IntroUnder Bridge Spicy Crab - Highly Recommended
405-419 Lockhart Rd, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Phone: 852-2893-1289
For my last meal in Hong Kong, I wanted to try spicy crab since I’ve heard so much about it. Right near the underpass there’s a ton of joints that do spicy crab with pictures of celebrities plastered on the wall - that or just a bunch of random Chinese people in tuxes. It’s pretty hard to figure out which one to go to, so we went to some random one which included a picture and signature from Bourdain. This was maybe one of my favorite meals of the whole trip. I was expecting the crab to be covered in a rich sauce, but the crab was sauceless and insanely flavorful and delicious. This place is tiny like maybe 30-40 seats and was empty at 5pm. Although a bit pricy for HK food, it was well worth it - around $40 USD for the crab.
Our Menu
Spicy Crab ***
I was thinking this would be like the Malasian chili crab which is covered in a red sauce, but this was something completely different. The crab was topped with a ground mixture that had the consistency of bread crumbs but flavored with chilis and garlic. It was stupid good. My problem is I ordered it very spicy (there are 5 grades of spicy) and man that was a bad idea. It was hella spicy which I could normally handle, but the taste of the crab was completely lost due to the searing heat. The waitress was kind enough to lower it to a low spicy and this was like a complete ethereal wtf moment. The crab was cut into pieces for you with the shell still on. The parts that were exposed had a crunchy texture as it was probably coated in corn starch and fried, but the meat was succulent and insanely sweet. Add the crumb mixture which was nutty and a little spicy and you were in complete heaven. I kept on eating the crumb mixture alone with white rice and was totally floored at how good it was. Then you have the scallions that were buried in the spice crumb mixture which were amazing – sweet and more like an intensely sweet leek rather than the scallions we have back in the states.
Kung Shing Chai (water spinach) **
We’ve had this dish so many times on the trip and it always rocks. This again was using the chicken stock sauce method and had the perfect texture…just enough crunch but soft and pleasing.
Spicy Crab ***
I was thinking this would be like the Malasian chili crab which is covered in a red sauce, but this was something completely different. The crab was topped with a ground mixture that had the consistency of bread crumbs but flavored with chilis and garlic. It was stupid good. My problem is I ordered it very spicy (there are 5 grades of spicy) and man that was a bad idea. It was hella spicy which I could normally handle, but the taste of the crab was completely lost due to the searing heat. The waitress was kind enough to lower it to a low spicy and this was like a complete ethereal wtf moment. The crab was cut into pieces for you with the shell still on. The parts that were exposed had a crunchy texture as it was probably coated in corn starch and fried, but the meat was succulent and insanely sweet. Add the crumb mixture which was nutty and a little spicy and you were in complete heaven. I kept on eating the crumb mixture alone with white rice and was totally floored at how good it was. Then you have the scallions that were buried in the spice crumb mixture which were amazing – sweet and more like an intensely sweet leek rather than the scallions we have back in the states.
Kung Shing Chai (water spinach) **
We’ve had this dish so many times on the trip and it always rocks. This again was using the chicken stock sauce method and had the perfect texture…just enough crunch but soft and pleasing.
2 comments:
Loved your review, and the pictures of the crab was great!
The "spicy crumb mixture" is actually deep fried minced garlic with red chili peppers mixed in. I make this dish at home and its always a favorite!!
Thanks Lydia. I've tweaked my recipe a bit where I used panko bread crumbs, peanut oil, chinese 5 spice, salt, chilis, and garlic. Then, cover over a whole fish and roast with a bunch of scallions...it was spectacular and brought me back to Hong Kong.
Me thinks this will make a ridiculous fried chicken breading as well...
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