Claws of gold

A Shanghai entrepreneur in the fishery business didn't think restaurants were doing his prized hairy crabs justice on the plate. That's why he started his own restaurants, he tells Xu Junqian on one of his boats on Taihu Lake.

The PowerPoint Ke Wei compiled for his staff of about 400 - including even dishwashers and his personal chauffer - runs for 26 pages. It's an essential part of the orientation to join his hairy-crab business, he says, but it reveals just a tip of the iceberg, or "a single hair of a hairy crab", of his expertise in the freshwater food, which has been the Holy Grail for people in China's Yangtze River Delta every autumn. The seasonal delicacy is revered here just like the French treat oysters around Christmas.

The document, he says, is sufficient for the team to breed, raise, ship, cook and serve what are the priciest hairy crabs one can find in Shanghai. This year, the most expensive pair of steamed crustaceans offered at Ke's restaurant chain costs around 1,800 yuan ($285), almost as much as Shanghai's minimum monthly wage. Ke exported 40 percent of his over-100-ton annual production to East and Southeast Asia.