Doumen Double-Shell Crab 斗门重壳蟹

Doumen Double-Shell Crab (斗门重壳蟹) is a mud crab (青蟹) at the stage just before it moults, when it carries two shells at once, and it is a speciality of Doumen District (斗门区) in Zhuhai (珠海), Guangdong. The first character of the Chinese name is read chong, "double". Zhuhai Net describes it as one of Zhuhai's "four famous dishes" of intangible heritage.

Where it comes from

In Doumen the mud crab has a different name at each stage of its life, and chongke xie is the name for a crab that is about to shed its shell: it has already grown a soft new shell but has not yet cast off the hard old one. Only about one jin of double-shell crab turns up in every hundred jin of mud crab, so it is called "one in a hundred". Doumen lies where salt and fresh water meet, and reports credit this brackish water, around Qianwu (乾务) town and Dahaihuan (大海环) village, for the crabs' sweet meat. In 2021 Zhuhai's market regulators put a draft municipal standard for farming Doumen double-shell crab out for public comment.

How it is eaten

Doumen restaurants mostly steam the crab or bake it in salt. It is eaten with the soft inner shell still on, which is chewy to bite through, while the roe inside is rich. Autumn is the harvest season, when the crabs are glossy, thick-fleshed and full of yellow roe.

Telling it apart

The outer hard shell of a double-shell crab is thin and brittle, especially where it meets the legs. A light press cracks it and shows the soft shell underneath.