Aozhao noodles has an amazing story behind it.[Pauline D.Loh/Shanghai Star]

Yifeng Court is the Chinese restaurant at the Fairmont Yangcheng Lake, situated on a peninsula by the banks of the lake famous for its mitten or hairy crabs, and where it enjoys a monopoly of the picturesque countryside.

Creative Chinese Style breakfast

Nanxiang steamed buns

It serves up both Cantonese and the local Huaiyang flavors, but what makes the restaurant stand out is that most of its ingredients come from the surrounding area.

Vegetables are from the organic farm just next door, which also supplies honey from its own bees, and the fish and prawns are from the lake.

Yangcheng Lake is best known for its hairy crabs, now fattening nicely for the mid-September to November peak season, but its mandarin fish and yellow croakers are just as well known.

At the restaurant, the mandarin fish is served the classic way, expertly sliced and deep-fried to imitate a squirrel’s tail and smothered in a rich orange-red sweet and sour sauce. In the region’s famous culinary institutes, every graduating chef has to be able to serve up a flawless edition of this dish before he is allowed to leave the school.

Needless to say, the version at Yifeng Court was faultless.

But, let’s not get distracted. The main star at the restaurant now is something called liuyue huang – June crabs.

These are the maturing female mitten crabs, not quite as full of roe as they would be a couple of months down the road.

In the past, crab farmers would start filtering off the smaller crabs right about now, leaving the fatter fuller crabs to reach their full potential and best prices. The “rejects” would be brought home and eaten.

Because the shells are still soft and the meat and roe not as solid, the crabs would be dredged in a flour slurry before they are cooked. The extra flour coating keeps in the roe and meat and cooks into a thick porridge that will help fill hungry stomachs.