Singapore: Chilli Crab
Mud crabs fried with chilli and tomato pastes
Two dishes are often in contention for Singapore’s most iconic food: chicken rice and chilli crab. Both are dishes that visitors almost always encounter, and both come in a seemingly endless array of subtle variations.
Roland Restaurant, owned by Roland Lim, is my favourite place for chilli crab — and it has a long familial history. Lim’s mother, Cher Yam Tian, invented the dish in the mid-1950s; it was an experiment, she says, in response to her husband’s complaints of being bored with plain steamed crabs. The dish was well received, and those who got to taste the chilli crab encouraged Cher to begin selling it. She started with a small pushcart on the beach, and it steadily grew into a fullfledged restaurant called Palm Beach, which opened in 1962. The restaurant thrived and became a full-time business for the family, including young Roland, who quit school to help out in the kitchen. After 22 years of arduous work, the family sold a majority of the restaurant to new owners and relocated to New Zealand to start a new life in 1984.
After many years away, Lim returned to Singapore with his family and, after a short stint working at Palm Beach, struck out on his own, creating Roland
Restaurant, where he began selling his mother’s signature dish. The restaurant takes up the entire 6th floor of the parking garage at 89 Marine Parade Central. The space is large, convivial and unpretentious, and it’s most often filled with locals and their families — along with a few in-the-know expats.
Each rendition of chilli crab relies on its own unique recipe. Mud crabs are the crabs of choice at Roland, although other restaurants also use Sri Lankan crabs. The exact ingredients are often a secret, but the preparation typically involves frying some aromatics and sambal (chilli paste), along with tomato paste, sugar, salt, vinegar and a handful of other ingredients. Eggs and corn flour are added later, to thicken the sauce. The crab is typically boiled first, then later stir-fried with the sauce for about seven minutes.
At Roland, Chia Kim Yong (Ah-Yong), Lim’s cousin, is the only chef on the team entrusted to cook its signature chilli crab. Fittingly, he was trained by Cher.
Featured restaurant: Roland Restaurant, near East Coast Park Price: S$78 (2,075 baht), for a serving of two crabs.