Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis): Foods It Cannot Be Eaten With, the Best Time to Eat It, and Its Producing Areas

The Chinese mitten crab generally refers to Eriocheir sinensis, a highly renowned delicacy in China. Its meat is delicious and nutritious, and it is said to nourish the bone marrow, enrich liver yin, replenish gastric juices, strengthen the tendons and invigorate blood circulation, and treat boils and resolve lumps. So, what should the Chinese mitten crab not be eaten with? When should it be eaten? Where is it most delicious?

1. What should the Chinese mitten crab not be eaten with?

1. It should not be eaten with cold-natured foods such as ice water, ice cream, pears, and muskmelon. The Chinese mitten crab is a cold-natured food, and eating it together with other cold-natured foods harms the stomach and intestines and easily causes diarrhea.

2. It should not be eaten with tea. Tea dilutes gastric juices and affects the sterilizing effect, and tea contains tannic acid, which when it meets the protein in the Chinese mitten crab coagulates into tannin protein. The coagulated substance remains in the intestines for a long time, and after fermentation can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.

3. It should not be eaten with persimmons. Both are cold-natured, and eating them together harms the spleen and stomach. Persimmons contain tannic acid, and the Chinese mitten crab contains protein; when they meet, they coagulate into tannin protein, which hinders digestion, lingers in the intestines and ferments, causing symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

4. It should not be eaten with peanuts. Peanuts are high in fat and are a greasy food, while the Chinese mitten crab is a cold, purgative food; eating the two together easily causes diarrhea.

5. It should not be eaten with loach. Loach is warm-natured and tonifying, while the Chinese mitten crab is cold and purgative; the two have opposite effects and are not suitable to eat together.

6. It should not be eaten with pumpkin, quail eggs, tomatoes, honey, etc., as this can cause poisoning.

7. It should not be eaten with mulberries or celery, as this affects protein absorption and lowers nutritional value.

8. It should not be eaten with shiitake mushrooms, sweet potato, or jicama, as this can form stones in the body.

9. It should not be eaten with beer, otherwise it produces too much uric acid, thereby triggering gout.

2. What other dietary taboos are there for the Chinese mitten crab?

1. Some people cannot eat the Chinese mitten crab, such as those with a weak and cold spleen and stomach, those with too high cholesterol, hepatitis patients, those with colds and fever, patients with cholecystitis or gallstones, people with an allergic constitution, the elderly, and pregnant women. The Chinese mitten crab is cold-natured, and eating it can easily cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, and other symptoms in those with a weak and cold spleen and stomach; the Chinese mitten crab is relatively high in cholesterol, and eating it can raise cholesterol levels in those with too high cholesterol, and can cause a relapse or worsening of the condition in patients with cholecystitis or gallstones; the Chinese mitten crab is rich in protein, which is not easy to digest and absorb, and can worsen the condition of hepatitis patients and make it hard for those with colds and fever to recover; in people with an allergic constitution, eating it can cause smooth muscle spasms and angioedema in some, hives or asthma in others, and can even worsen skin diseases in some; the elderly should not eat much of it due to the decline of bodily functions, and pregnant women should not eat much of it either.

2. Some parts of the Chinese mitten crab cannot be eaten, including the gills, stomach, intestine, heart, and shell. The gills are the respiratory organs of the Chinese mitten crab and the dirtiest part of the body, the main place where parasites live, and must be removed; the stomach is also very dirty, containing the excrement of the Chinese mitten crab, and must be picked out; the intestine is the tube connecting the stomach and the navel of the Chinese mitten crab, also containing excrement, and must be removed; the heart grows in the middle of the crab roe, connected to the stomach, and is also not very clean, and must be thrown away; the shell is relatively hard and is generally not eaten, and must be thrown away.

3. Dead, overnight, raw, or drunken Chinese mitten crabs cannot be eaten. Only live Chinese mitten crabs should be eaten; after the protein in a dead Chinese mitten crab decomposes, it produces crab poison alkaloids; Chinese mitten crabs are generally steamed and eaten fresh, and reheating an overnight Chinese mitten crab can cause histamine poisoning; the body of the Chinese mitten crab contains lung fluke larvae eggs, and eating raw or drunken Chinese mitten crabs can induce paragonimiasis, causing coughing and coughing up blood, and if the virus enters the brain it can also cause paralysis.

4. The Chinese mitten crab should not be eaten in large amounts, because it is cold-natured and contains very high cholesterol, so it should not be eaten in excess; generally, a person should not eat more than 1 jin at a time.

3. When should the Chinese mitten crab be eaten?

Folk sayings about the Chinese mitten crab include “when the autumn wind rises, the crab's legs itch; round navel in the ninth month, pointed in the tenth” and “males in the ninth, females in the tenth”, meaning that female crabs are eaten in the ninth lunar month and male crabs in the tenth. Because the Chinese mitten crab is a cold-natured food, it is not suitable to eat in the morning or at night; it can be eaten at noon when yang energy is strongest. If eaten at night, it is best paired with baijiu, while morning is the time when the human body raises its yang energy, so it is not suitable to eat then.

4. Where is the Chinese mitten crab most delicious?

By producing area, Chinese mitten crabs can be divided into river crabs, Yangtze River crabs, and lake crabs. River crabs from Hebei and Tianjin are delicious, Yangtze River crabs from Nanjing are delicious, and lake crabs from Yangcheng Lake in Changshu, Jiangsu, and Weishan Lake in Shandong are delicious. Among these, the most famous is the Yangcheng Lake Chinese mitten crab, long known as the crown of crabs, and there was once a lovely poem: “If not for the fine taste of Yangcheng crab, why spend one's life in Suzhou?”