Singapura oh Singapura

Singapura Seafood Restaurant
Blk 9 Selegie Road
#01-31 Selegie House
Tel: 6336 3255

Cold crabs rock. It is crab au naturel and because of that it is essential that the crab is of the freshest quality. At Singapura restaurant, the flesh is firm and compact, the roe is creamy and the garlicky vinegar chilli sauce is a great complement.

This restaurant has been around for while. Its operations are now run by the second generation but the food still holds on to good traditions. Other than the solid chunks of cold crab, there was more good food that came from.

Unlike the usual prawns rolls that are made from a combination of minced pork and prawns and rolled in bean curd skin, their special prawn rolls were made form whole prawns and deep fried to a crisp. And their pork ribs, tender and sticky sweet are finger licking good should not be missed.

Our attempt at ordering a vegetable dish was derailed when the staff suggested that we tried their baby kalian with pork liver, another deliciously sauced dish that disproportionately had more liver than leaves – so much for trying to order something healthier!

Last up before our noodles was the fish head. The fresh dish head was steamed with a generous handful of garlic and then sauced with tau cheo, very simply put together but very good. To finish it all off, we split a plate of Foochow noodles, after all we are in a Foochow restaurant, and that rounded up dinner.

Mellben: CRAB BEE HOON!

Mellben Seafood
Blk 211, Lorong 8 Toa Payoh
#01-11-15
Tel: 6353-3120



Since the tail end of last year, the monthly makankakis meeting has been a regular feature on my calender. The first one was at Sha Tin Kitchen where I shared the table with the skinny epicurean, DSD, ninjahellokitty and Umami. It is always good fun to share the table with fellow foodies and friends to share food and animated conversation.

The last makankaki’s outing was at the 2 month old branch outlet of the original Mellben in Ang Mo Kio. Mellbe n has its own sort of cult following from crab lovers, and now that I’ve tasted the glorious soup I’m hooked and am now a follower. Most of the other dishes that led to the crab finale were ok but were more like tummy and time fillers, building up the anticipation to the hot bubby claypots of rich milky roe-enriched robust soup.

Confession: I’ve been there twice in the span of four days.





Greedyboy who had to cancel on me for the Mellben Makan outing insisted that he missed out and had to have it, and shaving tasted the crabilious soup, I put up little resistance to the second outing. On my second date with Mellben, I sampled other dishes on the menu including the other house crab signature, Shimmering Sand Crab, which is deep fried crab that is tossed in a lemakish sauce that is perfumed with curry leaves and other aromatics and topped with shimmering sand bits of fried crushed oats. Between the two crab dishes, my vote is still with the crab bee hoon soup, less frills and more focused on the crab essence.

Having eaten here with a crowd of 60 and a group of four, I can testify that Mellben has a good system of quality control, where on both occasions, their crowd pulling dish of crab bee hoon was stellar.



*see more photos here and here

The Seafood Paradise Restaurant

The Seafood Paradise Restaurant
91 Defu Lane
10 Swee Hin Building
Tel: 6487-2429

I think I just discovered another weekend hideout for Singaporeans. Located deep in Defu industrial park is this 200+ seater restaurant called Seafood Paradise…the seafood phenomenon. The older sibling of Taste Paradise, this place has found success with its live seafood and its signature creamy butter crab, which sauce is best mopped up with deep fried man tous… in other words, it got Singaporeans excited about their rendition of bread and butter.


Creamy butter crab

This was my first visit to Seafood Paradise and it was introduced by my cousins. My brother on the other hand had been there with my cousins, and his first reaction upon his return visit was, “it was a lot crummier the last time we came here!” In fact, even the menus have had an upgrade from a laminated piece of paper to a proper full colour print menu.

There is an air-conditioned section of the restaurant, but most dine in the alfresco area under the stars along a wall lined with palmed trees. The waiting time for a table will be brisk, an estimate of 15 minutes, but once you are seated, brace yourself to wait for your food. We were prepared for a half hour wait, which the waitress confirmed with us when asked, but the actual wait was closer to 45 minutes, so be prepared to wait. During this time, you should either engage in conversations about politics, weather or whatever that will keep you occupied or you visit live fishes, frogs, crabs, prawns and lobster that are in the tank on death row. To have a good indication of when your food is coming, observe the tables next to you—especially if they had placed their orders before yours, once they have been served, your table should be served in the next 10 or so minutes.

As for the food, it was good value for money, but if you asked me about the whole experience, I don’t think the food was worth all that waiting and the anticipation skewed my judgment. The crab signature dishes such of creamy butter crab was too rich and sweet for me, but it comes with a sprinkling of deep fried crab roe that is wonderful to enjoy with the fried man tou, but I couldn’t stomach a lot of it without feeling je-lat. The crab in superior broth was good. Served with vermicelli, which does a doubly good job in absorbing flavours and giving royal appearance as if it were covered with shark’s fins. The broth was tasty and was initially met with glee but was a little overpowering after five spoonfuls. My favourite dish of that meal was its homemade beancurd in mini wok and pork floss, was soft and silky smooth and heightened by the pork floss on it. The other dishes that we had were ok, but nothing to write home about. All in all, it was ok, I might come back, but I will first have to figure out how to beat the crowd.



*See the whole set here.

Crab Shack

Crab Shack
227 Upper Thomson Road
(Opposite McDonalds)
Tel: 9451-9040



By day this place is a dark and undistinguished coffee shop that sells economic rice but come sunset, it magically transforms into a brightly-lit bustling family-run crab shack.
Serving up fresh crab delicacies, this hole-in-the-wall unit is unpretentious and is solely focused on what they know best, crabs, more specifically, fresh flower crabs.

Lining the walls of the upper “deck” are photos of their family excursions to their supplier’s kelong, where they source their sweet fresh crabs. And when it comes to seafood, nothing beats freshness, it is either fresh or it should be cast away.

If you are a purist when it comes to crabs, you will be delighted to know that they serve it in KFC menu style—2 piece, 3 piece or 8 piece value meal—where you choose the number of crabs you wish to consume accompanied by your choice side of fries, corn or baked beans. Other items of the menu include crabbed baked rice, which is deliciously stuffed with fresh crabmeat and the crab spaghetti, which tasted like an interesting rendition of an aglio olio made with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.

My verdict on this place is that it is an absolute keeper. Very affordable for a crab binge or gorge since an 8 piece value meal would only set you back $21.95 and their crab baked rice is worth coming back for.

My Short lived Hairy Crab Season

I was 7 when I had my first taste of crabs. I had a pincer of a flower crab. A few hours later I broke out in hives and never touched a flower crab again. Thankfully, mud crabs, snow crabs, Alaskan crabs and my recent venture with Hairy crabs have not left me with red patchy blotches on my skin.

The hairy crab starts 10 days after the Mooncake festival. Starting from September through most of autumn, the gourmands come out with their mean crab scissors and crab meat pickers looking for the pregnant female hairy crab and the sweet fleshed male. I had my first “snip and pick” at my first hairy crab at Lei Garden during a dim sum lunch last week. Having shared the crab with a few others, the rich lava like roe only whet my appetite for more of those little crustaceans and so agreed to sign up for a special culinary class on authentic Shanghainese cuisine at the Raffles Culinary Academy by Chef Calvin Soh – Combination of Shanghai Cold Platter(Drunken Chicken, Herbal Tea Egg and Marinated “Fen Pi”), Steamed Shanghai Hairy Crab, Herbal Shanghai Hairy Crab and Tong Tsui (Double Boiled Hashima with Chinese Angelica and Red Date) roe enriched Shanghainese Hairy Crab – featuring the Shanghainese Hairy Crab.



Although the hairy crab season only ends in December, after that culinary lesson and dinner, my hairy crab hunting season has been abruptly cut short. On the 5th November, 2005, after a grueling 1 ½ hours of snipping legs and pincers, I devoured two whole hairy crabs by myself – a steamed Shanghai Hairy Crab and an Herbal Shanghai Hairy Crab. I was so clumpy with the scissors and the crab eating apparatus, such that as they announced, “ok, finish up your first crab because the second one is on its way”, I had only finished picking the meat from ¾ of my crab and I had to snip of the plates onto the second plate of crab. The meat was sweet and the roe was rich, but it took too much from me, I’m retiring from this hairy crab season.

Lady General and The Very Peppery Crabs

Eng Seng Restaurant
247 Joo Chiat Place
(Junction of Still Road and Joo Chiat Place)



In the name of good food, I will sometimes endure some abuse. Sometimes I think we, the customers, get bullied by the famed hawkers in our island. Two hawkers with a punchy character that comes to mind are, the Hokkien mee stall in chomp chomp, where an order for a plate will always be replied with, “30 minutes to 1 hour wait ah”, or Chef Danny at Sin Huat whom will make you sit around nursing your tiger beer before he come around from the kitchen to take your order. Service was never really their strongest aspect of their restaurant. In fact, most of the time I find myself at the mercy of these hawkers, having driven across the island with the end goal of fulfilling the craving of Hokkien mee, crabs or whatever, I will endure the madness. The best things to pack for these survival situations are engaging company and a good sense of humour.

This corner coffee shop serves up the best black pepper crabs. The crabs, which are usually sold out by about 9pm, are weighty and jammed packed with sweet and firm flesh, and come coated with a sticky, gooey, thick pepper sauce; think spicy black honey. Other than their trademark “very peppery crabs” that are sold here, it is hard to imagine this place without the fearless matrie’d that keeps the peace and customers in line with her thunder voice. I have not mustered up the courage to ask her for her name, or for her last name, so we just call her the lady general.

This place opens at 5pm, but it fills up and it will be full by 5.30pm, which means you will have to stand in line to wait for them to turn over the tables. While you stand in line, remember that you are on lady general’s turf. If you try to cut the line, she will scream at your and order you to the back of the line. When you stand in line and place your order, you can order what she permits -

Lady General: Hor fun, mee fen?
Us: Err, do you have hokkien mee?
Lady General: Hooor fun, meeee fen.
Us: Err .. how about ..
Lady General: HOR FUN, MEE FEN!
Us: ok, ok, mee fen.

On other occasions, she will stipulate how many crabs you can order. If it is later in the evening and the crab supplies are rapidly dwindling, she might cap your crab order, or if you are a party of 4 and want to order one crab, she will give you the look of death and instruct you to order more. When faced with these situations, just be the obedient Singaporean and comply, experience has told me that the fight is futile. When your table is ready, she’ll point you to it, and you can slowly meander through the tables and crowd to get there.

Despite having to stand in line, and to sometimes endure the abuse of this lady (I have seen a softer side to her after her service hour, when she has ushered the last customer to their table), the crabs still make the trip worth while. They serve both pepper crabs and chili crabs, which are both good, but I prefer the pepper crabs, because of the pepper paste that liberally slapped into the wok, and worked into the crabs. In addition, lady general has her own aura; her crowd control management skills are impeccable, adding some character to this corner coffee shop.

Feed my crab greed!

Sin Huat Restaurant
659/661 Geylang Road Lorong 35
Tel: +65 6744 9778

This is probably the only or one of the few kopitiams in Singapore that accepts visa and mastercard. Don’t be fooled by its humble appearance. This kopitiam has character. The chef is the only one who takes the orders and cooks at his own timing. He does a one man show in the kitchen, and it is only this man who would take your order in the kopitiam. Everyone else knows their place, they will simply usher you to a table, take your drink order and tell you to wait for THE MAN to come.

Located at Geylang and sitting by the busy roads on a cool evening has its charms. Furthermore, they have their own fish tanks of live seafood here to add to the dining experience. What I thought was really amazing was that they had live stingrays! I’ve only seen them lying deadpan on a bed of ice, but I’ve never seen any restaurant in Singapore yet that stocks them live this way. The food here is fantastic. See Toh brought Anthony Bourdain there, and if it is good enough for them both to be there at the same time, I reckoned I ought to go there and to check it out for myself. We went as a group of 8 and so we managed to sample a whole range of dishes.

In sequential order we had:
1.Steamed Scallops with some sort of thick garlicy black sauce
2.Gong gong served with a chili garlic sauce
3.Kai Lan stir-fried with garlic
4.Frog cooked in Brands Essence of Chicken
5.Braised Sting Ray
6.Steamed Prawns with loads of garlic
7.Crab Bee Hoon



Just a word of caution, if you don’t love garlic, you might not like this place. I love garlic and so it was absolutely wonderful for me. Every dish is just an explosion of taste in your mouth. If you can only have one dish, have the crab bee hoon. The bee hoon has a smokey taste from the wok and the crab that I haven’t tasted in other restaurants, and the crabs were fresh and the meat was firm too. Needless to say, we were all really satisfied after our meal, although I’m not sure if he any MSG because we were left feeling a little thirsty after the meal. However, in addition to being big in taste, the bill for 8 of us was a hefty sum of about 600+, but if I had to do it all over again, I won’t change a thing.
Feed my crab greed.