San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
It’s Dungeness crab season, everyone.
Mike and Jenny Yu opened Great China in Berkeley in 1985. In 2012, the restaurant suffered a crippling fire that prompted the Yu family to reopen in a new location (2190 Bancroft Way) just a few blocks from its Kittredge Street spot.
Today, the restaurant is run by sons James and Tai, and is still considered by many to offer the finest Chinese food in Berkeley.
Great China specializes in the cuisine of Shandong, a coastal province in northern China, located on the Yellow Sea. The restaurant, which just scored a Michelin Bib Gourmand rating, showcases seafood dishes, like this recipe for Ginger-Scallion Dungeness Crab.
One of the most popular items on the menu, the crab is the kind of showstopper that Bay Area seafood lovers crave — especially around this time of year when local Dungeness crabs are in season.
Lightly dredged in cornstarch, then quickly fried in hot oil, the crab is finished by stir-frying with plenty of ginger, scallions and oyster sauce. The true key to this dish? Sourcing really good, fresh crabs.
The dish also happens to pair really well with a nice white wine, which makes sense as the restaurant has emerged as one of the Bay Area’s wine-list treasures, thanks to its epic (yet surprisingly affordable) collection of bottles that have been accumulated by James Yu and wine director Mark Yatabe.