Huizhou Drunken Crab

Huizhou Drunken Crab

　　A famous Huizhou-style snack.

　　　　Preparation: The ingredients include four live crabs, each weighing three liang (about 150g), soy sauce, Huizhou Scenery Wine, garlic cloves, ginger, rock sugar, Sichuan peppercorns, salt, and some sorghum liquor. Clean the crabs thoroughly and drain all water; take one liang of Sichuan peppercorns and one jin of fine salt, stir-fry them in a pan until fragrant, then remove, let cool, and measure out four qian (about 16g) to use. Bash the ginger, pry open the crab’s navel flap, squeeze out any dirt from inside the navel, sprinkle a small pinch of salt and one Sichuan peppercorn inside, then close it up. Next, break off one tip of a crab claw and insert it from the top of the navel flap to secure it, then place the crab in a small jar. Pour in the soy sauce, then add Huizhou Scenery Wine (or Huangshan Honey Wine), ginger chunks, garlic cloves, and rock sugar, and finally pour in the sorghum liquor. Seal the jar with oiled paper over the mouth. After one week, the crab can be opened and eaten. The crab meat is greenish with a slight yellow tint, sweet in flavor, and rich with wine aroma. It can be bought in its original jar as a gift for relatives and friends.