So Gee had been raving about this seafood spot way up in the New Territories since her visit to Shanghai, so hells yes I had to go! We met up with our friends Minh & Lindsay at their place in the NT and then took a 20 min cab ride to an area called Lau Fau Shan. LFS is waaay up north, you can even see Shenzhen from the coast!
LFS was originally an oyster cultivation village, and is famous for its fresh oysters.
Some vendors along the water were also selling dried oysters (ho si). I brought some back to Shanghai, but I don’t think my fellow airplane passengers appreciated it.
Lots of fresh seafood in LFS. After wandering around the wet market we got really hungry, it was TIME TO EAT! LFS is famous for its amazing seafood restaurants.
We started with a dish of salt, pepper & chili mantis shrimp, called la nieu ha (pissing shrimp) in Chinese. I’ve never had mantis shrimp before – they are pretty freaky looking, like some kind of millipede crustacean. Gross to look at, but really delicious. The flesh is springy and resilient, like a lobster tail.
Clams stir fried in black bean sauce. A nice classic Cantonese dish. The clams were a good size and meaty. Can you see the fried oysters in the background?
These fresh, plump oysters were sold in the wet market next door in plastic tubes filled with water. pretty cool One of my favorite preparations for fresh, plump, meaty oysters is a roll in batter, a quick dip in the fryer, and served piping hot with red vinegar on the side. I love this dish, jaa sang ho (fried oysters) because the oysters stay juicy from the quick cooking method. These oysters in particular were coated with an extremely light and flaky breading – the same kind you find on fried taro dumplings at dim sum. Served up with a plate of fresh romaine.
So everyone in China nows that now is the season to indulge in hairy crab. We decided to bump up our cholesterol levels and order some salt-baked hairy crab (yeem gook dai jap hai). This was my first time eating hairy crab and ohhh myyyy gahhhh I totally understand why people love it now. The roe of the female crab is amazing – like a cross between foie gras and the yolk of a salty duck egg. All imbued with crabby essence!
For some reason, even though Yancheng Lake, where the crabs are from, is very close to Shanghai, the crabs in SH are very expensive. They start at around $60RMB a pc, whereas in Hong Kong, I found very fresh, sizable hairy crabs selling for $100HKD / 5pcs. HK > SH!!
The restaurant we ate at seemed to specialize in all kinds of seafood dishes, we saw clippings on the wall praising a sea urchin soup – served in shell. Yum! Unfortunately they didnt have this soup so we settled on another of the restaurant’s specialities, seafood fried rice with roe. After a bite of this dish, I’ve decided that all fried rice should have roe in it! The eggs had such a nice refreshing crunch. The rice was also expertly prepared, neither soggy nor undercooked – “good wok-foh (wok fire)” as my mom would say.
We left with our bellies full and all fell asleep in the cab back. Good work, team!
$$
Happy Seafood Restaurant
Roundabout at Lau Fau Shan, Yuen Long
New Territories, Hong Kong
+852 2472 3450
Tags: hairy crab, Hong Kong, lau fau shan, mantis shrimp, oysters, seafood
