Crabs appeared on the table of Chinese very early, and there are written records dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the famous sea crabs from Qingzhou (now the Shandong Peninsula) were famous. It was not until after the Song and Yuan dynasties, when the Jiangnan region was established as the economic and cultural center of the country, that the freshwater crabs of the Yangtze River Delta began to be widely accepted. Suzhou's Taihu Lake crab, Hangzhou's Jiaxing Nanhu crab, and Baiyangdian's Shengfang crab have all made a short time in history. Nowadays, the popularity of hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake actually began in the late Qing Dynasty, when Shanghai opened its port.
Shanghainese people are famous for their love of crabs, so much so that in Japan and Hong Kong, hairy crabs are called sea crabs. The word "gate" of hairy crab refers to a tool crab that was originally called "Shanghai" to catch fish and crabs, which is also the origin of Shanghai's nickname "Shanghai", which shows the origin of Shanghainese people and crabs.
Wang Baohe's restaurant has unrivaled seniority in Shanghai's crab eating industry. In 1744, the founder Wang Baohe opened the restaurant in his own name, making it the oldest existing hotel in Shanghai, so Wang Baohe restaurant also enjoys the title of "crab king, wine ancestor". At the beginning of its establishment, the restaurant was opened in Xiaodongmen Salted Gua Street, and during the Xianfeng period, it was moved to the area of Nanjing Road, and in 1936, it was moved to the current location of Fuzhou Road, and it was renamed "Shanghai Hotel" during the Cultural Revolution. In 2013, Wang Baohe's crab feast cooking skills were rated as the fourth batch of Shanghai's intangible cultural heritage.
Wang Baohe can be said to have taken great pains in the control of crab raw materials. The restaurant will regularly send special personnel to the long-term cooperative merchants in Yangcheng Lake to select crabs, and the selected crabs must be authentic Yangcheng Lake shallow water hairy crabs to ensure that all of them are full of fat. After entering the restaurant, the crabs will be placed in a special water tank, which is pumped into the air by an air pump and filtered every four hours to allow the crabs to fully spit out the sediment in their bodies. Even the rope used to tie the crabs is made of straw instead of ordinary nylon rope, which they believe will allow the crabs to absorb the herbaceous aroma and make the taste more natural.
As a veteran of crab eating in Shanghai, Wang Baohe Restaurant is also leading in the richness of the dishes, in addition to the common steamed hairy crabs, crab roe xiaolongbao, crab roe stewed tofu, stir-fried crab roe and other dishes. Flowing yellow crab bucket is also one of Wang Baohe's signature dishes. The crab bucket is small and orange-red in color. Turn over, the meat filling is full, the crab meat is full, the middle is wrapped in a little crab roe, eat in the mouth, the crab meat is delicate and springy, the crab roe flavor is fresh and pink, which is impressive.
Eating crabs with scalding rice wine has always been a common way for crab foodies. Rice wine is rich in amino acids and lipids, which can reduce the fishy smell of crabs and add to the deliciousness of crabs. It just so happens that Wang Baohe's rice wine is another must, and it won international awards as early as the beginning of the last century. The Shaoxing rice wine of the store is fragrant and fragrant, and the aftertaste is sweet in the mouth.
As a time-honored restaurant, Wang Baohe's interior decoration and furnishings are not only resplendent and high-end, but also reveal a little retro, the ceiling is made of tiled eaves, the partitions are all wooden, and the doors are also inlaid with Chinese-style windows. The service does not have many highlights, it is a typical old restaurant style, the waiter does not take the initiative, but when the diner takes the initiative to greet him, he will still come forward to greet him.
Every weekend, Wang Bao and the restaurant's business will be particularly hot, and when autumn comes, crabs are on the market, even more so. Diners who wish to visit can choose to go off-peak or book in advance.
