You can’t go to Singapore and not eat Singapore Chili Crab. Despite its name, it’s not an overly spicy dish. Or at least the one we had from Jumbo Seafood Singapore was not that spicy. ⠀

According to my research,  Singapore Chilli Crab was invented by Cher Yam Tian in the mid-1950s when she added bottled chilli sauce to her dish of stir-fried crabs, instead of using tomato sauce, her usual ingredient. In 1956, she and her husband began selling the dish from a pushcart along the seaside. Business was good and they eventually opened a restaurant in 1962.

Nowadays it’s all over the place in Singapore. CNN Travel Go listed Chilli Crab as one of “World’s 50 most delicious foods“, at Number 35. ⠀

Singapore Chilli crab is actually an easy dish to recreate at home.

The most difficult task is cleaning your fresh crabs.  You can ask the fishmonger to remove the top place and clean it out.  But make sure to ask for the creamy insides as it adds to the umami of the dish.

Crabs are stir-fried in a semi-thick, sweet and savoury tomato-and-chilli-based sauce that’s finished with egg to give this amazing creamy mouth feel. Despite its name, chilli crab is not a very spicy dish but pairs perfectly with a Sauvignon Blanc. The wine is bursting with notes of pink grapefruit and citrus fruits, which gives each glass a crispness that’s clean on the palate.

You mop up all that lovely Singapore Chilli Crab sauce with mantou, which are Chinese steamed bread.  I steamed some and fried some just like the way i had it in Singapore.