Wood-fired stove powers the seafood boil/steam. Fish, tofu, and turnips go in first. Then a broth is added (no pic). That cooks for a bit. A rack is placed in and then blue crabs and shrimp are added. Those steam for a bit, then shellfish are added. Finally, everything is done. Dipping sauces were, from my estimation, sweet soy and a very strong wasabi-type sauce.
Accompanying dishes were: a tempura-like fried shrimp (shells perfectly crispy), cold jellyfish soup (heat from ginger or the shredded radish I think), cucumber salad with abalone (this cucumber is only grown in Haiyang [I took a box home with me]), sea turtle (hardly anyone ate it), cornbread (just like I had imagined it would be), and pickled claw meat.
As usual, I sensed our hosts developing fatigue from all my questions. (Not to mention our little translator.) But I’ll add any other details if I can remember.
What a feast! The wood fired aspect certainly adds to the experience. I was looking at the claws with the chiles and thinking that it looks delicious, and that I would make a mess of my meal. I would skip the turtle, too. There are some animals that I choose not to eat and turtles are in that club.
This would be a meal I would really want to have a local with me to explain how to eat it properly without wasting claw meat or how to get the meat out of the medium sized crabs efficiently.
Blue crabs. (Not as good as Maryland, but could not have been fresher.) We ate the roe and the meat. It was fun to show them how we go through a blue crab in Baltimore.
I’m not sure why they pickle the claws. It seemed like something to nibble at while taking a break from other food. My friend from Fuzhou said they have something similar.
