Crayfish with prune sauce by the Shanghai Classical Hotel. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
Shanghai Old-Town Temple Restaurant (Group) Co, the management organization of many popular restaurants at Yuyuan Garden, has partnered the government of Xuyi, a county renowned for its freshwater crustaceans in East China's Jiangsu province, to roll out a crayfish festival.
Dining establishments including Lubolang Restaurant, which used to host celebrities like Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. former president Bill Clinton, have hired Michelin-starred chefs to prepare a special menu that revolves around the crayfish.
Spicy crayfish by the Shanghai Classical Hotel. [(Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
The delicacy is evidently also a favorite among soccer fans during the ongoing World Cup in Russia. Some 100,000 crayfish from Hubei province have been transported to Russia during the tournament period.
According to a report released by the China Cuisine Association earlier this year, China's favorite dish of 2017 was the crayfish, which had a market value exceeding $14 billion.