Crab Eating in Suzhou

On my next leg of the trip, we stopped in Suzhou to visit a five hundred year old home built in the Ming Dynasty by one of the designers of the Forbidden City.

The home was beautifully preserved with the original furnishings and a well manicured garden. 

Serene

The museum was very interactive and you got to walk around as if you were the owner of the home. 

Oh, hello there :D!

Nice place for photos too :D

Crabs from Tai Lake

Tai Lake is one of the largest fresh water lakes in China. The crabs from this lake are world famous for their taste and meat texture and are highly desired each year during the fall and winter when they taste the best. My mom told me that my great-grandmother tried the steamed crab from the lake once and remembered the taste for the rest of her life. So of course I had to try one while I'm in the area to see what all the fuss is about :D. 

They come bound like this after being steamed. Steaming is the preferred method of cooking since it retains the original crab flavours the best.

Looks like a normal crab, but the legs are smaller

There is a big difference between the male and female crabs and I typically prefer the taste of the female crabs. This is how you tell which is which. 

Male crab example:

Narrow flap at the back means it's a male

Female crab example:

See how the flap here is nice and broad? It's a female

This is the inside of the male crab once you lift the outer shell.

For this type of crab, I actually prefered eating the male crab. As for the taste and was it as good as my great-grandmother suggested? Meh, it was OK. I prefer the ones we eat at home in Canada. 

Thanks for reading everyone! Stay tuned for my adventures in Beijing!