Preparing to appreciate a culture, we are often seduced by the idea of an exotic type of food we’ve never had or an experience much touted by other travelers to the region. Sometimes the hype just doesn’t live up to the experience.
Photo: * etoile
In a New York Times article from September, 2008, food critic Michelle Green writes of one such meal when she partook of hairy crab on a visit to Shanghai.
Is it the fact that you choose your hairy crab live and are thus assured of its freshness? Is the name itself, the blatantly sexual sound of it, part of the reason that foodies worldwide proclaim its virtues as a heavenly, must-try food?
Green and her friends did everything right. They chose a restaurant – Wang Bao He – much loved among hairy crab fanatics. They questioned the waitress to make sure they were ordering the most succulent preparation. They ordered the wine that is said to be the perfect compliment.
In the end, the writer describes this experience:
“The smell,” said Terry, “is like dirty river water.” Under the carapaces lurked gelatinous black deposits; instead of sweet meat, we discovered stringy, bland flesh.
Photo: Dennis Wong
Apparently the hairy crab has fallen victim to not so stringent pollution regulations, the market for it rife with counterfeiters.
Don’t ask me how to counterfeit a hairy crab. I couldn’t begin to tell you.
Tried something that couldn’t live up to the hype?
Gone somewhere just because of all the ecstatic prior visitors who made it seem like the hottest spot ever only to find something worse than ordinary?
Tell us all about it below!
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Thanks, Julie. I end up appreciating things that make no sense to other people. One of the best things about traveling is seeing things with fresh eyes.
Maybe it’s more about the fresh eyes than the fresh crab?
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Yeow! I guess you have to figure they were good at some point! I can’t imagine that they’d ever have become popular if they had always tasted/been like that. Unless it’s some kind of PR genius.
My only experience with this was the opposite, taking some recently immigrated to the States students to a state fair and having them try funnel cake. I said, it’s fine, and they were over the moon about it.
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Next time? Deep fried twinkies.
It’s really funny that funnel cake could be seen as exotic or especially praise worthy.
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Love the title. I’m a sucker for a good pun.
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Interesting write-up. Got me thinking of 10 things you eat in any country that yuo never see folks eating in the USA !
Gotta run get my camera. I heard someone order horse sashimi !↵
