Cause we can ..

What do you do when you have a five hour stop over in Singapore on your way somewhere? You could hang around in the airport. Changi is probably the best airport in the world, 24 hour dining (actual real food too), free internet, free beds and massage chairs, and a movie room, it's not a bad place to be. But if your us (and we are) you jump in a cab and head straight to No Signboard chill crab restaurant in the red light district of Geylang.

Don't get me wrong we love living in Japan, but as chilli lovers and also with a strong liking for south east Asia, after a year the food can tend to seem to smother you in overwhelming mildness and perfection in subtlety. The immigration officials thought this was the best reason for coming to Singapore they had heard all day. So into a cab and across town, with a running commentary from the driver (love Singaporean taxi drivers) about how Geylang No Signboard was the best now the chef had moved from the Eastcoast seafood center, and had we tried King of crab yet, and so on.

Jumped out of the cab and woah! it's like thirty something degrees, makes a change from the minus ten we were in this morning. We grab a seat and order. One chilli crab, sambal Kangkong, sign board eggplant and 8 Mantou (fried buns) a large tiger beer and an iced tea please. With traditional Chinese restaurant aplomb a plate of peanuts, chilli sauce and pickled green chilli were smacked down in front of us.

Five minutes later the food arrived, Five minutes after that, sweat was dripping from our foreheads, our lips were burning, our fingers were covered in chilli sauce and we both had a ridiculous smile from ear to ear. Bliss. The crab was as good as any Singaporean chilli crab we had had before, the crab dissmembered and sitting in a pool of rich tangy sauce.



The kangkong (water spinach) was fantastic, wok fried with sambal it was smokey, with great chilli and flecks of belacan (shrimp paste). It was every thing we were missing about the south east in one bite.



The eggplant fried and tossed with a chili bean paste fresh chilli and green onion.



It's all quite hard to remember being so far into the throws of ecsacty. I do recall sitting back content with a cold beer in the sweltering humidity and thinking "this is so good, why don't we live here again?"



Still can't contemplate to long, got to get back to the plane ... We're off to SPAIN! Sweet.

No Signboard Seafood
414 Geylang Road
Geylang, Singapore
8423415

Long Beach Seafood Restaurant, Singapore

Chilli crab....Singapore......Singapore.....Chilli crab, the two are synonymous with each other, and we are here so how does that saying go? When in Rome...

We are heading to the East Coast Park or more specifically the food center within the park where we have been told lives a great example of the National dish of Singapore. We're hoping this will be the crab by which all others will be measured in the future. The Place we have in mind has been recommended by two of our friends who travel to Singapore regularly, their commendations being backed up by the taxi driver we had as we first arrived here, this was enough for us and we jotted down the address.

We wandered in just after the 2 o'clock opening time and were pleasantly surprised that we weren't the first, dining in a restaurant alone makes me wonder what everyone else knows, but finding locals just as eager for the food gives oh so much reassurance. We get a table with a great view of the harbour and the immense queue of ships waiting to dock.

Just over our shoulders the tanks of jumbo Sri Lankan crabs all doing their best to look small and unappetising, it didn't work.. we are here for the crab and crab we shall have! We also ordered the house made tofu with minced pork, the stir fried Taiwanese sugar pea shoots and a plate of mantou (Chinese fried buns).


The tofu was the first to hit the table, 6 squares of silken tofu deep fried and topped with nicely seasoned pork mince, the polystyrene flower garnish was a nice touch..

This was soon followed by the pea shoots which was a good size portion of pea shoots stir fried simply with garlic, sweet and tender they were delicious.

All was soon forgotten as the crab arrived a huge plate of portioned crab all tumbled in the fragrant sauce, and what a sauce it was.. spicy and rich, sweet and sour, it's first mouthful caused a huge smile to bloom as we looked up at each other. The crab was sweet and plentiful, cooked to perfection (I think they may have done this once or twice before). All was made even better as we used the Mantou to scoop up the sauce it was a perfect partner the crispy crust providing a great textural addition to each mouthful.

While it was all so good we were both insisting the last piece of crab sittlng on the plate was each others we just couldn't manage it all. Glad we ordered a small crab.

This will indeed be the crab that all others are measured by.



Long Beach Seafood Restaurant
1202 East Coast Parkway
#01-04 East Coast Seafood Centre
2pm-12:15am Sunday, Friday & Public Holidays

2pm-1:15am Saturday & Eve of Public Holidays