The perfect season for tasty yellow crabs
A liuyue huang dish
Liuyue huang, or "June yellow" crabs, are "crawling" onto the tables of Songjiang residents after the season started in June.
With abundant water resources, Songjiang is rich in crabs with tender meat and rich roe.
June yellow crabs are adolescent, before they fully grow into hairy crabs. Compared with adult crabs, they have watery yet tastier eggs.
Ways of cooking adolescent crabs also differ from that for cooking hairy crabs, which mature in late autumn and are usually steamed.
Since the June yellow crabs have tender shells, they are usually cooked with other ingredients. They can be braised in soy sauce with green soy beans, with some sugar, or cooked with glutinous rice cakes.
Steaming June yellow crabs is also possible, but maybe add some salty meat for flavor.
Du Shihang, a manager with the Kunxiu Fishery Cooperative in Songjiang District, says his cooperative alone will produce more than 23,000 June yellow crabs this year.
"The average weight this year will be from 100 to 120 grams, compared with 75 to 95 grams last," he said.
