Black Pepper @ Eng Seng Restaurant

I was excited to have my brother James come to visit. He was only here for a couple of days, a local told me there are two things I needed to do with him if he was only visiting for a short period of time. Take him to Sentosa Island and out to eat some crab.

Well, we never made it to Sentosa but we did have the best black pepper crab in Singapore.

Eng Seng on Joo Chiat Place is a well known place to go for this dish. I was advised to go early as there is usually a long queue.

We arrived at about 6:45pm on a Sat night and took one of the few remaining seats without much drama. There were three of us at the table and we ordered three crabs ($75) smothered in the dark rich and subtly sweet sauce.
It was like nothing I had ever tasted before. The crab had a slight smokey taste from the wok, the warmth of the black pepper was matched with the right balance sweetness.

My curiousity to know what could be in this dish lead me to google a version of the recipe.

I could not see any visual signs of ginger, garlic or other aromatics in this dish but definite that ketchap manis, sugar and butter was used. The rest remains a mystery......I sat and enjoyed a whole crab to myself trying hard in my head to figure out the ingredients.

The boys just sat there, ate and both said that this is the best meal they have had in Singpaore so far.

P.S The deep fried tofu/fish cake things served with a weird lemon mayo sauce were also nice.

Mee Rebus @ Ananas Cafe

New adventures mean new discoveries.

On a day when I needed to go from Kembangan MRT to the next station on the East West line, Bedok MRT. I find myself taking a detour as a result of taking a different bus.

After, the long journey I find myself at the end of the MRT line at Pasir Ris.
So late in the day already and in need of some food. I sit down at an outdoor eatery underneath the MRT.

At that stage I knew I wanted something spicy given the fact that I had just travelled for one hour on two buses to end up back on the MRT line.

I order Mee Rebus ($2.50) and take a seat at Ananas Cafe.
I'd never heard of the dish before, I suspected that it is a Malay dish given the fact the Nasi Lemak was also on offer.
The noodle soup looked really good when it came out. Hokkien noodles and an egg served with a thick gravy that tasted sweet, spicy and sour all in the same mouthful. The flavours were enhanced with local limes and chopped up local green peppers on top.

The added crunch from the bits of fried beancurd, fried onion and fresh Chinese celery stalks made it extraordinary.

This dish has by far superseded laksa and assam laksa in my books.

When you get a good mee rebus, you just want more and more of it.

The dish is in fact Malay - meaning boiled noodles in English
Mee Rebus

P.S Since having Mee Rebus at Ananas Cafe, Ive had some traumatic experiences with other vendors leaving me a little hesitant to try this dish anywhere else.

Chilli Crab @ Jumbo

When I found out that I would be moving to Singapore, I was excited about the prospect of eating Chilli Crab all year round.

I love all types of seafood but I've always had a soft spot for crab.
It's the sweetnees of the meat and the fact that you really have to get your hands dirty is what I really enjoy. A slow but rewarding meal.

My first chilli crab experience was at Jumbo, East Coast Seafood Centre.


The restuarant is renowned for is fresh seafood and with a view overlooking the sea, it's a great place to indulge. The restaurant is one that is on the tad expensive side though still pretty reasonable.

Serving large Sri Lankan Mud Crabs at $38 kilo.
Crabs served at Hawker style centre such as East Coast Food Village & Newton Food Circus still charge about $32-35.

The belated cost of gst (10%) and service charge (7%), make it more of a luxury restaurant to dine in. Also, be mindful that Jumbo charge $1.20 for what you think are complementary peanuts.....I found that amusing that they get away with that!

Back to the crab......

The size of the crab was big. The order was for one that was 900grams and the crab came out fat and buldging. The claws were so sweet and packed with meat.
I really enjoyed the Chilli Crab sauce at Jumbo, it had a good balance of sweet and spicy.
The sauce was also a nice consistency, not too running.

As a newbie to Singapore, I didn't know that the sauce should have been mopped up with a serving of mantou buns so I didn't get a chance to try the buns there.

There is always next time I say, as this is a place where I'd definitely come back with visiting guests.


Visit Jumbo's website

Hello from Singapore

Since my initial post, a turmoil of events have happened, luckily all for the better.

Such events have seen a move from Melbourne to Singapore as Adrian landed himself a fantastic opportunity for his career.

From the multicultural delights of Australia to the multicultural delights of Singapore, I think I'm ready for it.