Drunken Crab 醉蟹

Drunken Crab (醉蟹) is crab steeped in yellow wine, one of the wine-cured dishes of Shaoxing (绍兴) in Zhejiang. Tide News (潮新闻) notes that Shaoxing, as a yellow-wine town, has a saying that "anything can be made drunk" (万物皆可醉), and names drunken chicken, drunken crab and drunken shrimp as classics of Shaoxing cuisine.

How it is made

China News Service (中国新闻网) describes live crabs and shrimp being slowly steeped in aged Huadiao wine (花雕酒), a Shaoxing yellow wine, so the wine flavour works into the meat and offsets its fishy smell. There is also a cooked version: Tide News reports that the restaurant Xunbaoji (寻宝记) put Shaoxing cooked drunken crab (熟醉蟹) on its menu in 2017, and that its steeping liquor was later reworked by the chef Huang Qiyun (黄启云). In 2023 the restaurant also began selling the liquor so that residents and visitors can make the crab at home.

Flavour and texture

China News Service describes the crab as fresh, sweet, tender and smooth, with a slight wine sweetness at the finish that does not burn the throat or feel greasy.

How it is eaten

Xunbaoji treats its cooked drunken crab as a seasonal dish, sold from about August or September until February or March of the following year. At the second selection of noted Shaoxing restaurants, chefs and dishes, reported by Tide News in 2024, the old-established Xianheng Hotel (咸亨酒店) had its Taidiao drunken crab (太雕醉蟹) chosen among the 20 dishes judged most typical of Shaoxing; the hotel calls it an old Shaoxing dish made with local river produce. Tide News also describes visitors at Xunbaoji watching a yellow-wine jar-opening ceremony, then drinking yellow wine and eating drunken crab.