Smash and crab: where to find soft-shell crab in Melbourne
This mild-flavoured meat is becoming increasingly popular across the city.
Soft-shell crabs are scuttling on to menus all over town, turning up in salads, tacos and bao. Fitzroy's Hammer & Tong is even planning a food van based on its popular crab burger.
Chef Paul Wilson, consultant chef at Icebergs in Sydney, got Melbourne diners talking when he served up soft-shell crab in a taco at the relaunched Newmarket Hotel in St Kilda in 2010. More recently he's experimented with cooking the mildly flavoured meat a la bolognese diavolo, a pasta sauce with chilli, tomatoes, herbs and pinot grigio, and plans to have it on the Icebergs menu in spring.
At Richmond's Top Paddock, chef Jesse McTavish says soft-shell crab burgers are the top-selling dish. He makes about 250 a week, using Queensland mud crabs, house-made lime mayo, a soft brioche bun and a microherb, fennel and dill salad. While customers occasionally balk at the $20 price tag, the crab alone costs up to $6.50 wholesale, he says.
The Brisbane-based aquaculturist raises various types of crab, including sand, mud and blue swimmer.
Most of the soft-shell crab on Melbourne menus arrives frozen in 1kg bags from Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand. However, a few are home-grown. Brisbane-based Watermark Seafoods is the country’s only wholesale supplier of Australian fresh soft-shell mud crabs, which are raised in far north Queensland.
It's a laborious process. The crabs are harvested in the short time between when their shells moult and the new ones grow and harden, which happens in a matter of days.
Australian-produced soft-shell crabs aren't sold to home cooks, but if you'd like to try cooking with imported crab, look for clean, well-packaged frozen crustacea with no broken claws or legs. Thaw in the fridge overnight, and rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Wilson suggests crumbing them in panko crumbs seasoned with chopped dried wakame before deep-frying.
Where to try soft-shell crab
Carlton Wine Room, Carlton: Chilli soft-shell crab with herb aioli.
Hammer & Tong, Fitzroy: Soft-shell crab burger.
Newmarket Hotel, St Kilda: Soft-shell crab tacos with fennel, corn and spiced tomatillo.
Orient East, Melbourne: Black pepper soft-shell crab buns.
Top Paddock, Richmond: Fresh soft-shell Queensland mud crab roll with fennel, dill and lime mayonnaise in a brioche bun.
Vue de Monde, Melbourne: Crab Shack - Queensland soft-shell mud crab served on planks of wood with coastal plants.
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Roslyn Grundy is Good Food's deputy editor and the former editor of The Age Good Food Guide.