(photo by leslie scurry)
When I first saw it, it looked like a mirage. Piles and piles of garlic sand with a little stray vegetation and some discarded well-cooked shells. The image waved in and out of my vision and then it was gone. I was snapped out of my reverie by the blank television screen and the sound of the TiVo going completely off it's rails; all that was left was a smoking pile of DVR machinery.
Once Mr. TiVo regained it's composure and a new hard disk, the image reappeared and I realized that it looked too real to be a mirage. I knew that I had get to Under Bridge Spicy Crab to witness the huge pile of fried garlic and scallions heaped up around irregular chunks of crab shell filled with ocean-sweet crab meat for myself pronto. But how? I wasn't even planning a trip to China let alone Hong Kong. So it was relegated to that set of food fever-dreams that I get every three weeks or so...
(photo by don louv)
Given all this, it was hard to imagine that I'd get to experience this dish at all this year let alone twice. The first time was on business and the second on "...but the devil's..." staff excuse to stuff face in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Truth be told, I was too overwhelmed the first time to write about Under Bridge. I didn't want to think about anything else but devouring whatever was put on the table. I'm positive that the words were there but they simply wouldn't work their way down to my fingers. The feasting was all there was.
The second time around, there was plenty to gab about: the clams with black bean and chili sauce, the gai lan with chili and garlic and the huge plate of deep fried crab/garlic/scallions that literally brought tears to my eyes - all that chili oil tends to "float" - the whole shebang was worth every soaked napkin, spilled spot of sauce and crab shell shrapnel that didn't end up in a mouth.
Under Bridge has got quite an extensive seafood menu and you could get away without eating their crab and still be very, very satisfied. But the crab is really the star of the show and not ordering it would be the equivalent of going to Cut or Craftsteak and ordering a Textured-Soy-Protein "steak". And from the time that your crab is presented to you (before it is cooked) to the pile of shell discards and stray garlic bits that are left when you are done, it's a real experience.
(photo by wm. christman)
The warm up to the crab event consisted of two plates: the clams and the gai lan. I'm pretty sure that I could eat several plates of the clams on a regular basis. The slightly briny clams are coated with a pungent black bean sauce with a chili smack that doesn't sneak up on you and much as knock you in the head with slurp after slurp. Half way through this dish and you quickly realize that it's going to be a messy evening. And since it's going in that direction, why not grab some juicy gai lan with your bean-sauce-coated fingers and shove those in there for good measure. OOG...CAVEMAN FOOD EAT GOOD.
(photo by wm. christman)
When the crab arrives, you feel yourself mentally buckling a bit under the fact that you're going to dive into this molten plate of goodness way before it has cooled a little bit, risking tongue and hands, because it just smells so damn good. The garlic is so heaped up that it's the natural thing to start with. Deep frying browns it without burning it and drives off all of the bitter oils (like roasting garlic cloves does) and leaves sweet and crunchy bits. The chili oil provides the impetus to grab forkful after forkful, and you've got the greatest excuse to do that because that is how you get to the crab.
Even though the crab is fresh (it is presented to you, live and wrapped in what looks like a fundoshi (a sumo wrestler's loin cloth) for your approval before it is cooked), deep frying tends to weld the meat to the insides of the shells so you're going to do some work to get at that succulent meat. But you're not dipping it into any sort of sauce, save for chili oil that ends up at the bottom of the plate which you'll go back to again and again, so sit back, and start digging away. Remember the part about this being a messy meal? Don't be shy. Dive right in. You'll need/want a shower afterward. Maybe even a post-crab cigarette...
Before you know it, the crab shells are all that is left, the scallions are a mere memory and the plate is nearly licked clean of garlic. You may even find yourself rooting around in the shell debris for extra morsels. The clams and gai lan, if you didn't polish them off before the crab, are take out candidates for eating a few hours later when you need to fix yourself up. And like with so many other places in Hong Kong, you're left wondering "when am I going to get back here next...".
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Under Bridge Spicy Crab, Shop 6-9, G/F, 429 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, ph. 2573 7698
