Flash-Fried Sea Snails 油爆海螺

Flash-Fried Sea Snails (油爆海螺) is a Qingdao (青岛) dish of sliced sea snail meat quickly fried in hot oil. Qingdao Daily reports that it was rated one of the city's ten representative dishes, and Chinese Wikipedia lists it among the well-known dishes of Qingdao cooking alongside scallion-braised sea cucumber and abalone in the shell.

Ingredients

The main ingredient is the large black-shelled sea snail from the shallow sea off Hongdao (红岛); Qingdao Daily describes sea snails as a Qingdao speciality with fresh, tender, fine-textured meat. At Chunhelou (春和楼), the old restaurant on Zhongshan Road (中山路) that serves Flash-Fried Sea Snails as one of its signature dishes, the snails are chosen from Hongdao for its good water, and the meat is paired with sliced bamboo shoots and wood ear mushrooms.

How it is made

The yellow part of each large sea snail is removed, and the meat is cut into slices and flash-fried with the bamboo shoots and wood ear. At Chunhelou the dish has been handled by generations of head chefs, and the kitchen trains cooks by apprenticeship, with close attention to knife work, each step of the process and the heat.

Flavour and texture

The dish is fresh-tasting rather than greasy, and the snail slices are tender, smooth and slightly crisp to the bite.

Where it comes from

Flash-Fried Sea Snails won recognition at Shandong's first Lu cuisine (鲁菜) competition, and in 1997 the China Cuisine Association named it a "famous Chinese dish" (中国名菜). Chunhelou, which opened in the Guangxu reign (光绪) of the Qing dynasty and which Dazhong Net says is hailed as the "first Lu cuisine restaurant" of Qingdao, keeps it on its menu as a traditional dish.