The year on the plate

Despite coronavirus lockdowns, social media and online delivery platforms have helped drive new food trends in 2020

The allure of the she-crab

With sunny-bright and reddish-orange crab roe as the highlight, pu khai dong is undeniably one of the most crowd-pleasing dishes of 2020.

Pu khai literally means “egg-bearing female crab”, while dong means “to pickle”.

However, when referring to the phenomenally popular dish, pu khai dong is in fact a raw she-crab that’s been chilled for a few hours in a marinade mixture of fish sauce and sugar.

Ideally, the crab must come fresh from the ocean and the most commonly used are the blue swimming crab and sea crab.

Since the fast marination process doesn’t lead to fermentation, basically what you end up eating…