TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taipei’s Michelin-starred Circum- is challenging conventional fine dining this fall with its annual crab feast, a shell-free spectacle intended to let diners focus solely on the flavor.
Head Chef Leo Lo (羅偉誠) orchestrates a culinary journey, breaking down the essence of seven major crab species using techniques that span Cantonese, Sichuan, and Japanese Kaiseki traditions.
The success of the feast, which features king crab, snow crab, mitten crab, and others, is rooted in Lo's bold subtraction philosophy for high-quality broth. He said that he deliberately avoids the long, rich flavor profile of classic French stocks to prevent them from overpowering the delicate crab taste.
Instead, Lo sharply reduces simmering time and removes vegetables, relying only on Chinese scallions and ginger to achieve a clean, sweet finish akin to a simple home-style chicken soup. This clarity provides the purest stage for the seasonal crab.
To ensure the luxurious, mouth-only, hands-free experience, Lo's team commits at least six hours daily to meticulously hand-shelling the crab. The kitchen maintains a high standard through a mandatory double-check rotation system.
The menu translates classic dishes into modern expressions. The opening, monkfish liver, Huadiao wine, and monaka, is an ode to drunken crab. It combines the rich roe of mitten crab with snow crab meat, blended with monkfish liver soaked in Shaoxing wine sauce, served on a crisp Japanese monaka wafer.
A tribute to the Jiangnan dish crab roe tofu stew, the lobster, old hen, and Jinhua ham course utilizes the fatty roe of brown crab as a base sauce, layered with chicken-broth steamed egg and mushrooms, topped with charcoal-grilled Boston lobster. It is finished with a stock that marries Jinhua ham and brown crab meat.
The sea urchin, taro, and water chestnut is inspired by the Cantonese litchi-taro stuffed crab. It features a crunchy fried taro shell mixed with kegani roe, containing a core of male and female sand crab meat, roe, water chestnut, and celery, served over a sea urchin shrimp sauce.
The feast continues with flavors inspired by Chaoshan’s raw fish culture: fish sauce, citrus, and spices showcase brown crab meat tossed in an aromatic, spicy sauce, balanced by the zest of citrus and finger lime.
Lo also pairs the crispy flavor of Hong Kong's typhoon shelter crab with the warmth of Chaoshan congee in the dish fermented black bean, garlic, and erjingtiao chili, which presents king crab legs poached in roasted crab shell oil alongside sweet taro rice congee.
The meal culminates in courses that demonstrate technical refinement. Caviar, bird’s nest, and yam are a take on Cantonese crab roe bird’s nest soup, featuring snow crab and Japanese yam Shinjo set in chicken and Jinhua ham broth jelly, topped with caviar.
The main course elevates mapo tofu rice with Wagyu, aged fermented bean paste, cod milt, and crab meat.
Finally, to counteract the crab's cooling properties, the dessert incorporates warming ginger and brown sugar with fruit elements like pineapple and pumpkin, providing a comforting finish.
The autumn crab lunch set is priced at NT$2,480 (US$80), and the dinner set is NT$4,980. Online reservations are available.
(Taiwan News, Lyla Liu video)
