Chili crab, arguably Singapore’s national dish.
C+M correspondent Kristen Baughman checked out the Singapore Crab Throwdown and has the scoop on all the goings on for Singapore Restaurant Week.
Singapore celebrates 50 years of nationhood this year as this city-state comes of age on the global stage. In honor of the country’s birthday, The Daily Meal hosted a few of Singapore’s top chefs for the “Singapore Crab Throwdown.” Chopsticks and Marrow had the chance to go behind the scenes at The Daily Meal Test Kitchen to learn from these great chefs as they prepared dishes from salted egg yolk crab to wok fried black pepper crab.
The first cooking demonstration was by Chef Wayne Lieu of Keng Eng Kee Seafood Restaurant. Along with his team, Chef Lieu taught the “Singapore Crab Throwdown” attendees how to make iconic Singapore chili crab, a signature Singaporean dish with a balance of sweet, salty and heat from the chiles.
Justin Quek’s delicate crab soup.
Chef Justin Quek of the famous restaurant Sky on 57 demonstrated how to create crab vermicelli in light ginger broth. Chef Quek has an amazing cookbook, “Passion & Inspiration” filled with recipes that include unique twists on Singaporean food due to his inspiration and training in French cuisine. During his cooking demonstration, Chef Quek created a wonderful soup with a strong aroma of ginger and seafood that filled the Test Kitchen.
After spending the morning surrounded by such talented Singaporean chefs and eating our weight in crab, we couldn’t think of a better way to kick off Singapore’s 50th birthday.
You can join in on the fun this week as well! Many food events are being held throughout the city like the Singapore Hawker Pop-Up headed up by Singapore’s street food guru K.F. Seetoh. Madison Square Park will be home to some of Singapore’s signature street food dishes from laksa yong tau foo to popiah. Shake Shack is even getting in on the action with a limited-time Singapore Onde Onde Shake. These traditional sweet rice dumplings will take shake form at Shake Shack’s Madison Square Park location. If that’s not enough, numerous restaurants throughout the city are participating in Singapore Restaurant Week.
Kristen Baughman is a social media and public relations consultant with Gadabout Food based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Kristen is also a freelance writer and her work has been featured in Bushwick Daily, The Mason Jar by Swig, New York Street Food, Visit Raleigh Blog, Raleigh Beer Guide, Wake Living Magazine, Visit Austin Blog and OUR State Magazine.