Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken

Locations:
1. Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant, Singapore
2. Asiana Airlines Lounge, Incheon Airport, Korea

Author: My Husband

Finally, we have arrived at the last post on my Singapore-India trip. It took a while, but I’m glad to have gotten out the series of posts that I’d planned. I hope it was easy reading, and maybe even a little illuminating, for some of our readers out there.

Right, back on topic then… For anyone wanting a full culinary experience in Singapore, the (in)famous Chilli Crab is not to be missed. I don’t know much about the origins of this dish, and there are as many stories about it as there are people to tell it, but what I do know is that Chilli Crabs have gotten as close to being Singapore’s “national” dish as any.

Naturally, being a “national” dish, there are a multitude of establishments that serve it. From the humble neighbourhood hawker centers to Singapore’s most swanky restaurants, each cooks up their own variant of Chilli Crabs. Despite this, I always head (or am taken) to one of the three seafood chains for my fill of this dish: Jumbo, Long Beach, or Palm Beach.

This trip found me and my relatives at the new-ish Palm Beach branch at One Fullerton. One Fullerton provides a very pretty setting for restaurant, especially during dusk.

Restaurants along the One Fullerton river walk.

The hotels at Marina Bay. You can see the multicoloured F1 grandstands on the right.

The décor of the restaurant is sleek and modern, and aside from the bank of seafood tanks lining the back wall, I wouldn’t have guessed this was a Chilli Crabs place.

Here’s what we had:

Palm beach chilli crab. A meaty Sri Lankan crab cooked in a tomato/chilli sauce. The meat of the Sri Lankan crab is firmer and less flaky than that of a Dungeness, and has a hint of sweetness to it. The crab meat is a vehicle for getting the sauce into one’s stomach. I like a thicker sauce, so Long Beach’s Chilli Crabs are a bit more to my liking, but Palm Beach’s was pretty decent too. That said, I’d still vote for Long Beach as my preferred place for this dish.

Deep fried man tou. We got these to soak up the remainder of the chilli sauce.

Deep fried whole baby squids dressed in a sweet and spicy sauce. The squids are super crispy. Tastewise, there is an initial sweetness that complements the crispness really well, followed by a long and nicely spicy finish.

Fresh prawns in Dang Gui (當歸) broth. The prawns, scooped up from a live tank right before preparation, were toothsome and had a natural sweetness to them. The broth was a good mix of umami, sweetness, and woody-ness (thanks to the Dang Gui).

Fish otak. This was fish paste wrapped up in a leaf, then deep fried. Tasted much the same as other deep fried fish paste – nothing very special about it.

Chicken satay. We ordered a ½-dozen to try, and it was decent. I liked the Chinese-style pineapple dip that could be added to the regular satay sauce.

Rojak! This version even had century eggs in it. It wasn’t bad – the rojak sauce was too weak – but the one we had at Food Republic was much better.

Prawn/Squid fritters. Sorta the same concept as otak, except without the leaf and with prawn/squid paste instead of fish. And like the otak, it tasted much the same as other deep fried seafood paste…

Sambal kang kong. I am known to have a dislike for veggies, but I really liked this dish. The kang kong vegetable is very tender and non-fibrous, and just soaks up the sambal flavors.

Deep fried silken tofu. The tofu was made in house, and was supposed to be really smooth. It was good, but really not that different than the tubed silken egg tofu that can be found at T&T.

After two days of vegging out and (over)indulgent eating, it was time to head home. I met up with my friend D, who had flown in from HK that day, at the airport and we caught the SIA flight home.

Before leaving Singapore, both D and I had some satay at the airside T3 restaurant. It wouldn’t have been as good as that which was available elsewhere in Singapore, but it sated our hunger and was as good a meal as any to end the trip with.

The Satay restaurant in Changi T3

The size of the satay is worth noting. This reminded me of the size of the satay sticks served in Vancouver…

The SIA flight from Singapore required a tech stop at the Incheon Airport in Seoul. We got into Incheon close to midnight local time, and the airside shops were all closed. So D and I made our way to the Asiana Airlines lounge, which was thankfully still open.

The lounge was opened recently, and is decorated in a fusion modern-Korean and old-English theme. We sat ourselves down in the food section and helped ourselves to snacks.

Coke is bottled in smaller cans in Korea.

The lounge attendants could cook you some instant noodles if you asked.

Pretty measly selection of liquor, but lots of interesting Korean soft drinks…

Like this. An energy drink with added vitamin C.

Finger sandwiches and a salad bar were still on offer despite the late hour.

Korean snack cakes – tasted very much like twinkies. I took a couple of these home for Christina and she quite liked them!

Ok. Next posts – Vancouver restaurants.