Fried Spicy Crab @ Thirty Three Rooms 三十三间堂

One of the most popular Sichuan cuisine dishes around is fried spicy crab (香辣蟹). Thirty Three Rooms Restaurant (三十三间堂) is one of the more popular restaurants in Shenzhen China that specializes in fried spicy crab and the restaurant does it with their own particular style and taste.

When I settled down on the table to order your food, the first thing I ordered was the crab. There are usually two kinds of crab. First, the normal crab which is usually puny in size, about two to three inches across the shell. Then there is the Bangladesh king crab (孟加拉蟹王) which is the bigger crab, spanning four to five inches across the shell. Pictured below is the basket at the front of the restaurants containing the Bangladesh king crabs from which I selected a larger specimen weighing a kilogram.



The fried spicy crab (香辣蟹) arrived in a black iron pot that is about a foot in diameter. As part of a promotion incentive from the restaurant, an additional pound of shrimp was also added to the dish free of charge. The crab is cooked in a mix of chili, peppercorn, plenty of onions, peanuts, ginger and other Sichuan spices. The result is a potent mixture of spicy and fragrant food, along with the occasional numbness if you accidentally chewed a peppercorn by mistake. You have to be very careful in eating the food as first time attempts at chewing peppercorn usually ends up with swollen lips and tongue. If you ever try this dish, do make sure you pick out the bits of onion as the natural sweetness of the onion, fused with the spicy oil, makes an excellent topping to go with your white rice.



In addition to the spicy fried crab, we ordered the pork with taro (香芋扣肉). The pork is sinfully fat but excellent and from the picture, you cannot see the taro which is underneath the layer of pork. The combination is tasty but a bit heavy going.



The fried bamboo shoots (香箭脆笋) was pretty well done. The bamboo shoots were well selected as they were tender and crisp.



Finally, we ordered the goose gizzard fried with yellow peppers (黄椒炒鹅胗). I found this dish to be a tad bit too greasy and the gizzard was leaning towards tough. The thing with gizzard is that you need to put in the appropriate amount of cooking time into the dish or the gizzard will be tough on your jaw muscles. Chewing the goose gizzard was heavier going than a high impact aerobic exercise for the jaws. The chef clearly did not put the cooking time needed to tenderize the gizzard and this ruined an otherwise excellent dish.



In all, other than the house special fried spicy crab, the rest of the food was average or above average and I would highly recommend going there just for the crab and minimizing the rest of the food you order.

The address:
Thirty Three Rooms Crab Restaurant, Second floor, Donghai Plaza, Nongyuan Road, Futian District, Shenzhen 三十三间堂 深圳福田农园路东海购物广场二楼
Getting there using my Shenzhen Food Map



Other Sichuan restaurants reviewed:
Xianguomen Sichuan Restaurant 香锅门川菜馆
Another Village in Bashu Sichuan Restaurant 巴蜀又一村川菜馆
Baguobuyi Sichuan Restaurant 巴国布衣川菜馆