Post by Chiefeater Luke Soon

There’s an open debate about who created chilli crabs. Singapore claimed that ‘title’ decades ago and has been basking in culinary glory - even Ramsay had to come to the red dot to a ‘cook off‘ challenge a few years back.

There are a few salient points to discuss;
1) the crabs are generally larger here (maybe because of export from other markets)
2) more varieties incl ‘angmo ‘ types eg dungeness, blue swimmer (besides the usual Sri Lankan mud crabs and the now ubiquitous Alaskan king and snow crab varietals)
3) inflow of culinary talents from (obviously Malaysia, nearby) and more recently Hong Kong

If there’s a Singapore dish that can rival or even surpass Malaysia, this would be one of them. Specifically for me - it’s the white pepper crab. Yes, we’ve all had the chilli crab with fried mantou - but the style I prefer is the less obvious, rarer, white pepper crabs.

Actually it’s the only style of cooking (being specific) that can surpass that of Malaysia. It’s an open debate - even for chilli crabs. Or even cooking styles such as egg yolk, kam heong. I still feel Malaysia has the edge. But this (black and white pepper) and the Teochew cold steamed crabs - I think Singapore has the edge.

Then there’s the debate within Singapore who invented the chilli crab, the white pepper crab etc - and it’s always a few household names that pop up. There’s Jumbo. There’s No SignBoard (who invented white pepper crabs). And there’s Long Beach.

And between the Big 3 seafood franchises you’re more or less guaranteed a ‘good’ (fresh, well executed Chinese) meal. Obviously it comes with a heftier than usual price tag as well.

Like all the other restaurants I ‘exhaust’ - for seafood it has to be Long Beach Dempsey for me. While they have many other branches, it's the Dempsey outlet for me. Over the years I’ve come to know their maître d’s (ask for Priscilla or Ivy at Dempsey Long Beach I). - they usually tell me what to order. But the white pepper crab is a must. I’ve not had a visit here without eating these peppery morsels of delight.

For this meal, we had abalone in garlic and tunghoon. As usual, above average - recall we usually go with a bamboo clam for this cooking style.

Then it was the live drunken prawns - also above average. Usually we’d go for the pak cheok prawns but Ivy insisted we try the drunken version - good recommendation.

Then next the wonderfully umami fried/charred wat tan hor with lala kings. If you’ve tried white lala beehoon (I’m a fan) - you’d love this version by Long Beach. Probably the top dish tonight besides the crabs, of course

Then the egg fried rice - above average . And a dessert of black glutinous rice ice cream.

For the crabs today- we chose the Dungeness crab. It’s a very viable alternative to the usual Sri Lankan mud crabs we’re accustomed to. In fact, for more $$$$ they would whip up snow and King crabs in white pepper sauce. I’ve had that before - and sure it was sublime (and very costly!) - but if you’re going to eat often, go for the Dungeness!

We were party of 4 enjoying the SGD298 set meal.

It’s my go to for all seafood dinners - even if business visitors and clients from overseas come: this place is a must!

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