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).
