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Singapore
Recipes
Chilli crab
 Singapore’s unofficial “national dish” is chilli crab. Like the country itself, this dish has humble beginnings.
It was in the 1950s that a great cook - Madam Cher Yam Tian - created a great recipe for preparing fresh-from-the-sea crabs. She and her husband, Lim Choon Ngee, set up a food stall selling sea crabs on the seashore, everyday from dusk till the wee hours, by the light of a kerosene lamp. This was the first version of the Singapore chilli crab.
The twist in the tale? Madam Cher’s food stall was located near where the famous East Coast Seafood Centre now stands, with all its restaurants cooking up a storm of chilli crab every night, without a thought for Madam Cher, the creator!
With a hearty gravy made from fresh red chillies, tomato sauce, fresh eggs and spring onions, chilli crabs are best eaten with your fingers. Don’t bother to try looking genteel - use your teeth to crack the shells, suck out the succulent meat, and if you have to, hit the extra-hard shell on the tabletop to break it!
Let the gravy run down your arm, clean it up with cubes of French bread or Chinese buns (known as mantou), that are served as a side dish. All in a chilli crab meal’s work!
Its cousin, black pepper crab, was born in the ‘80s. It was not a runaway hit but a slow-building love affair for those who prefer the spicy kick of freshly-ground black and white pepper, salt and garlic.
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Published on
9th April, 2004
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