Festival puts seasonal crabs in spotlight

[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Xie Lao Song, a famous restaurant chain specializing in crabs, is holding its 16th annual crab festival through late November.

As autumn is the best season for freshwater crabs, the restaurant chain has started offering diners meaty Chinese hairy crabs, which are grown in its own breeding base in Yangcheng Lake; they are loaded with roe now.

As one of the earliest restaurants in China to cook and serve sea crabs, the restaurant also imports more than 20 kinds of sea crabs from all over the world, to satisfy diners’ appetite for the delicious crustaceans during the festival in three of its branches in Beijing.

There are king crabs from the US state of Alaska, Burmese mud crabs, Russian snow crabs, Dungeness crabs, and common box crabs among others to choose from.

The restaurant takes pride in its secret “fragrant and spicy” sauce to cook the crab delicacies, which it says includes more than 20 seasoning ingredients and nutritious herbs.

Apart from the signature “fragrant and spicy” crabs, the restaurant chain also offers garlic-flavored crabs and oil-stewed crabs.