In America, I'm used to having my food ready to cut and chew as soon as it is served, but I find that in China, food--seafood especially--is cooked and served much the way it lived. Not knowing how to eat the crawfish and crab, I looked to my friends for guidance. The restaurant had given us each a pair of plastic gloves to use, so it was clear that we were expected to eat with our hands. Since this was my first time eating shellfish in this way, my friends told me what parts of the fish to eat. For the crawfish, you only wanted to eat the tail and claws--not the body of it. For the crab, you only wanted to eat the middle, rather than the legs. Though it was a bit troublesome to eat, it was definitely delicious and worth the effort.
At first, I was a little wary of having the crawfish, mainly because I didn’t want to have to go through the trouble of cracking open each individual fish before eating it. But I was eating at one of Wuhan’s most delicious restaurants and I was not going to pass up the opportunity to eat its food, especially considering how hungry I was! I saw that all of my friends had pulled on their gloves and I thought: 入乡随俗(ruxiang suisu), When in Rome (or in my case China)!
The shells of each fish were easy enough to crack and I was able to make my way to the mouthwatering meat inside. The spiciness of the crawfish was well balanced with the cold noodles, which had a peanut sesame sauce on top. The crab was just as scrumptious and I can’t say I’ve had anything like it before! It had a sweet middle with a bit of a spicy aftertaste. I would definitely go back to this restaurant.
