One of the meals I remember eating from my last trip to Hong Kong 5 years ago was a special spicy crab dish that I had in Causeway Bay. If memory served me correctly, the crab was very garlicky, very spicy and somewhat addictive. When I was planning my food adventures in Hong Kong, the only place I knew I wanted to go to was back to the spicy crab place. And because I knew that the food was good, I thought that going on a spicy crab adventure would be a great team activity.
Unfortunately, the spicy crab place that I originally visited no longer exists. Too bad, as it was an awesome divvy, (but clean) locals joint. Instead we went to one of the true spicy crab institutions, Under Bridge Spicy Crab, which seemed to cater a bit more to big groups and “gasp” tourists, (Anthony Bourdain also featured this one in “No Reservations” although I didn’t know that when I booked it).
The 20 of us were seated at 2 tables and we thought it’d be easiest to have a set menu.
Yummy good, but I was starving so I think even if it wasn’t good I would have devoured it anyways. Would have been great to have it served with steamed rice.
The “filler” of dry noodles, which should have come out at the end of the meal, came out very early. I ordered the noodles instead of the fried rice because I was told it would be delicious mixed in with the typhoon sauce. Too bad we devoured the noodles before the crab came out.
This soup was so “peasant-y” but I loved it. It was totally soothing to the soul and perfect for the rainy night that it was.
I have no idea if this was good or not . I didn’t try because I was too distracted by…
Referred to as Typhoon shelter crab, this plate loaded with dried garlic and chilis was the reason why we were here. I was going to take a better photo of the crab but I was so distracted by the delicious bits of fried garlic and chili.
The mantis shrimp are supposed to be a lobster-like delicacy, but I think ours was a bit over-cooked. Bang for the buck, I’d rather stick with the crab.
If we hadn’t had enough spicy garlic, these little pork chops were also fried and coated in what they called salt and pepper but I think was just more of the typhoon shelter concoction. These were delicious but SPICY!
After all the fried and spicy dishes, this was a pleasant change and was devoured by our the table. I was surprised that there was another person at my table who knew to snatch up the precious cheeks. No worries though as I was able to steal from our 2nd table.
As much as I love typhoon shelter style spicy crab, I think the first time I tried it, I liked it better. But then again, it’s probably because I was distracted by so many other dishes this time. After this dinner, I did want to go and try to find another spicy crab place during my stay in HK, but alas, my crew wasn’t as interested as I was in returning. I guess it’ll just go back on my list for “next time”. I did happen to find a jarred version of typhoon shelter sauce that I will experiment with sometime soon at home.
Under Bridge Spicy Crab – 421-425 Lockhart Rd, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
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