Chinese Food (Chilli Crab)

Chili crab is a seafood dish originating from Singapore. It was created in 1950 by Singapore chef, Cher Yam Tian with her husband, Lim Choon Ngee. The couple ran Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant on Upper East Coast Road (near the present day East Coast Seafood Centre.) Mud crabs are commonly used and are stir-fried in a semi-thick, sweet and savoury tomato and chilli based sauce. It can be widely found at Malaysian and Singaporean seafood hawker stalls, kopi tiams or restaurants. Despite its name, chili crab is not a very spicy dish.

Ingredients

Crab

Although mud crabs are commonly used, other varieties of crab that have been used include:

• Flower crab / Blue swimmer crab
• Soft-shell crab

Sauce

Chilli crab sauce is usually semi-thick, sweet and savoury although there are some that are served watery. The base of the chilli crab sauce is usually chilli sauce and tomato sauce. It is thickened with a thickening flour. Flavoured with garlic, rice vinegar, soya sauce and etc. Beaten chicken eggs are added near the end of the cooking process to create egg-ribbons in the sauce.

Bread

Chilli crabs are commonly served with breads for mopping up the sauce:

• Steamed or fried mantou (Chinese buns)
• French loaves
• Toasted sliced bread

Plain white rice may be eaten with chilli crabs too.


Basic method

The crabs are lightly fried or steamed first with ginger, before being stir-fried in a chilli sauce made mostly with chilli paste, ketchup, and chicken eggs. The shells are usually partially cracked before cooking for ease of eating later. It is commonly garnished with coriander leaves (cilantro).

Malay Food (Satay)

Satay is made of cubed meat, skewered  kebab-fashion, then grilled and eaten with peanut sauce dip. Tracing its origin to the Arabs, the satay has adapted to the multi-cultural palates of Asians with various spicy sauces and different ways of marinating the meats.

Indian Food (Vada)

Vadai can vary in shape and size, but are usually either doughnut- or disc-shaped and are about between 5 and 8 cm across. They are made from dal, lentil, gram flour or potato.

Vadai is a traditional South Indian food known from antiquity. Although they are commonly prepared at home, vadas are as well a typical street food in the Indian Subcontinent and Sri Lanka. They are usually a morning food, but in street stalls and in railway stations, as well as inside the Indian Railways, they are available as a snack all through the day.

Preparation

The general way of preparing vada is to make a paste or dough with gram flour or mashed or diced potatoes and/or dal lentils. This mixture is subsequently seasoned by mixing with black mustard seeds, onion, curry leaves, which are sometimes previously sauteed, and salt, chilies and/or black pepper grains. Often ginger and baking soda are added to the seasoning. The individual vadas are then shaped and deep-fried. Certain types of vada are covered in a gram flour batter before frying.
Although battered and deep-fried, the finished product should not be too oily if prepared correctly, since steam build-up within the vada pushes all oil away from within the vada.

Eurasian Food (Devil Curry)

Devil's curry (also known as curry debal in Kristang or curry devil) is a very spicy curry flavoured with candlenuts, galangal and vinegar from the Eurasian Kristang (Cristão) culinary tradition in Singapore and Malacca, Malaysia. It is often served during Christmas and on other special occasions.

Ingredients :
10 5 cm 6 3 1 tablespoon 1/2 teaspoon 8 6 tablespoons 6 3 1 teaspoon 1.5 kg 300 g 2 teaspoons 2 tablespoons 1 tablespoon	fresh red chili, cored, seeded and chopped piece fresh root ginger, chopped shallots, chopped cloves garlic, chopped ground coriander ground turmeric candlenuts or cashew nuts vegetable oil shallots, thinly sliced cloves garlic, thinly sliced black mustard seeds, lightly crushed chicken, jointed, or small chicken portions small potatoes, halved mustard powder rice vinegar dark soy sauce
Method : Place chilies, ginger, chopped shallots and garlic, coriander, turmeric and nuts in a blender and mix to a paste. In a large wok or saut� pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add sliced shallots and garlic and fry until lightly browned. Stir in spice paste and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring. Add mustard seeds, stir once or twice then add chicken. Cook, stirring frequently, until chicken pieces turn white. Add potatoes and 550 ml water. Bring to the boil, cover, then simmer for 15 minutes. Stir together mustard, vinegar and soy sauce. Stir into pan, re-cover and cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is tender. Serves 4-6

Fusion Food (Laksa)

Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from Peranakan culture, which is a merger of Chinese and Malay elements found in Malaysia and Singapore, and to a lesser extent Indonesia.

RECIPE

3 long fat stalks of lemon grass, mincing only their tender hearts and reserving the rest of the stalks for another use

4 hot red chilies, discarding the stem and as many seeds as you wish to reduce the fire of the paste

4 slices of galangal (substitute ginger if you can't find this fresh)

thumb-size lump of ginger

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

3 shallots, peeled and chopped

3 large cloves garlic

4 Tablespoons peanut oil

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup tamarind paste