Singapore Crab Debate - Black Pepper Crab vs Chili Crab

My girlfriend and I are currently in Singapore right now for her birthday! It's been an amazing trip and I'm so glad to get to spend it with her here. One of the things we love to do together is stuff our faces and eat like crazy. The crab meal was definitely on her birthday wish list so it was a definite must to do. The type of crab that was used is called a "Mud Crab", which has GIANT claws but pretty tiny legs. The crabs were cut into 6 sections, 4 crab body/leg portions and 2 giant claw portions. The unexpected thing was that there would be TWO crab restaurants next to each other that specialized in two different style of crabs...so we had to indulge ourselves, but which one was better!? Personally I felt like this seemed like the great Philly cheesesteak debate with 2 competing sandwiches next door to each other. Let us tell you about the flavors and our ultimate choices!

Cracked Black Pepper Crab

Chili Crab

We arrived at the East Coast Seafood Centre in Singapore, there were multiple seafood oriented restaurants that are along the coast. The two locations on the corner that we were destined for were 'Jumbo Seafood' and 'Long Beach Seafood'. Jumbo Seafood is known for their Singapore Chili Crab and Long Beach which says it created the original Black Pepper Crab.

We both knew about the Chili Crab so we wanted to try that first as I was in the mood for something spicy! We were able to choose our seats at this time and chose to view the beautiful harbor in front of us, there was an awning though that slightly blocked our view and blocked some light coming in. When the dish first came out it was clear going to be saucy and messy to eat. The aroma was fragrant and the temperature was piping hot! After the first bite though I was slightly disappointed because I was expecting a more chili spicy/vinegar flavor, I got a sweeter tomato based flavor. The flavor itself was good, but just a little on the sweeter side for me. There was a dipping sauce that was paired with this dish which had a bit of chili spice and more of a vinegar finish. We got rice with this crab and the rice was delicious by dipping it back into sauce and letting it soak up and eating it. The saucy crab added an element of filling yourself up which was nice. Jumbo Seafood did seem more popular, but we went in the middle of the afternoon so it was hard to tell. As stated earlier the legs were quite small, but the claw meat was gigantic. I did not have many pictures after we started eating due to the messiness.

Across the seafood centre on the opposite corner was the next competitor, Long Beach Seafood. They claim that they are the original creators of the Black Pepper crab! The sound of this sounds like the roasted garlic crab we love back in the states so we had to try it. We were able to choose our seats again and this time we had an undisturbed view of the harbor and they had skylights which made the restaurant feel much brighter and bigger. We ordered the black pepper crab and 2 bowls of rice again. The crab came out much faster this time than the last place. The crabs presented nicer and was clearly not as saucy. We were both kind of shocked because we weren't sure what to expect. The first bite was incredibly rich with flavor and such a surprise. The flavor was consistent with every bite and taste of the shell was stellar. This crab actually had some spice to it as well due to the black pepper. The one downside of this crab though was it wasn't saucy, and we were both craving for more sauce. We were scraping the bits with our rice and trying to get the sauce on anything that we could.

Overall the winner was clear for me, I would totally recommend the Black Pepper Crab due to its flavor and spicy kick that it delivered. The Chili Crab was still good and I would get it again, but maybe from another restaurant, I would want a chili crab to be spicy like a chili! May had a tougher decision, she liked both because the chili crab was saucy and the black pepper crab was also delicious to her. She would also highly recommend the black pepper crab, but for a saucy crab stick with the chili crab. For now if you had to choose one, I would recommend the Black Pepper Crab from Long Beach!

!steemitworldmap 1.306211 lat 103.930477 long Singapore Crab D3SCR