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HAIRY CRABS AND foreign mooncakes have reared their ugly heads in China's financial capital.

It's not an epidemic, nor an invasion from outer space, but the arrival of two delicacies which hit the Shanghai market this autumn - one traditional and one a new twist on an old idea.

The hairy crab season started several days early this year for reasons known only to nature. But prices are 30 per cent lower than last year, the second year prices have scuttled lower.

The dark green crustacean is literally called 'big floodgate crab' in Chinese because fishermen used to trap them with floodgates according to one local expert. The name also sounds better than 'big sluice gate crab', another translation.

The source of the English name, which is obviously not a literal translation, is murky.

Some say the spines on the legs of the crab resemble hair.

Hairy crabs are considered a Shanghai delicacy although most are raised in nearby Jiangsu province. The city consumes 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes of hairy crab a year, local media reports.

At the Cao'an Market in northern Shanghai, hawkers have several theories on why the bottom fell out of the crab market.

With booming sales last year, more people scurried to raise crabs causing an oversupply, and providing a key lesson to entrepreneurs in China's new market economy.

The crab survival rate, the key gauge of how many of the critters make it past puberty, also rose this year.

One can only hope this was not accomplished by producers sprinkling antibiotics in the water. The European Union has barred imports of some Chinese seafood after finding traces of a banned antibiotic.

The final culprit for falling prices is less demand from Hong Kong and other overseas markets, sellers said. Hong Kong's weak economy and a magazine report last year which alleged high levels of veterinary drugs in mainland crabs have pinched demand.

China also exports to Southeast Asia and Japan, but the biggest market is still Hong Kong. At Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport, Dragonair used to post a sign showing a cartoon crab with an 'X' drawn over it to stop people from hauling crabs back to Hong Kong.

The trussed-up crabs are steamed and served with dipping vinegar.

Aficionados say female crabs taste better than male crabs, and any self-respecting Shanghai resident can tell the two apart.

The Shanghai Daily  newspaper has this recommendation: 'October is considered the best month for females, since they are then full of rich orange roe. November is best for males, who are slower to reach their prime.'

An average-sized crab of 125 grams to 150 grams costs 52 yuan (about HK$49) for a female, and 35 yuan for a male.

Gourmands can chase that hairy crab with a mooncake.

Mooncakes, eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, are typically stuffed with lotus seed and red beans.

Alongside customary fare, 'foreign' mooncakes made with ice cream, coffee and chocolate and sold by Haagen-Dazs, Starbucks and Mars made a big hit this year.

With China's entry to the World Trade Organisation, even traditional Chinese snacks have to worry about foreign competition. The industry group for mooncakes, the China Baked Food and Sweets Industry Association, could not be reached for comment. Yes, this organisation really exists.

But China's stance on the foreign mooncake intrusion is clear: WTO will bring both challenges and opportunities. The opportunities outweigh the challenges.

Some Chinese have taken a patriotic stand, refusing to consume the foreign product.

'I won't buy those foreign mooncakes,' Xinhua quoted a Beijing resident as saying in a report headlined Exotic moon cakes fail to tempt Chinese.

But many in Shanghai have snapped up foreign mooncakes as a welcome alternative to fillings like salted duck egg yolks. Traditional mooncakes are the Chinese version of the Western Christmas fruitcake - dense, endlessly passed around and rarely eaten in entirety.

Even in Nanjing, where a local producer scandalised the nation last year after state television showed footage of its workers recycling old filling, mooncakes were selling like hot cakes.

On a recent visit to the city, residents said Guanshengyuan was suffering from financial problems due to the bad publicity.

The company's workers were shown taking out the filling of the past season's mooncakes and inserting it into freshly baked pastry. Guanshengyuan denied any wrongdoing.

The China Baked Food and Sweets Industry Association is now drafting industry guidelines for the pastry.

The rules will set new standards for mooncakes, including the proper ingredients and the amounts used.

Chinese mooncake-makers will have to fight the foreign onslaught by coming up with their own unique flavours.

Anyone for a hairy crab mooncake?



New renditions  of an old idea  make way to  finance capital