A guest enjoys a feast made from field crab in Cua Dong Restaurant. (Inset) A bowl of field crab paste soup with vermicelli.

Cua dong, a species of crab living in rice fields across Vietnam, are used to prepare a wide range of delectable dishes throughout the country.

Cua Dong Restaurant serves a large array of field crab preparations including field crabs fried with tamarind, field crab salad, field crabs with chili sauce, field crab paste porridge, and vermicelli with field crab paste sour soup. It also serves up rice with field crab paste vegetable soup along with a few other northern Vietnamese dishes.

Field crabs generally breed in Vietnam’s rural areas during the rainy season. Trappers place bamboo cages near their caves and then sell bunches of crabs by the kilogram.

Thanks to its pleasing bamboo decor and reasonably priced dishes, the Cua Dong Restaurant has long been a favorite amongst locals and visitors alike. The restaurant serves up a host of traditional favorites as well as some original creations as well.

Among the many field crab dishes available, field crab paste soup is the most popular. To prepare this dish, the field crabs are first cleaned and their shells are removed. The body of the crab is then ground up and water is added. The mixture is kneaded and the resulting juice is boiled in a saucepan. The precipitate that emerges is the paste. Finally, fresh vegetables and seasoning are added to the final dish.

Crab eggs can also be added to the meal, which is typically served with vermicelli.

At HCMC’s Cua Dong Restaurant, most field crab dishes cost around VND15,000-25,000 (US$0.90-1.60).

Reported by Diem Thu