Seafood restaurants are not the only choice for crab lovers. Many eateries in Beijing offer very good crab dishes. The best crab I've ever had this year, for example, is at Da Dong Peking roast duck restaurant. The crab, simply steamed, and served with a pot of warm ginger and black sugar tea, weighed heavy in the hand, and the belly and legs were bulging with white meat.

Chef Dong Zhenxiang also makes a delicious egg custard with butter crab roe and milt. The texture, the smoothness of the roe, milt and egg make it one of the best crab creations I've had. The only shortcoming would be a bit of seafood smell in the aftertaste, which can be covered with a glass of warm ginger tea or, even better, with yellow rice wine.

Another unexpected place to enjoy Chinese mitten crab is Din Tai Fung, the Taiwan eatery famous for its steamed stuffed buns. Besides steamed crabs, steamed buns with crab roe are highly recommended. They offer a gratifying chewing sensation when you take a bite of the juicy pods of crab roe and meat.

Every year, a river crab promotional campaign starts around early October. In fact, crabs get increasingly tasty as the weather gets colder. Dong says the best time to enjoy female crabs is after mid-October, and male crabs, after mid-November.