Hairy crab roe menu at Ging Sun Ho from $3.50 

SINGAPORE – It is hairy crab season again, which means that you will soon find these prized crustaceans scuttling onto the menus of most credible Chinese restaurants, often with a hefty price tag – well over $100 in some cases – clipped to their fuzzy claws.

So when Ging Sun Ho beckons with a limited-time menu starting at $3.50, it is hard to resist.

Of course, for $3.50, you do not get the whole crab or even a substantial chunk of flesh, but its roe, folded into a pan-fried soup bun that, to its credit, oozes right on cue.

Arguably, the roe is the important part. It infuses the bun with a briny flavour and hint of sweetness that complements the savoury meatiness of the pork filling. I could eat 10 of these in a single sitting.

The other specials on the menu are equally umami-charged.

Stick a straw into the Steamed Golden Crab Roe Soup Dumpling ($4.90) – an oversized xiao long bao that would have gone viral nine years ago – and slurp up its plentiful juices.

Or drizzle a bit of vinegar into the Golden Crab Roe Noodles ($22.90) and savour the different textures and layers at work here: springy noodles, a slick layer of orange fat, buttery knobs of roe melting into a wispy mop of crab meat.

This is also a good time to revisit the two-year-old restaurant’s other offerings. Skip the $14.90 Soft-Boiled Egg Dan Dan Noodles (soup too thin, pork too sweet); the Shanghainese Scallion Oil Noodles ($9.90) are the real highlight. Each aromatic component here – fried garlic, fried onions, salty little anchovies – pulls its weight.

Even the white radish soup served on the side is better than it needs to be. Toss in a serving of crispy river shrimp ($2.90 with any noodle combo) and this is a meal I would come back for in any season, hairy crab or no.

Where: B1-K17/18 Tampines Mall, 4 Tampines Central 5
MRT: Tampines
Open: 11am to 9.30pm daily
Info: www.gingsunho.com