Singapore Chilli Crab

Cheap crabs meant I get to mess around with recipes I usually wouldn't when they're at full price. I've always wanted to make Singapore Chilli crab and used this opportunity to try out Alex Lee's recipe.


The recipe was such a great success, that I offered to cook up a meal of Singapore Chilli crab for my sister's birthday dinner. Now although Singapore Chilli crab is a great dish, its not exactly a birthday party with only one dish. A sudden impulse lead me to cooking up a huge vat of beef rendang.

Simmering......

Finished!

Melt in your mouth rendang goodness! It needed more chilli, but since my nephews can't eat that spicy, I had to keep it fairly mild.

Now, Singapore Chilli crab AND beef rendang is starting to sound like a better birthday dinner.....but you need something to mop up all that gorgeous sauce don't you? How about a side of roti prata. Made from scratch of course!

You can see through it!

Not much photos of the roti making process since I was covered head to toe with flour and oil! But I did get the nice flip/toss action going! Along with a little gentle careful stretching, I ended up with paper thin roti!

Roti Prata

I used about 1/4 of the oil needed to give it an ultra crispy flakey roti, but the layers are all there once you tear it apart!

4kg of Singapore Chilli Crab

Who needs to go out for dinner when you can cook up a feast at home?

Pier 26 Seafood Cafe - Summer Hill

Wow......this visit to Pier 26 is ages ago! We actually went to Pier 26 a few days before valentines day, which explains all the balloons and decorations. I really should sort my photos better...


Anyway, to the food! Pier 26 is on the main strip at Summer Hill and is usually packed on a weekend (On the weekends, they sometimes have a drag queen performance). Pier 26 is famous for being a seafood restaurant with huge platters of seafood. Having an entertainment voucher, we decided to give it a visit.

Complimentry bread rolls

Unless you're shelling out big bucks, you generally don't get free bread in any restaurant anymore. Surprisingly, Pier 26 greeted us with bread when we sat down. It may not be an organic sourdough or some other gourmet bread, but it was a nice touch. And it came with proper butter!

Calamari

We started off with Calamari, which came in a fairly decent serve. The calamari came in a floury crumbed batter, almost like semolina flour type texture. They were big and tender, and went well with the tartare sauce.


I love how they're not stingey with the sauces.

Barramundi and chips

For the main, we both opted for Barramundi and chips. We chose the fish after talking to the owner, and what came out was very different to what was described. We were expecting a big juicy pan grilled fillet of Barramundi, but it turned out to be a small, thin overcooked piece of fish. I really wished we had choosen to have the fish battered and fried instead of grilled. The up side was that their chips are awesomely thick and fluffy. I wish they would give less chips and a bigger piece of fish. There was twice as much chips as there were fish.

I've got the new Entertainment book, so looks like I'll probably give them another go.

Pier 26 Seafood Cafe
26 Lackey St
Summer Hill
Ph: (02) 9798 8886


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Bungalow 8

I had a sudden craving for Mussels and dragged a workmate down to Bungalow 8 with me. I haven't been back for quite a few years after overdosing at their all you can eat mussel events. This time, I'm only have 1 pot.....not 5. So I think I should be ok!

Tom Yum Mussels and chips

My absolute favourite, Tom Yum Mussels! Although, I must say that their Tom Yum tastes more like Laksa, and their Laksa tastes more like Tom Yum. I wish I had some noodles I can throw into the pot at the end of the meal so I don't waste any of the lovely broth at the bottom.

Bungalow 8
3 Lime St
Sydney
Ph: (02) 9299 4660‎
http://www.bungalow8sydney.com.au


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The need for Quay....Snowegg that is

I remember sitting infront of TV during the MasterChef finals when they revealed that the final challenge was to recreate the Quay Snowegg. Almost immediately, all the friends I went to Quay with, started messaging each other.

"OMGGGGGG ITS SNOW EGG!!!!!!!!!!
"SNOW EGGGGGG!!@#%#$%@!@!#$"
"OMG I WANT ONE NOWWWWWW!!"

Before the challenge was over, we had basically organised a group of people to revisit Quay just for the snow egg. We were VERY lucky in being able to get a booking for the 2nd Thursday after the show aired. Apparently Quay is booked out until Feb 2011!! Thanks goodness we've been talking about the snowegg non-stop since our last visit, and didn't hestitate in committing to another night out at Quay.

This time, we invited a few other friends to join us. I guess they got sick of hearing us talk about the Strawberry Guava and Custard Apple snowegg and wanted to try it for themselves. The days leading up to our dinner, I was disappointed learn that they changed the snowegg to Jackfruit! (Actually, the night the show aired, Quay was offering only a Guava snow egg anyway) I love eating jackfruit when in asia, but I find the ones in Australia very bland and almost "off" in taste. Despite this, we were still looking forward to our night out.

Last time we did the tasting menu and all of us went into a food coma by the end of the night. This time we opted to go for the 4 course a la carte menu so we didn't stagger out of there.


We start off with an Amuse Bouche of Tuna Tartare with a consomme jelly type thing with eggplant puree. Again, their amuse bouche just blows you away and kick starts your appetite. I'm not sure what they did to the eggplant puree, but I wish eggplant tasted like that every day!

First Courses:

Raw Chinese artichokes, Hiramasa kingfish, smoked eel, horseradish, nasturtiums, octopus, pickled kohlrabi, egg white & radish flower

For the first course, I had the kingfish with raw chinese artichokes. I still have no idea what the chinese artichokes are, but I can tell you the dish was really light and a great first course. In the centre of the pile is the pickled kohlrabi that really lifted the whole dish up. I enjoyed it so much, I guiltily moped up every last bit of the dish with bread. (Hopefully the waiters didn't see!)

Mudcrab Congee

Most of my friends had ordered the mudcrab congee. Since I had it last time, I chose something different. But when it came, I can tell you I had serious food envy! The smell of the gorgeous aromatic congee wafted around the table making me salivate! FOOD ENVY!!! FOOOD ENVYYYYYYY!!!!! >_<

Second Courses:

Butter poached partridge breast, chestnuts, truffle, bitter chocolate black pudding, milk skin, walnuts

In the tasting menu, you get a butter poached quail breast. We assumed for the a la carte they were going to present the exact same dish, but using a larger partridge breast. The description on both menus are exactly the same, but the dish couldn't have come out more different! It still got the thumbs up though!

Confit of shaved South Australian squid, organic red core radishes, garlic custard, native violets, rosemary flowers, roasted squid consommé

My jaw dropped when this dish got placed infront of my friend. The gorgeous super thin see through slices of red radishes surrounded the plate was breath taking! I whip out the camera, ready to take a photo when the waiter says "I'm going just going to pour on the consomme now". My brain did a silent "NOoOOoOOoOoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

*SIGH*

The waiter was faster than me. But he wasn't as fast as my friends on the other side of the table, who went into a frantic to take a photo of the dish before he got there with his jug if consomme.

Besides the picture perfect dish, I did taste the consomme, and it was an explosion of flavour in my mouth! Not sure about a whole bowlful, as my friend said it got a bit too flavoursome by the end of the dish. But I certainly wasn't complaining about the little bit I did try!

Crisp confit of pig belly, green lipped abalone and cuttlefish, handmade silken tofu, Japanese mushrooms, chive flowers

Again, same description as what was on the a la carte, came out looking different. Still tasted just as great according to my friends!

Gentle braise of sea scallops, pearl oyster, rock lobster, lettuce hearts, tapioca, lobster velvet, oyster cream, pea flowers - $15 supplement

I just could not resist the sound of this dish! It was the lobster velvet and oyster cream that got me. The only problem was, I couldn't really tell it apart from everything! With that said, it was still an amazingly complex dish. The tapioca alone is worthy of being a dish on its own. I made sure I scraped up every last tapioca pearl.

Third Courses:

Complimentary salad

Nameko, shiitake, enoki, & king mushrooms, truffle custard, mushroom consommé

My friend chose the vegetarian dish of mushrooms, custard and consomme. Too bad she was sitting on the other side of our huge table, I would really have loved to try this dish. I loveeeee mushrooms and tofu! She did tell me that it was a beautiful dish and ate every last bit.

Roasted wild snapper, smoked butter, celeriac cream, young greens, winter melon, vongole juices

I didn't try this dish, and I actually don't remember hearing my friends talk about this dish at all. Not because it was bad, but because I was in a world of my own......

Slow braised Berkshire pig jowl, maltose crackling, prunes, cauliflower cream, perfumed with prune kernel oil

Let me get 2 things straight. I hate prunes and I hate cauliflower. The only time I eat cauliflower is when its been deep fried or smothered with cheese. Prunes? I just don't eat it full stop. So why did I order this dish?? I had faith in Peter Gilmore that he can make me like it. And I couldn't get past the maltose crackling! I figured since I already had 2 seafood dishes, I needed some meat in me, preferrably with crackling!

The dish is placed in front of me, and I'm immediately hit with the fragrance of prunes (In a nice way). I tentatively dig into the cauliflower cream and immediately had a "When Harry met Sally" moment. I've never tasted cauliflower like that in my life before. It was rich, hearty, yet delicate and was a light as clouds. LUCKILY! Friends on both sides of me ordered the same dish, meaning I didn't have to share this! MUAhaUAhaUAh

After the initial orgasm over the cauliflower, I take my knife and tapped the crackling, expecting a nice crunch. There was no crunch. The knife went straight through the crackling and then through the meat! HUH? It was only then that I realised the "maltose crackling" wasn't crackling basted in maltose. The crackling was MADE of maltose! Holy crapola! ITS MADE OF MALTOSE! The thinnest, crispiest maltose toffee, covered the most tender and melt in your mouth piece of pork I've ever had. *swoons* Even the prunes went amazing with the pork. This is hands down, the best main dish we've had at Quay. This time, it was my friends who had food envy!! It was so good, I had to borrow a piece of my friend's bread to mop up everything.

The moment finally arrived when it was time for the snowegg. I can hear the satisfying crack as I dig into the egg with my spoon. The texture is just the same as I remembered. The crispy shell, soft meringue, cool crunchy granita and smooth creamy puree. But the taste...the taste just didn't compare to the strawberry guava and custard apple version. All of my friends who came with me last time agreed that the Jackfruit version just wasn't as good. And given a choice between that and the BTS, we all unanimously chose the BTS. But those who had never tried a snowegg before, absolutely loved it!

Even with 4 courses, we were still stuffed by the end of the night, and could not fit in tea or petite fours. I can't wait to come back and try Quay again, especially when Guava and Custard apple is back in season!

Quay
Overseas Passenger Terminal
The Rocks, Sydney
Ph: (02) 9251 5600
http://www.quay.com.au


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Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab...NOT.

Before I start, let me say that I went to Harry's a week ago. And it took me a week to write to post. Not because I didn't have time, but I needed a week to calm down and let the fury within me die down a bit. Anyone of my friends on facebook would've experience the wrath of my fury on Saturday night and I didn't want to unleash that to the rest of the world just yet.

I was so SO looking forward to going to Harry's Singapore Chilli crab ever since I found out about it a few years ago. Its around the corner from Spice I am and I've always wanted to go, but have always been tempted by thai more. When Amz said she was organising her birthday party there I did a little cheer inside me. Especially since PP had visited Harry's a few times and always said it was good and would invite me the next time.

We arrive at the restaurant and we're seated at a table for 10 even though there's 8 of us. Usually I wouldn't complain, but they didn't have a lazy susan on the table. Meaning we had to practically climb onto the table to get anything on the other side. This is also why I there's not many photos as it was impossible to get decent photos from the other side of the table.

Most of the people weren't huge crab eaters and only wanted 1-2 pieces to taste what Singapore chilli crab tastes like. We ordered 2 mud crabs at $64/kg. This is after I had to convince the waiter that no, we don't need 4 crabs. We want TWO crabs. TWO. NOT FOUR.

We ordered a few other dishes as well so the non-crab eaters didn't starve.

San Choy Bao - $5.20 each

This was.....disappointing. A good san choy bao should be dry and crunchy with a lovely breath of wok aroma. This was soggy and sloppy. The fried vermicelli noodles they added had turned to mush. They also put the filling onto a very wet piece of lettuce which basically watered down the whole dish and causing a huge mess when eating.

Chicken and vege with cashew nuts

We had a few other dishes that came out before this. Salt and pepper calamari was nice, but nothing to write home about. This however, is something to write home about. In blood. This was.......wrong. The vegetables, carrots and celery, was bitter. It also had a tough chewy texture which is usually the result of using old leftover veggies that have been sitting in the fridge for too long. The carrots weren't peeled and had a dark skin on it which further confirms my "bottom of the veggie bin" theory. This dish wasn't touched much. And if it wasn't $20 for this, I wouldn't have forced myself to eat it. I would actually rate this dish BELOW food court food which has been sitting in the bain marie for too long. BELOW.

"Singapore Chilli crab"

OK, this was the only decent photo of the crab I could get from my side of the table. Compare that "Singapore Chilli Crab" with the Singapore Chilli Crab I had in Singapore:


1. Notice the lack of sauce in Harry's
2. Harry's sauce contains NO tomato sauce

Not only was the sauce NOT Singapore Chilli crab sauce, it was OVERLY salted. There was 2 taste in the sauce. Salt and chilli. This was a huge disappointment, especially since we had invited people hoping they get to try authentic Singapore style chilli crab.

We had ordered 2 serves of Roti because they told me they had sold out of the Man tou that you use to dip into the Singapore Chilli Crab. And honestly, what place that serves real Singapore Chilli crab will sell out of Mantou at 7:30pm on a Saturday night?

The waiter convinced us to order the roti instead, which we did. $5 for 4 serves. Or rather, $5 for 2 pieces of roti cut in half. And it wasn't even fresh made roti. The roti, although crispy, was dense and compact. The exact same texture of the frozen roti we buy from the asian grocery store.

Ontop of this, we had ordered 5 bowls of boiled rice (As they only serve them per bowl) at $2.80 a bowl, thinking we wanted something to soak up all the sauce with.

1. there was no sauce.
2. they only gave us 3 bowls.

When I asked for the other 2 bowls, the waiter said he had already given me 5.

Me: "Errrrr.....no. You gave me 3 bowls."
Him: "No, I already gave you 5 bowls."
Me: "No. You gave me 3 bowls. 1. 2. 3." *pointing at the only bowls on the table

He gives me a look as if I had hidden the other 2 bowls. I was so close to screaming that he only gave me 3 bowls and I didn't shove the other 2 bowls down my top. My boobs really do look like that!

I was so angry by this stage I didn't even want dessert. ESPECIALLY when I saw that they were charging $9 for a fried ice cream. I basically had the mentality I didn't want to let them earn another dollar off me.

My friends went ahead and ordered fried ice creams and chocolate cake. The order was, 5 fried ice creams. 3 with caramel 2 with chocolate. What came out was 3.5 caramel and 1.5 chocolate. Yeh. They had put caramel onto the 4th order. And instead of going "oops! lets make another one or atleast scrape the caramel off", they proceeded to pour chocolate ONTOP of the caramel which resulted in topping overdose.

Then there was the ice cream. Or what we though was ice cream. It looked like a banana fritter, but when you cut into it, the whole thing collapses and starts oozing white stuff. The batter itself was incredibly doughy and chewy, almost like stale chinese fried dough sticks.


And just to make the night worse, the people eating the fried ice cream started digging up corn kernels.

Corn...in a fried ice cream!?

Chocolate cake

Our friend had ordered a chocolate cake, was starting to think he was the only one to get out unscathed. That is until he realised the $10 slice of chocolate cake he ordered was from Coles! It still has the ridges from where they peeled the baking paper away from the cake.

By the end of the night, most of the table was a ball of raging fury from being so openly ripped off. For 2 crabs, 4 main meals, 5 bowls of rice, roti, soft drink and dessert, we paid $420.50. And that is exactly what we paid. $420.50. No more, no less. I then wrote on the receipt that "THE ICE CREAM IS CRAP!!!" and handed it back to the waitress. I probably would've written a much harsher note had there been room on the receipt.

I can't remember the last time I have ever walked away from a restaurant feeling so angry and ripped off. If you think this post is harsh, you should've seen how I was saturday night and will understand why I didn't blog straight away.

How it has such a "good" reputation I don't understand. I guess being endorsed by The Veronicas might have something to do with that. And the wall of photos with celebrities visiting will probably contribute to that. But I can tell you, none of the celebrities were asian and must never have had an authentic Singapore Chilli crab. Because if they have, they would not endorse this place.

I will NEVER, EVER go back to this place. EVER.

The Corn Exchange - Four Points Sheraton

It's been a few years since I've visited the Corn Exchange. I used to come here quite regularly with my family when they had the buy 1 get 1 free offers every few months. But they haven't had that offer for quite a few years. As a part of the Enliven Sydney Promotion, they're offering the buy 1 get 1 free offer again! Woohoo! I immediately dragged my friend with my for a bout of seafood feasting! I thought I should test the place out before bringing my family here again.

I'm always well prepared for visiting The Corn Exchange. Minimal breakfast and lunch. Don't drink anything fizzy or full of dairy. Order hot water when at the restaurant (So I'm not tempted to drink heaps of water). Get plenty of prawn chips/papadums and some hot soup to counteract the slimey cold seafood I intended to gorge on.

I decided to combine all the photos from both my visits into one big post. So don't worry, I didn't eat ALL of this in one sitting. But even if you average it out....... *Cough*

Cold seafood section

Smoked salmon

Cold prawns

Mussels, sushi, sashimi

Some lobster/prawn/bug type thing

Anti pasto/Salad section

More salads on another night

Let me firstly explain what type of person should go to the Corn Exchange. The buffet is catered for those who love their cold seafood and dessert. The hot food on offer is minimal and very disappointing for those who don't eat seafood. Whilst for those who like their seafood, this place is HEAVEN. And I mean HEAVEN. Huge amounts of oysters, sashimi, smoked salmon, prawns, crab, balmain bugs, mussels, octopus and sushi. And that's exactly what I intend to eat.

My DIY seafood platter

My 2 favourite things, oysters and sashimi

More oysters, sashimi and prawns

Oysters, crab, prawns and some sashimi hidden in the bottom

More oysters, sashimi, smoked salmon and mussels

Moving onto the hot food. Confit of duck, saffron pasta and more seafood

To be honest, the total amount of hot food I ate was limited to that piece of duck confit and about 1 tablespoonful of pasta. I also sampled 1 or 2 pieces of other hot food, basically they were all quite terrible. Gluggy, salty or flavourless. "Hot food" selection includes things like white rice, roast potatoes, pumpkin, green beans and occassionally some sort of roast meat/fish/stew. Basically, nothing appealed to me. I'll have 1/2 a bowl of soup to warm my stomach up and move onto the dessert.

Dessert

More desser offerings

Orange cream, creme brulee, fruit tart, portugese tart and strawberries and chocolate

I was really disappointed when I found out that they no longer did their gorgeous sticky date pudding with hot vanilla bean custard. It was my absolute favourite dessert at The Corn Exchange. I almost liked it more than the seafood. They've replaced it with a huge vat of melted chocolate which you ladel over strawberries and marshmallows.

I tried a bit of everything on my plate, but I quickly gave them all up for one thing. The creme brulee. OH. MY. LORD! Their creme brulee is AMAZING! Its extremely smooth and creamy. Totally decadent even though the burnt sugar had melted by this stage. Infact, I liked it so much, the first time I went, I ate 6 of these babies!

Second time I went back, I warned my sisters to get out of my way if I'm getting creme brulee. I WILL hurt them if they fight me for it. Luckily, the had the dessert section well stocked with creme brulee. So well stocked in fact, that between the 4 of us, we ate a total of 36 creme brulees. 36!! It was quite embarrassing whenever the waiter came to collect our dirty dishes and it was all creme bruless dishes.


The good thing about us eating all the creme brulee was that they had to keep bringing out more. We ate everything they put out so they had to make a fresh batch where the sugar was lovely and crunchy! What a perfect way to end our meal!

Extra crunchy top

The Corn Exchange

161 Sussex St
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9290 4851