Crayfish are expensive everywhere now, whether you order them from a big restaurant or grab them from a roadside stall. If you really want to eat your fill, it can easily cost around 200 yuan. Then I found out that live crayfish are actually pretty affordable, so I decided to figure it out and cook a whole pot myself.

What goes into it

Main ingredients: crayfish, bird’s eye chilies, scallions, ginger, garlic, beer

Braised spice mix: star anise, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, dried chilies, Sichuan peppercorns

Seasonings: rock sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, salt, sugar, cooking wine, chicken bouillon

Vegetables: lotus root, king oyster mushrooms, bamboo shoots

It looks like a long ingredient list, but most of it is very common and easy to find. For the braising spices, a pre-packed spice sachet would probably work too.

As for the vegetables, lotus root and whole garlic cloves are especially good in this kind of dish. You can swap things around based on what you like. Enoki mushrooms or onion would also fit right in.

Clean the crayfish properly first

As soon as the crayfish get home, soak them in water. They eat just about anything, so they carry a lot of mud. During transport they’re often packed in foam boxes, and they claw at the box the whole way, so that grime needs to be washed off too.

That sludge in the water is what they spit out after soaking.

Scrub the underside of each crayfish with a toothbrush or something similar, because the belly area can still be dirty. The easiest way is to grab them by the neck so they can’t really fight back, then brush them directly.

If any are already dead, smell them and throw out anything that has a bad odor. Don’t try to save them out of thrift.

Prep the aromatics

Set aside the scallions, ginger, and garlic. For the garlic, mince some of it into a paste and leave some as whole cloves.

There’s no strict quantity for the star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, dried chilies, or Sichuan peppercorns. This dish is all about personal preference.

Heat oil in a wok or pot and lightly fry the minced garlic first, then remove it and keep it for later.

Don’t be stingy with the garlic if you want that garlicky style. For 500 grams of crayfish, at least 10 heads of garlic would not be excessive. The original plan here was actually a garlic-forward version, but I ended up short on garlic and heavy on chilies instead.

Build the broth

Add scallions, ginger, garlic, chopped bird’s eye chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, and rock sugar to the pot and stir-fry until the sugar melts. You can use a bit more oil at this stage.

Then pour in the beer, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, salt, and sugar. Bring it to a boil, then add the crayfish. The liquid should cover them.

For this batch, I used three large cans of beer. Add water if you want, but beer-only feels more committed. The rest of the seasoning is best adjusted by taste. Crayfish dishes are usually bold and heavily seasoned anyway, so there’s no real need to obsess over exact measurements.

Add the vegetables and cook through

Once the crayfish stop struggling, add the vegetables. If the broth tastes weak, season more at this point.

After the vegetables go in, keep simmering uncovered for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Then turn off the heat, cover the pot tightly, and let it sit for about 30 minutes so the flavors soak in. Don’t leave any gaps in the lid. This resting step is mainly for flavor, but it also keeps the crayfish warm, since they’re best eaten hot.

The finished pot

I was worried I wouldn’t have enough to eat, so I sliced in half a lotus root. In the end it turned out so spicy that I barely dared touch the lotus root at all.

To cut the richness, watermelon and cucumber were a great idea alongside it.

One thing worth keeping in mind: sometimes a dead crayfish won’t smell especially bad while you’re scrubbing it. But if one breaks apart during cooking, or the meat inside is black, throw it away. It’s not worth gambling with your health.

Why this meal feels right

Another World Cup is coming around again, and somehow crayfish and beer always fit that mood perfectly.

I remember one match very clearly from the 2014 World Cup: June 27, the United States against Germany. It was the night before my college graduation. I figured I should watch the game with something good to eat, so I bought crayfish for the first time. I still remember the price: 12 yuan for 8 of them.

Maybe they were badly cooked, maybe they weren’t fresh, or maybe I just didn’t know how to eat them back then. I spent ages studying one of them and ended up throwing the whole thing out.

Two years later, when the Warcraft movie came out, a group of old friends met up in Changchun. Before the movie started, we ordered a huge basin of crayfish. After everyone collectively worked out how to eat them properly, that whole bowl disappeared fast.

Both memories stuck with me.

After moving and starting to live on my own, I still hadn’t really made any serious meal for myself. Maybe I’d cooked porridge once, and that was about it. Then I happened to hear how cheap live crayfish were, got curious, looked through a few different recipes, and came up with this version.

I was pretty happy with the result. The only problem was that it was seriously, aggressively spicy.

Price-wise, it comes out to at least half of what you’d spend eating crayfish out. For around 40 yuan, this batch had roughly 25 crayfish.

Crayfish, beer, football — that combination is hard to beat.