Taean on the Table

Addictive Flavors
of Deep-Fried and Braised Blue Crab

Crabs are tasty regardless of how they are cooked. Some of the most popular crab dishes are soy
sauce-marinated crab, spicy marinated crab, and gaegukji, blue crab & kimchi soup. Here is another
blue crab dish that is savory and scrumptious.

📝Text by. Editorial Team  /  🎨Illustrated . Gyeol

Sweet & Sour Blue Crab

  • Taean is the No. 1 city known for blue crabs. Blue Crab Bridge is one of the city’s major landmarks with many restaurants specializing in blue crab dishes. The giant blue crab sculpture standing at the entrance of the fish market near the beach shows that this is indeed the city of blue crabs.

    In spring, blue crabs get fat and fleshy as they get ready for their breeding season. So they taste best in spring. The best-known local specialty dish featuring blue crabs is “gaegukji” or crab soup, but blue crabs are cooked in various ways. Deep-fried and braised blue crab is best when eaten with a warm bowl of rice, but it also makes for a great side dish when drinking beer. Since deep-fried and braised blue crabs are served in bite sizes, it is important to clean and prepare them properly. Crabs often have dirt or other unwanted stuff stuck to the shell, so you have to scrub the crab shells nice and clean with a small brush before cutting them into bite sizes. Normally, crabs are cut in half, but into four pieces for kids. Then, you have to cut the claws and legs off at 2-3 cm from the tips so that they do not scratch the inside of the tongue. Then, bite-size crab pieces are coated in potato starch, deep-fried, and covered in sweet-spicy sauce. The recipe is simple, but the crispy shells and the plump, sweet crab meat in the sweet, sour, and spicy sauce create a storm of flavors in your mouth.

    • Ingredients
      400 g blue crabs, black pepper, salt, 1/2 cup potato starch, cooking oil, bell pepper, onion, sliced almonds
    • Sauce
      2T gochujang(red pepper paste), 1t soy sauce, 2T sugar, 1T vinegar, 1T oligosaccharide, 1T ketchup, pepper, red 1 chili pepper
    • Directions
      1. Clean the crabs and cut them in half.
      2. Sprinkle ground pepper and salt over the crabs to marinate.
      3. Coat the crabs with potato starch and deep-fry them in a preheated cooking oil.
      4. Put all the ingredients of the sauce in a pan and boil them briefly until nicely blended.
      5. Let the sauce cool. Slice the onion and bell pepper into cubes. Mix the fried crabs and the vegetables in the sauce.
      6. Top with sliced almonds and serve.
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