For a long time, crab soup has become a typical dish in the Vietnamese cuisine for its appetizing taste and food value.
In the past, finding a crab was very easy since Vietnamese people were still closely connected with working in the fields.
Normally, in burning hot days of June, when people begin to sow rice seeds, just go along paths at the edge of rice field and thrust hand into small holes, we would easily find crabs.
However, it is still that easy to buy crab today, since farmers still catch them, and then sell a lot in the market; and crap soup is still popular and highly preferred.
The ingredients used to cook crap soup are also simple and easy to find. They include field crab, ferment (we can also use tamarind or dracontomelum), green onion, coriander and tomato.
Clean the craps, remember to take out all soft – shelled craps since they would create stink. Then remove their carapace and get the crap – roe. Clean the crabs again and grind them with a little salt.
Next, pour the ground crab into water and filter it to get the first water of the crab. Cook that water with a few spices on small fire so that it will boil steadily but not overflow.
After that, mix crap – roe with frying onion, and steam to make it turn into yellow.
Cut tomatoes into slices, then fry, make them well – kneaded, and mix them with fermented water. Pour this mixture into the boiling crap water. Add some spices into the pot. Finally, pour the steamed crap – roe and green onion over.
Sour crap soup can be served with rice or vermicelli rice and some kinds of vegetables such as lettuce, coriandrum sativum or bindweed.
A bowl of crap soup looks so colorful with the green of onion, yellow of crab – roe, red of tomato and brown of crap. Especially, the flavor it brings is so delicious that everyone would like to taste it again after the first try.
Although it came from the rustic lives in the countryside, crap soup gradually has become very popular and highly evaluated for its special taste and food value.
