* The Palm Beach Seafood Giveaway is now closed. The winners are Daniel (29), Chloe (18), HahazZ (57), Vivian (37). Thank you for participating, better luck next time! *

“My all time favorite is chili crab with deep-fried mantou, what’s yours?” I asked on twitter.

Everyone replied enthusiastically, the popular choices are pepper crab, chili crab, crab bee hoon, salted egg yoke crab and butter crab. Even though I just had chili crab and double baked cheese crab at Palm Beach Seafood recently, I find myself craving for  the thick, sweet-and-spicy gravy of the chili crab, with deep fried mantou of course.

While we are at the topic of crab, I realize people like to debate on which restaurant has the best crab in Singapore. Like what I always say: whichever place you like – has the best crab!

HOW TO ENTER THE PALM BEACH SEAFOOD CRAB GIVEAWAY

I totally understand how it feels to be on your end, looking at all the photos and yet cannot get to taste the food; so I’m happy to announce that Palm Beach Seafood has kindly agreed to giveaway $50 vouchers (no minimum spending required) to 4 lucky readers. If you want a chance to win, here is what to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post

Tell us what’s your favorite crab and why. I’m asking for your favorite style of cooking for the crab, it does not have to be from a particular restaurant. Just tell me what style do you like, and if you happen to like an exotic way of cooking crabs which can be anything for example, Double Baked Cheese Crab, let us know! (***updated***)

And ONE entry per person, you are encouraged to get your friends to join the contest but please play fair and do not post multiple comments under different names.

2. Use a valid & contactable email

Please use a valid & contactable email when you post the comment. I will email the winners shortly after the contest ended, remember to check your email on Monday.

3. And the Four lucky Winners . . .

The four lucky winners will be decided by a highly sophisticated method, and I reserve the right to re-pick if there’s any discrepancy or foul-play involved. I know there are folks from the States, Malaysia, Australia, and other countries reading my blog, but unfortunately this contest is only open to those currently residing in Singapore. But all of you are welcome to share your thoughts too!

The closing date for this giveaway is Sunday 28th of Feb 2359 hrs, and so you have exactly forty eight hours before it ends.

I hope you enjoy the little gift I have for everyone!

Come to think of it, I have been using the word feast very frequently, for a lack of better word. I mean when you are having a scrumptious seafood platter, tasty prawns, big crabs, fresh sashimi, gigantic clams – you can’t possibly say, oh I have a normal dinner can you?

We started with Tung Lok’s signature Seafood platter ($68, portion for 4), it had everything you wished for: cold crabs, sashimi, oysters. Okay maybe not, it would be perfect if there’s lobster too. Under our persuasion, we managed to convince one of us who never like oysters to give it a shot – the thing with oysters is  you either love or hate it. The scene of her slurping down the cold raw oysters? Priceless.

How can a seafood platter be without sashimi? The raw fish was generously sliced, and ready to be savour. But the wasabi that came along with it was quite disappointing.

Luckily, we also had the Wasabi prawns ($24) which was excellent; fresh crunchy prawn balls coated with a thin layer of wasabi mayo sauce. I like how the wasabi provided the subtle flavor without the choking sensation.

The Roast pork shoulder ($24) was gorgeous in every way, beneath the char-grilled surface was the tender pork shoulder. I wouldn’t go as far to say it melted in my mouth, but it was pretty close. And having some fats once in a while won’t kill you.

This was the dish that all of us were there for – Singapore’s famous Chili Crab ($45 per kg). I was sexcited by the thought of dipping the deep-fried mantou buns into the thick spicy-sweet gravy. But the crab failed to impose its aura with the less-than-satisfying chili gravy which just wasn’t good enough. None of which, I should note, makes this the chili crab to die for. Maybe the mantou, but definitely not the crab nor the gravy.

I’m always a chili/salted egg yoke crab person, so I’m afraid you probably will not get a very fair rating about the Black Pepper crab ($45 per kg) from me. I’m happy to tell you that the others felt it was much better than the chili crab, however it was too salty for my liking. But then again, I’m not a crab-lover, so what do I know?

It was my first time having Steamed Razor Clam ($8 each) with garlic, and it was big/huge/enormous/gigantic! The vermicelli absorbed the essence of the sauce, and it was pretty rewarding to dig out the clam meat. Fine, I exaggerated – what I merely did was just to fork it inside my mouth.

* * *

This is part of a series that I’m doing with Standard Chartered, I will like to thank Claudia from 24seven Communications, and Standard Chartered Bank for the invitation.

Just a quick note about their new credit card campaign, I’m sure most of you will have seen their latest Barry and Fin advertisement; first you get 15% off total food bill (click here for the list of restaurant), and at the end of the month if you have charged more than the minimum amount of $500 (which can be anything, not just dining), you are entitled to an additional 15% cashback which applies to all restaurant in Singapore.

Tung Lok Seafood
1000 East Coast Parkway
2F Marine Cove
Tel: 6246 0555

I’m a very lazy person. And crabs are usually the last thing on my agenda when we have seafood. I prefer to have stuff like lobsters, fish, that do not require any shelling.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any lobsters available at this air-condition zichar place; they are famous for their crabs, you see, every table around us were eating crabs, done in different style. It almost felt like a crab buffet. Usually I’ll definitely go for chilli crabs so that I could dip the mantou in the chilli gravy, but this time we’ve the pepper and salted egg yoke version instead.

Spending time to break the shells, and slowly suck out all the meat from the legs, that’s definitely not me. I’ll attacked the big pincers which got lots of meat.

Excellent! Another dish which does not requires me to use my hands.

I’m a Babitarian!

I love, love pork. Especially the fatty ones. They tasted oh so good! And I sandwiched the meat with my fried mantou to make it like a kong-ba bao. My brain was telling me:

Stop! Look at all those fats, you’ll need to run for hours to burn them off.

The melt-in-the-mouth sensation was simply irresistible. And with approval from my heart:

Go on, have one. Just one bite..

And I finished the whole plate!

Thick and tangy, with strands of crab-meat and tofu. It’s always a comfort to drink soups.

* * *

It’s no wonder that everybody is ordering their crabs in so many style, it’s only RM40 per kg! No offense to our neighbours in Malaysia, but with the current favourable exchange rate (to us), everything was so cheap. My last post on the KL feast will be the most memorable place for this trip, do drop by tomorrow!

Restoran Tak Fok
23 Jalan Puteri 2/5, Bandar Puteri
Puchong 47100 Selangor
Tel: 03-8060 6994

This is the third part of the four series for my KL feast
Read the first part: I ate, and ate and ate some more here.
& the second part: Taste that stays here.

Black pepper Sri lanka crab

Ginger Scallion flower crab

Fragrant Thai sauce crab

Nonya curry crab

Stir-fried slipper lobster in black bean sauce

Chili crab with deep-fried mantou

Oh man, She’s grabbing all the good stuff; the big pincers, the meatier crab legs, all gone! Everybody behind the woman, stared at her as she made away with the “goods”.

With the crab tong in hand, it was used to hammer the shell. The fellow diners on the same table immediately dispersed, “watch it! The crab gravy is flying everywhere!”

The lady eyed the seafood section, carefully choosing the biggest white fresh oysters on the bed of ice. She proceeded on to squeeze lemon wedges onto each of them, not wasting a single drop. Taking a fork, she slurped down five oysters, in one shot.

Wash your hands clean and crab-free in the lemon water, we are going for the second round!

The team of eight sat down at the table to discuss their plans, like true elite commando fashion; they attacked the crabs in the precise and deadly manner that they were known for.

“Mommy, I want that slice of very delicious-looking, oreo cheesecake!” The small girl told her mother, even though their stomachs are bursting from all the crabs.

* * *

(1) The commentaries were some of the conversation that I’ve overheard, and observed during the buffet, and I thought it would be interesting to write about this.

(2) I don’t like to eat crabs; I’m too lazy to dirty my hands shelling the crustaceans. And if I do, the chili crab will be my favourite; I love the thick, spicy chili gravy. And there’s the best company in the form of the deep fried mantou; I always poked a hole in the middle of the fried bun and poured lots of gravy inside. Then the soaking of the whole bun within the goodness of the gravy, they are oh, so-good! And I kept a bowl of chili gravy filled throughout the buffet, dipping everything in it.

(3) The crab buffet at Ellenborough market cafe is only available for dinner at $46++ per head, and will last for two weeks, starting from the 25th June. Singaporeans, love (read: love), their crabs, I went during the first day of the promotion and it was full house, on a weekday dinner! So if you are heading down, please remember to make reservations in advance. And my appreciation to Sok Hoon, the marketing communication manger for the invitation to the food tasting session.

(4) Just some more information about the buffet: There’s chefs-on-the-spot cooking crab risotto, frying mee goreng, and wrapping crab popiahs, the seafood area which has sashimi, prawns and seafood, the usual western/Asian cuisine selections, the omnipresent chocolate fondue, with a pretty decent choices of desserts ranging from cheesecake, to shooters, and their famous Durian Pengat. And I love having some Chinese desserts like tou suan with you tiao too!

Read my fellow floggers post on the crab extravaganza:
Camemberu here
& Aromacookery here

Ellenborough market cafe
20 Merchant road
GF Swissotel Merchant court
Tel: 6239 1847

The official term is potluck, some called it an outing. You can also see it as a pre-xmas celebration. Whatever, it is just a bloody excuse for the dessert enthusiast to get together, have fun and eat! Everybody brought something along, for those experts in baking, a chance to showcase their amazing skills, while the rest of us brought it from elsewhere.

Macarons, the speciality of Evan. She made hazelnut praline, rose, and pistachio flavours this time round. You might be think that i’m biased, but her macarons are one the best i tried so far. And we got some of the strictest dessert authorities who tasted them. Her macarons are available for sale on her site, do order some and give it a try!

Well, i tried rose flavour macarons from Canéle before, and i must say i wasn’t too impress with the rather artificial rose flavouring. While Canéle’s one was subtle in flavour, Evan’s rendition was fulsome in rose flavour. The shell was crispy, not the brittle type. The innard cream fillings were moist and light, and the aroma of the rose spread through, and was contagious like happiness.

Bright green in colour, the pistachio macaron was easy to spot among the desserts. I ain’t a big fan of pistachio, but this one was good enough, with the use of pistachio and almond. Personally, I felt that the almond taste was a tad strong though, and sort of covered the pistachio nut.

The hazelnut praline macaron, was clearly the best among the three. Everybody love hazelnut, who doesn’t like nutella? The strong hazelnut flavour was very nice, with the shells chewy and the whole taste simply blew me away. Everybody had one, while i couldn’t help myself and secretly took two! And do you believe this is actually Evan’s first time trying out with hazelnut for her macaron?

Next up, Vicki’s Swedish cinnamon rolls. Warmed up in the oven, sprinkled with icing sugar, the pretty cinnamon roll wasn’t as soft as i thought, but i enjoyed eating them round and round. Only the mountain of desserts behind stopped me from taking second helpings.

If we were to give out the best actress award for the event, it’ll definitely be the marshmallows. Her sweet looks deceived us completely, as she didn’t turn out to be as sweet as we thought it would. And that’s a good thing, most marshmallows are usually too sweet, but this one was just nice, and there was the hint of peppermint within. Another of Vicki’s creation. Her first time.

The Macha sponge cake ($20) was brought from Minamoto Kitchoan in the basement of Takashimaya. Some felt that the macha flavour wasn’t strong enough, and the sponge cake tasted more like our Chinese Fa kueh. Quite a disappointment actually.

There was rum, and there was nutmeg. The eggnog cheesecake was all about the liquor, and a hint of cinnamon. With the decoration of the pretty strawberries, the cheesecake was simple, and pretty enough. But i ain’t a big fan of liquor desserts, so this one didn’t make it for me. While others thought the liquor level was still acceptable and enjoyed it. Brought to you by caicancook.

Being the novice baker i am, it’ll be very embarrassing to bring my amateur bakes along for potluck. Therefore, i shared the Goodwood Park Hotel traditional Christmas chocolate log cake ($53 before 15% discount) with Fen.

How can Christmas be without the iconic log cakes? Goodwood Park’s one was very chocolatey, with rich layers of chocolate mousse, in between the home-made chocolate sponge. I haven’t had a proper log cakes for years, and to share it with friends who appreciate desserts, it was even more significant.

I wasn’t sure what the cake was initially. With some explanation from Sinny, who made the dessert. I googled the term, and here’s what i got. The bundt cake identity attributed from its ringed shape, it is pronounced “bunt” with the ‘d’ being silent. And guess what again? This was Sinny’s first time making this cake. The bakers were all like, “oh this was my first time making this and that“, when all of us were enjoying their desserts thoroughly!

We ended off our meal with some awesome pepper crabs by Claire’s father. There was also chicken wings, prawn rolls too! What are you thinking? We didn’t just ate desserts for the whole day!

Claire’s dog come out to play

Our first-ever potluck outing was a blast, and i believed everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We spent like two hours taking photos of the food, and there was laughter the whole day. Thanks claire for hosting us at her house, and there’s definitely gonna be more potluck outings in the future!

Check out the rest of the dessert enthusiast entries:
Fen @ sgcake.com
Evan @ bossacafez
Sinny @ Fundamentally-flawed
Vicki @ herlittleblackdress

Until our next dessert enthusiast outing then! Happy Christmas everybody!

Seafood Station, okay lets go straight to the point, the food is rather good but i wont go back again. Why? Poor service, price rather expensive relative to its small servings. But the main reason is the poor service which makes me think twice about going back. Anyway, when we reach the place at 730pm, the inside was full so we had to make do with the outer area. I did make a reservation prior going, but it was for 3 person, aunty geraldine family join us last min. The outside area had a lot insects flying around, so we was saying even if the insect drop into our food we also won’t know. O well, we saw a lot celebrity photos with the boss, so we thought the place must be quite good, but the dinner end up in a way we did not expect. Clearly fame does not shows anything.

Pepper crab was suppose to be Seafood Station Signature dish, but to our disappointment, the crab here was totally in a different league as compared to NoSignBoard or Jumbo, nowhere the standards to the other two. The meat was not firm, when we complain to the manager, he did show his goodwill by compensating us with abalone (the relative cousin not the real one) Any guesses how much this crab cost? A whooping $98! They claimed the crab was 2.8kg, but seriously there are only two crab, and we felt then that the crab was quite small and here they are telling us the crab was big? Come on man. For anyone who will like to try the true-blue singapore pepper crab, just go to NoSignBoard or Jumbo.

Deep Fried Baby Sotong ($8), although tried this dish a few times at different place, but can’t really tell the difference, all taste about the same

Golden Vegetables ($10)

Golden Crab Meat Fried Rice ($15 for Medium) This fried rice is good, i would say it is one of the better fried rice that i have tasted so far, but at $15 for the small servings i would think twice about ordering it again. It is just normal fried rice with a few slices of crab meal and voila a premium price is charged.

Fried Seafood Mee Swa ($12 pictures removed*) this one is also quite good, but you-know-what? Due to the poor service which the manager cited as mix-up in the kitchen, we waited one hour plus for this dish to appear. By the time the Mee Swa came, we were already full with anger. Need i say more?

Craypot Crab Bee Hoon ($31.50) We ordered this as a last add-on, so it came rather late also, i think compared to the pepper crab, the price for this crab is reasonable. The soup for the Bee Hoon was not too bad. But we were too piss off to really enjoy this dish.

All in all, i confirm guarantee plus chop that i will not be going back for Seafood, if someone wants to treat me there i will have to consider. The food can be not too bad, but with the service that i got, i wont consider going back. When we ask the manager why our food hasn’t arrive, he took the bill and ask us which one hasn’t arrive. I mean as a manager shouldn’t you all know which dishes have arrive and which have not? This is a serious sign of poor service. Although one of the manager tried to show his goodwill by giving us the fake abalone, the other manager was nonchalant about us, when we asked about the long delay in food served, he just went to check without really giving us a proper explanation. Come on, being a restaurant, the least you can do is to make sure the dishes arrive promptly, saturday for restaurants are considered peak periods, can’t they handle their peak period properly? Total damage was $ 220.10 for 6 person, 10% goes to service charge when they did not provide us with any service. Heed my advice, avoid this place, steer clear of it!

887 East Coast Road 459090

Tel: 6447 8885

Have you Blurb?

Jumbo Jumbo, the famous Jumbo Restaurant, which i finally conquer tonight. Haha. Went there to celebrate my mom’s birthday. When we reach at 6.30pm, the place was not full, BUT they are all reserved! And the seats available are the outdoor dining area. Wait man, don’t start blaming me that i did not make a reservation. I tried. I called at 4 but no one answer the phone. O well, i think the seats are always against me. So we had to make do with the outdoor area, and o boy, it was raining cats and dogs. The waitress even had to carry an umbrella to bring the dishes over.

TaaDaaa!! LOBSTER!! OH MY GOD! I tell you, Lobsters are my fav food, no doubt about it at all. i can just eat lobster with white rice. There are many methods of cooking the lobster, my fav is salad lobster of couse, you can also steam it with soya souce, minced garlic, or stir-fried with ginger & spring onion, braised with superior broth, stired-fried with cheese & butter, and baked with cheese & bacon. Honestly i never had the luxury of trying all types of cooking methods, just had steamed one, deep-fried, and salad lobsters before. And i prefer salad lobster. BUt the baked with cheese & bacon do sounds interesting, mayb i will try that if i got the chance next time. I taken lots of picture of the lobster from diff angles, but space constraint so only can put up two. We had the Australian lobster which was $120 for 1KG

I swear to God, to Allah, Buddha, Monkey God, Zeus, and all the Gods out there, Salad lobster is simple Super-licious. Only one word can describe it, Heavenly. What Budda jump over the wall, Shark Fin, Abalone, give me a lobster anyday. The salad lobster had lots of fruits, the thick salad cream and mixed fruit plus the lobster meat, makes it irresistable man! The shell’s meat was all taken out to do with the salad cream, but hey, the lobster head still had lots of meat there, especially the two lobster horn? whatever u called that. Haha. Simple the best, don’t need to think. Full marks, woo hoo, i believe this is the first time ladyironchef has seen full marks in a restaurant dish (bakwa not included). 5 out of 5

Next up, of course we can’t miss the Singapore famous black pepper crab! Its Sri-Lanka king crab they called it. Btw, sorry for the poor photos, my photography skills are not up the mark yet. Anyway, back to the crab, we had two 1.2KG crab, at first i propose to have one in pepper and one in chili, but then my neighbour had it before and find that chili is not as nice as pepper crab. So both crabs in pepper. Hmm, i am actually not so much of a crab-eater, first thing is don’t really fancy the meat, and second is i lazy to slowly open the shell la. lol. Anyway, my family are lovers of the crab, so their comment is that the black pepper crab not bad la, but there are better one out there, that is No Signboard Restaurant! The crabs at Jumbo the meat are not ‘hard’ enough, and very small, eat already not shiok”. 3.5 out of 5 i guess

Next on the list, Mee Goreng! Jumbo is famous for their Mee Goreng i think, its very nice i assure you. Must try if go Jumbo, but at $8 for small serving, its a tad too expensive. Pity the price, if not it will be perfect score. 4.5 out of 5

Crispy Baby Squid. Crispy it is, and a little over burned. I am still feeling thirsty now that i reached home after eating it.  Not my cup of squid, at $8 its not really worth your while unless you are a fan of fried squids, i rather spend the $8 on another plate of Mee Goreng. 1.5 out of 5

Thats all folks, i will come to the price now because its a bit complicated. Our lobster which flown specially from Australia for us to savour cost $96, i estimate it to be around 800g, but because we got a special coupon, we got 50% off! Horray! It only cost us $48 for one Lobster, cheap yep? The crab is $33 per Kg, We had two, and it comes up to about $75.90. And the crispy baby squid and Mee Goreng like i say earlier is $8 per plate. So our total bill adds up to $192.10 before discount. We had the 50% for lobster, and another 10% off because we had the Jumbo rewards card, courtesy by lending from my neighbour. Mental note, always have the card when you go to Jumbo.

The service, eh is a case of over-enthusiastic against a group of slow diners who want to finish every scrap of food on the plate. I have totally nothing against their service, the waitress keep on changing plates for us, this is good because the crab have lots of shell. But when we haven really finish our lobster and mee goreng, they already want to clear the plates as well. Hello? we want value for money, every scrap of food is important to us. LOL. Besides that i don’t really have or can complaints because they do not have service charge. Except for the calling in of reservation.

All in all, Jumbo is not bad la, its a famous seafood restaurant in Singapore with so many branches. However, we still unanimously agree that No Sign Board Restaurant is a tad higher level than Jumbo for its crab, no complaints about the lobster. I heard the East Coast headquarter produce the best food among its outlets, but we had to go to indoor stadium because the 50% coupon for lobster is not able to use in East coast branch. You can’t get the best of both worlds i guess.

#01-05, Singapore Indoor Stadium
2 Stadium Walk, 397691
Tel: 64403435  Fax: 64400660

Have you Blurb?