the female mature crab is known as the ‘roe’ crab, or 膏蟹.  The meat crab is packed full of sweet meat while the female also has an abundance of gorgeous red orange roe. 

The male crab comes into maturation later, and their bellies have a sharp, pointy flap. The tomalley, which has been wrongly called the ‘roe’, is pale yellow to white and has a starchy paste-like consistency, is actually crab milt that has a thicker, almost cream-cheese like feeling; however, its flavour is not as strong as shirako, or cod milt.

They also deliver marinated blood clams. These were marinated with soy sauce, chilli and garlic, just like how my mom would do it. They used blanched clams to improve the portability of these clams while mom would just used raw ones. I guess we were more adventurous or the oceans were cleaner back then.

Now you can enjoy these crabs at home simply by ordering direct from Shawn. Just visit their Facebook page (Crab Mui Mui) or WhatsApp 9363 3366.