Speaking of eating hairy crabs, China has a history of eating crabs for nearly 5,000 years. In the Yangtze River Delta, when archaeologists excavated Songze culture in Qingpu, Shanghai, and Liangzhu culture in Yuhang, Zhejiang, they found that there were a large number of crab shells in the waste eaten by our ancestors. This shows that China people have a long history of eating crabs, while some countries in Western Europe and North America still dare not eat river crabs. After a long period of historical precipitation, people found that Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs produced in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China have the best quality. Therefore, it is famous.
So why is Yangcheng Lake crab commonly called "hairy crab"? Bao Xiaotian once wrote an essay on the history of hairy crabs, saying that the word "hairy crabs" came from the mouth of a crab seller in Suzhou. People always like to eat crabs before dinner, or at the initiative. Therefore, these crab sellers always pick up the burden in the afternoon and shout along the street:' crabs come to hairy crabs'. "The word" Zha "has the same sound as" SA ".(SA means boiled water in Wu dialect) Crabs eat by boiling with water, which is called" SA Crab ". This explanation is not satisfactory. He "one day, in Wu Neshi's house for a crab feast (Neshi Nai Lake Sail). During the dinner, Bao Xiaotian explained the name of "Hairy Crab": "The word" gate "is good. Anyone who catches crabs must set up a gate in the harbor, which is made of bamboo. At night, the gate is separated, and when the crab sees the fire, it climbs up the bamboo gate, that is, it is very convenient to catch them one by one on the gate, which is why it is called" gate crab ". "There is Mr. Zhang Weiyi, a native of Kunshan, whose home is near Yangcheng Lake, and he knows why."
A bamboo gate is a bamboo hairpin. The crabs caught on the bamboo hairpin are called gate crabs, and the big ones are called hairy crabs.