Causeway Bay Spicy Crab

If you are familiar with Hong Kong, you would know that Causeway Bay is one of the most densely-populated areas in Hong Kong and a major shopping district. What's interesting is that Causeway Bay (known as "Tung Lo Wan" in Cantonese) started as a fishing village and due to the typhoons which often strike the island, shelters were built at the bay to protect the inhabitants against the strong forces of nature. As time went, people actually live in the boats in these typhoon shelters (known as "pei foong thong" in Cantonese) and a population of "boat people" (known as "Tanka" folks) thrived there. The people of this community have their own distinct culture, from their language to their customs, rituals, beliefs and of course, their food. However, since the mid-1990's, many of these boat people have moved onshore but the typhoon shelters remain an attraction in Causeway Bay.

One of the famous dishes served in the typhoon shelters is their Crabs, which is still served in many restaurants in Hong Kong. Now you don't have to go to Hong Kong to try this delicacy as we now have Causeway Bay Spicy Crab Restaurant right here in Hartamas. With their original outlet in Hong Kong, Causeway Bay Spicy Crab is about 2 months' old here. Located behind Soul'ed Out, you can find it easily.



Their signature dish - known simply as "Authentic Garlic & Chilli Crabs" - that is how the famous crab dish is cooked.



When this dish was served, we could hardly discern the crab underneath the mountain of fried chopped garlic and chillies. Move those aside and you can then see this...



The crab was very fresh and according to the affable Eric, their crabs are sourced from various places, like Sabah, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The crab had been firstly fried in hot oil to seal in the juices and flavour before being tossed in the fried chopped garlic and chillies. Very simple - no other frills needed. So what you get is pure unadulterated succulent crabmeat, made more heavenly by the bits of fragrant garlic and chillies. Crabs' prices go according to market rates.

The thing I like about their menu is their very explicit names... you know exactly how it's cooked and what you're getting, just by their names!

Another signature item - Razor Clam Steamed with Garlic & Vermicelli...



They are served in individual plates and are charged according to market prices. Push aside the vermicelli (aka "glass noodles") and you can see the razor clams...



Clams generally are a bit chewy but they exude a sweet flavour as you chew upon them... and the vermicelli did a good job absorbing the sweet sauce it came with. Seasonings were kept at a minimum - just some good quality soya sauce, chopped garlic and chinese parsley, which enhanced the natural flavour of the Scotland-imported clams.

The simple cooking method was replicated in the Steamed Prawns in Chinese Wine & Eggwhite (RM25/38/48 for Small/Medium/Large portions respectively)...



The addition of chinese wine lifted the prawns one notch higher, taste-wise and the smooth creamy eggwhites ensured a more delightful passage. I find that most other restaurants usually render the eggwhites pretty hard in similar prawn dishes but Causeway Bay Spicy Crab had got it done perfectly. Eggwhites tend to harden quickly upon cooking but in this dish, it turned out to be slippery smooth - much like the texture of soft-boiled eggs. It was so good that DL practically slurped all of it!

One of the first items that Eric recommended was their Fresh Clams in Salted Soup (RM18/26/33)...



This, for me, was not really my favourite dish that evening. Cooked in a milky soup, with angled loofah, baby corn, sliced canned mushrooms and glass noodles, the clams were a bit overwhelmed, I would say.

Seeing duck tongues on the menu, we could not resist this and Eric recommended their Sauted Duck Tongues with Chinese Chives (RM16/24/32)...



These were Brazilian duck tongues, sourced via Hong Kong. The chinese chives maintained their crunchiness from the high-heat saute'ing, the tongues were well-marinated & tasty... so if you are a duck tongue lover like me, there's nothing not to like about this dish.

For something lighter on the palate, try their Golden Crispy Beancurd (RM10/18/24)...



Nicely spiced with their "7-flavour powder", the cubes of beancurd were really smooth on the inside beneath the light golden skin. You don't even need to dip them in the accompanying chilli sauce - they taste pretty good on their own.

Even though its name imply that this is a crab/seafood restaurant, Causeway Bay Spicy Crab does serve a variety of meats too. One of their recommended pork items is the Honey Garlic Fried Pork Ribs (RM20/28/38)...



A typical pork rib dish, the caramelized meat would go well with rice. However, that evening, the honey must have been caramelised a tad too much, resulting in a slight bitterish tinge to the ribs. Other than that, the good-sized pieces of ribs would have adequately fulfilled any porcine crave.

Baby Cabbage in Supreme Broth (RM18/24/38) wasn't stellar. Steeped in a brownish broth, the baby corn, carrots, sliced canned mushrooms (about 3 types of them!) and baby cabbage beneath a sprinkling of dried scallops didn't really do much for the taste buds.



Hmmm... I'm not sure if the amount of canned mushrooms in it kinda diverted the dish into mediocrity but this can certainly be improved.

Now, as far as carbs are concerned, I would say their XO Sauce Seafood Fried Rice (RM18/28/38) rises above the average ranking.



The grains of rice were nicely separated and had thoroughly infused all the yummy brineniness of seafood chunks (shrimps, scallops, crabmeat)... with eggs and XO sauce added in, I had no complaints whatsoever with this! However, at this point, we were full till almost button-popping point and as delicious as the fried rice was, there was no way we could finish the generous portion. So I had the left-over doggy-packed for LL and it served as a mean supper for him. It was so mean that he has been asking for this fried rice ever since!

Dessert was Sea Coconut with Chinese Herbs and a platter of Quilin Jelly (tortoise-shell jelly)...



As you can see, the pieces of jelly were creatively arranged to resemble a tortoise - cute! Both these are good for "cooling down" your system, especially if you have eaten rich "heaty" food!

Causeway Bay Spicy Crab does serve some authentic HK-styled dishes and if you want to try some "typhoon shelter" specialities, this is one place in KL which offers them. Their chefs are trained by their HK Chief Chef who's from the original "boat people" there - so that speaks a lot about authenticity.

They are located at:

26 & 26-1 Jalan 30/70A
Desa Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-6205-2280
Open Monday-Sunday:
11.30am - 3.00pm
6.00pm - 11.30pm

Visit their Facebook page for their location map and more info on their menu.

*Many thanks to Soo Ting for inviting me :-))

De Foodland - Crabs Mania!

De Foodland Seafood Restaurant
25 & 27 Jalan 3/62B
Bandar Sri Menjalara
52200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-6274-4796


Let's take a break from my gluttony in that Penang trip and divert to more gluttony here in the Klang Valley, hehe!

My dear friend CH was back from Shanghai for a week's break and it was her final night before flying off. So... dinner with her and family... and she didn't have enough of Malaysian seafood despite me taking her to South Sea just the previous weekend! So... it was just timely that a few days before this a colleague had mentioned "the restaurant with >30 crab dishes" somewhere in Bandar Menjalara! Thereafter, she even sms'ed me the website link and that's how we landed up at this crabby place, hehe!

There's a super clear map in their website and we found our way there easily. We thought we were early... but no, there were already hordes of people there. Best to book your table first if you're heading there.

CH had to have her unmentionable-shark-anatomy soup and a 4-Season Platter ... those were her instructions, besides all the other seafood dishes!

So... this was my bowl of the soup... drizzled with lots of black vinegar, hehe! It was full of fresh crabmeat and not overly starchy.


Within minutes, the 4-Season Platter was served! Service was extraordinarily fast... so much so that we had to ask them to slow down! That's because there was not enough space on our already-big table as the dishes kept torpedo-ing out!

Those bread-covered fried thingies were exceptionally good... once you bit into them, soft creamy cheese oozed out from the mashed centre of pork, prawn & shrimp paste... lovely. LL had about 3 of these, I think! The yam ring was memorable too - soft fluffy powdery mashed yam fried to a perfect crisp and there were cubes of chicken & pacific clams cooked kungpo style dunked into the middle of the ring. The omelette with shredded vege was rather bland though.

The Taufu with Meenkan (gluten puffs) were braised and served on a pool of oyster-sauce gravy decorated with blanched siewpakchoy at the sides. Nothing fancy - it was good old comfort food - smooth homemade nutritious beancurd, flavoured with just the oyster sauce.

We had a hard time choosing our crabs from their very extensive menu. We were practically drooling over the pictures... and in the end, CH chose their Butter Crabs and Black Stout Crabs.

The plate of heavenly buttery creamy crustaceans hit our table first...
To alleviate the strong creamy taste, generous amounts of crushed black pepper were added... a bit different from the usual chopped chilli padi. The gravy was very thick and completely coated all the pieces of well-cracked crabs...

Yeah, one good thing to note here is that the crabs have been very well cracked, thus there's absolutely no need for hammers, crab-crackers etc. You can easily and happily suck out every succulent morsel of meat from the crabs... woohooo!


We had 3 rolls of these fried mantou to soak up the thick creamy gravy - not a drop went to waste!

Their vegetables selection featured quite a number of unusual dishes. Besides the usual greens saute'ed in garlic, there were glamorous stuff like bittergourd stir-fried with taugeh! We opted for the more sedate Bittergourd with Salted Eggyolks. And that was precisely what we got...
Thinly-sliced bittergourd (which were not bitter at all) slathered with thick creamy salted eggyolks! As if the Crabs were not laden enough with cholesterol, we had to double/triple whammie with our vegetables - must have 'em salted yolks!!

Fish - must have fish in a seafood restaurant! CH liked the assam-steamed fish in Southsea so much, she wanted more of this... since this was also featured in De Foodland. The tilapia was superfresh with none of the muddy taste... however, I feel the assam gravy lacked ooomph, rendering the dish rather bland. Southsea's version definitely beat this hands-down! But no worries... they ordered a couple bowls of white rice and polished off the entire fish plus gravy!!

Ahhh... here's the next crab dish >>> the Black Stout Crabs! Presentation-wise, it was kinda like the marmite-style... and even taste-wise, initially I was misled to think maybe they screwed-up our order and gave us marmite crabs instead. However, upon chewing and sucking on the tasty pieces, it left an unmistakable slightly-bitterish tangy aftertaste on the tongue - the mark of stout!


There are so many other crabby dishes on the menu - I will definitely return to try more... soon, I hope!

My rating: 7.5/10

Bali Hai @ Penang

Recently we took a short break for a makan trip to Penang. It's been several years since we last drove there. So, when we were finally crossing the Penang Bridge, I couldn't help clicking the above pic from the screen of my car's GPS.

It was drizzling as we left the mainland heading towards the island. As we were crossing the bridge, the sun was finally peeping through the dark clouds ... but it was still kinda hazy, as you can see...

By the time we reached Gurney Drive, it was dinner time. We didn't realise Friday evening traffic in Penang can be that bad, kinda underestimated it! So, on DL's friend's invitation, we headed to Bali Hai at Gurney Drive. The other Bali Hai which I know well happens to be a Dive Centre in Tioman, haha! Anyway, this Bali Hai in Gurney Drive is a very popular seafood place, judging by the crowd there!


There was a huge array of fresh seafood and vegetables on display - just take your pick! Even the dead ones were very fresh...

We actually had a hard time picking our choices...
This was the Starter - Cockles, lightly boiled and eaten dipped in their garlic chilli sauce...

Next came the Baby Octopus.... absolutely divine! Again, we chose the same style of cooking - lightly boiled... the best way to taste the freshness of sea produce ...
They were tender yet succulent... and when married with the green & red chilli dips - fabulous!
Since the light boiling method worked so well with fresh seafood, we had most of the dishes done that way. You can't go wrong with this, believe me!

The Tiger Prawns... they were swimming in the tanks before they were served (ok, I'm being gross) ... Mmmm... they taste good dipped in wasabe+soya sauce too!

What is a duck but not a duck?

Yeah, sounds kinda lame, I know... but then the Geoduck is anything but a duck! (i wonder who gave that very inappropriate name lah!)

It doesn't look like a duck....

... and it certainly didn't taste like one!
Known also as the "Elephant Trunk Clam" (direct translation from Cantonese), this saltwater king clam is really one ugly fella. We had this thinly-sliced, served on a bed of shaved ice - eat it either sashimi-style, dipped in wasabe...

... or dip them in a pot of boiling herbal soup! I tried it both ways and I must say nothing beats eating it sashimi-style - that's when you can really taste its sweet succulence. It's slightly chewy, just slightly only, giving that delish bite to it... and then its smooth sweetness just burst upon your palate before slipping down your throat.

Ahh... let's take a break from all those seafoody stuff and have some bites of greens... Pea Sprouts was our choice... lightly saute'ed with garlic... refreshingly yummy.

The greens were to cleanse our palate... before the next onslaught.

Yeah... enter the Lobster Baked with Cheese...

It was a fair sized crustacean... ahh, but then I'm not really a fan of cheese-baked seafood, much to the delight of the boys. "Less man more share" for them! I would have prefered to have this lightly tossed in ginger & spring onions... or even sashimi-style... but hey, the guys love their cheese! Judging from their moans of ecstacy, I guess this scored pretty high marks with them :-)

There were 2 disappointing items that night. The Garoupa... steamed with soya sauce... while the fish was fresh, unfortunately the cook left it in the steamer too long, so the poor fish was served overcooked! Quite a serious crime, I would say... coz that rendered the fish kinda chewy and somehow the taste went a bit off.

The other big disappointment was the Seafood Fried Rice. LL, who is now an established Foodie, took 1 bite and promptly declared it "no wok-hei!!!" with a grimace. I took a spoonful and totally agreed with that statement. Worse, it was just mildly lukewarm when the dish was put on our table... the rice grains were kinda limp and the shrimps, scallops and anchovies could do nothing to revive the dead rice ....sigh.
Sad.
Anyway, by this time, we were all stuffed with the earlier dishes, so even without the carbs, we were pretty happy and satiated, hehe!

The restaurant was very much in the Merdeka spirit... and the tables were really filling up fast as our dinner progressed. What can be more pleasant than digging into seafood, with the sea breeze blowing in, ... and if the crowds were to quieten down a bit, I bet you can even hear the waves lapping, LOL!

I kinda like their tagline "If it swims, we have it!" even though they didn't totally live up to it!

Hmmm... I didn't see any sharks...


My rating: 6.5/10

Robson Heights of Ecstacy

Robson Heights Seafood Restaurant
10B, Jalan Permai
Off Jalan Syed Putra
50460 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2274 6216


It has been quite some time since I last caught up with my dear friend KL. With her living in Taman Seputeh and just a stonethrow away from the recently-raved-about Robson Heights Seafood restaurant, it just seemed perfectly natural that I made a date with her at that place!

The pictures in this post are from 2 separate visits - each time with KL & LL in tow and with DL on one occasion! On the 1st visit, we pretty much ordered most of the items recommended by the many floggers who have been there.

The Black Pepper Udon scored high marks with us, especially LL who polished off more than half of the single-portion we ordered. The fat succulent udon were done full of "wok-hei" with the black pepper packing in a good punch as well. The squids in this udon dish were also extremely fresh! I took only a few mouthfuls of this - as yummy as it was - because I wanted to save tummy space for the other dishes.

The Thai-style Pork Knuckle was a huge portion for just 3 of us. The skin was very crispy, a perfect foil for the juicy fatty layer underneath which gave way to the tender meat just below. Me - I enjoyed sinking my teeth into the chewy tendons! Dip those in the piquant spicy sauce and we're in for a yummylicious porky time!

As good as the Pork Knuckle was, it couldn't beat the Honey Pork Ribs which scored the most points that night! LL was still drooling about it many days after that dinner! The super-tender meat were practically falling off the ribs - just look at the glistening layer of bliss-honey smothering this out-of-this-world concoction! Indeed, this was sweet porcine heaven! We knew this was definitely a must-reorder dish on every visit to this place.

Next... the crabs! We had 2 types - the Marmite Crabs...

... and the Salted Egg Yolk Crabs! Ahhh... what can I say? Such sinful blissful indulgence! The pictures are telling a thousand words... and my postscript would be: They tasted every bit as yummy as they looked!

Not entirely satiated with the porcine dishes earlier on, we just had to order this Pig's Intestines dish the moment KL mentioned it! There was frantic waving of hands to catch the attention of the captain and very soon, this was placed on our table!

Yayyy - crunchy chewy succulent pig's intestines cooked with dried shrimps and chilli padi! I was still busy with the last piece of crab when this was served and I only managed to grab a few pieces before everything was gone! Talk about lightning-fast eaters!

Robson serves a mean "4 Heavenly Kings" vege dish - you know, the combination of petai, brinjals, ladies' fingers and longbeans in sambal. Dang! The pic I took of this dish was inadvertently deleted...sigh! It was so good that we wanted to order it again on the 2nd visit but unfortunately the jolly captain told us they didn't have petai that day...so no go.

Instead he recommended us a simple vege dish - Shredded Cabbage with Dried Shrimps. Nothing outstanding... certainly could not compete with the exotic 4 Heavenly Kings... this was like the village simpleton - just simple wholesome home-cooked fare.

We had to have the Honey Pork Ribs again and even after devouring a couple of those, we still had room for more pork! And that's when we were recommended this Taiwan Garlic Pork by the same jolly fella. Another simple looking dish but very appetizing. The slices of juicy pork fillet were full of garlicky sweet sour flavours which did not overwhelm the palate and you could actually enjoy these delectable morsels on their own.
Ahhh... here's the star of the meal! Claypot Crab Rice! This came as the last dish as the chef needed time to prepare this. When the claypot cover was lifted, this was what greeted us...

Just look at the mound of crab roe by the side of the claypot... and we were assailed with a spellbinding aroma of saliva-inducing crabby flavours wafting from this magic pot....
The rice had been deliciously infused with the crab flavours, fried shallots and hints of black soya sauce and a dribble of chinese wine... we scraped the pot clean, I tell you! I could eat the rice on its own... and took my time with the succulently-fresh crabs after that.
So if you feel like having some cholesterol ecstacy-inducing seafood, this unassuming restaurant in the quiet neighbourhood of Taman Seputeh is just the place to go.

My rating: 8/10!