Bon
Appetit
Singapore's Very Own Dish - Chilli Crab
by Shawn Lee
 It
was in the 1950s that a great cook, Madam Cher Yam Tian,
came out with what is now known as one of our favourite
national dishes. She and her husband set up a food stall
selling sea crabs along the seaside, everyday from dusk
till the wee hours, by the light of a kerosene lamp. This
was the first version of the Singapore chilli crab.
With hearty gravy made from fresh red chillies, tomato sauce, fresh
eggs and spring onions, chilli crabs are best eaten with
your fingers. Don’t bother trying to look well mannered
- use your teeth to crack the shells, suck out the succulent
meat, and if you have to, hit the extra-hard shell on
the tabletop to break it! As the gravy runs down your
arms, clean it up with cubes of French bread or fried
Chinese buns (known as mantou) served as side dishes.
All in a chilli crab meal’s work!
The chilli crab's close cousin, the black pepper crab, was born
in the '80s. It was not a runaway hit but a slow-building
love affair for those who prefer the spicy kick of freshly
grounded black and white pepper, salt and garlic.
Here are some highly recommended restaurants where you can enjoy
finger-licking good chilli crabs:
Roland's
Restaurant (The original recipe from Madam Cher)
Blk 89, Marine Parade Central #06-750
Melben Seafood
Blk 232 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 #01-1222
Call 6285 6762 for reservations
Punggol Seafood
Marina Country Club
600 Ponggol 17th Ave
Eng Seng
241 Joe Chiat Place
Long
Beach Restaurant
Please refer to www.longbeachseafood.com.sg
for the locations for the various outlets.
Jumbo
Seafood Restaurant
Please refer to www.jumboseafood.com.sg
for the locations for the various outlets. |
Book
Review
by Gary
Wang
Tuesdays with
Morrie by Mitch Albom
An old man, a young man, and life’s greatest
lesson
by Gary Wang
 “Once you learn
how to die, you learn how to live.” Morrie Schwartz said
to Mitch Albom.
Indeed, this might be life’s greatest lesson after all – learning
how to live. Everyone wants to live our lives right. After
all, we only live once. We are only young once. We can’t
turn back the clock.
Tuesdays with Morrie offers a delightful insight into how we should
be living our lives and the issues we grapple with – family,
love and marriage, dealing with regrets, self-pity and the
fear of aging as well as death. As Morrie suggested, once
you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
Morrie taught this last lesson to his friend, and one-time student
he had come to love as his son, literally, in his deathbed.
Struck by a terminal disease, he lived out the last days
of his life as he did all the time before – purposefully
and meaningfully. As a professor, he taught and inspired.
As a dying man, he taught and inspired again – to his students
and peers alike who visited him upon hearing of his demise
and imminent passing.
Life’s lessons cannot be learnt from the first step to the last.
They have to be embraced and appreciated with your own experience.
And this book speaks to every reader in different ways just
simply because of the different needs we have, the different
phases we are going through. But one general principle holds
true – if today is the last day of your life, how to you
want to live it?
What are the truly important things you have not done? How do you
live on in the memories of others after you are gone? I
quote Morrie: “As long as we can love each other, and remember
the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really
going away. All the love you created is still there. All
the memories are still there. You live on – in the hearts
of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were
here. Death ends a life, not a relationship.”
Death may be far away. But it is never too late to live the way
you would wish you had, when you are moments away from the
inevitable. Is there someone you really cared about? Is
there someone you lost through years of neglect, in the
midst of your busyness? Find a way back to him. Just like
Mitch found Morrie after 16 years.
|
