The salt and pepper mantis shrimps made in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang have become a viral snack in China in recent years, local media reported on Feb 25.

The first fishing boasts going to sea this year in the city have returned to the port with loaded mantis shrimps and Yu Yanchun, owner of Baixin Food Factory, has been preparing for the selling season of salt and pepper mantis shrimps.

"My factory can produce around 2,000 cans of the snack per day," Yu said, adding that salt and pepper mantis shrimps are so popular that he doesn't have to worry about having too much inventory.

Hu Zengjia, manager of Huixian Food Store in Zhousha, is also full of confidence about the sales of salt and pepper mantis shrimps. He added that compared with fresh shrimp, salt and pepper mantis shrimps are actually instant food that is convenient to deliver and store.

Boasting an affordable price, salt and pepper mantis shrimps have gain great popularity not only among Zhoushan residents, but also around the country in recent years.

Hu added that he has more than 300 sales agents for the snack, including online and physical stores, twice the number of his frozen and fresh seafood agents.

According to Sun Kailei, a renowned chef in Zhoushan, the most traditional way to cook mantis shrimps is to boil them with salt, but people who are not used to seafood might find them a bit too fishy tasting.

As a result, Zhoushan's catering industry produced salt and pepper mantis shrimps to cater to tourists' tastes and this version has since become a popular street food across China.

The chef said that there are many other ways to cook the seafood, including scrambled eggs with mantis shrimps, mantis shrimps and broccoli soup, as well as liquor saturated mantis shrimps.