The OTHER national dish!!?

The afternoon began in the sweltering heat, trekking from Orchard over to the office at Commonwealth. There I met with Jasone who introduced me to a way of life in Singapore - Teh Peng! Teh = tea and Peng = ice, so Teh Peng = iced milk tea! Sure, you might say, all the other Asian countries have iced milk tea too. What's special about the Singaporean one? THIS:

It's in a bag!!! WTH!!! Who would think that you can take a perfectly normal drink like milk tea, which is easily drunk out of a cup or a can or a bottle, and put it in a BAG?! WHAT!? Fill the bag with ice, tie it up with string, chuck a straw in it and BAM! Instant Singapore street culture. All for $0.90!

Dinner tonight was at Ang Mo Kio, at a place famous for Chili Crab! Chili Crab is renowned as being the very essence of Singapore - the spice and depth of flavour of Singaporean style food and the fresh seafood! You have never had crab like this before!

The place was packed as - people lining up everywhere. Generally, I'll try to only go to places where people are lining up - if the locals love it and are willing to line up for it when there is so much choice and competition, it must be good!!

So many different styles of crab! I want to try them all!!!

Pricing the crabs by grade and weight.

Long as queues to get inside. People have been lining up for almost an hour....

And after we order.. another hour of waiting time!!! :O

The requisite peanuts and chilis.

I start with a cool refreshing young coconut to drink. There is no aircon here so I'm sweating like the crabs in a pot of steaming water.

Stir-fried vege with chili. Don't know what kind of vege this is but its super yum!

Seafood with broccoli and egg tofu. YUM! The silky soft egg tofu is another specialty of Malaysia and Singapore. HK, China and Japan style tofu just cannot compare!

Sweet and Sour Pork - true Chinese style!

Cereal Prawns! The large prawns are coated in crispy crunchy cereal bits before being deep fried with a salt and pepper mix and spring onion and chili! Yum! The left over cereal mix is especially good with rice.

The MAIN EVENT! Chili Crab! A dish you can only find in Singapore - this, like the chicken rice, comes in many many different iterations across the island. The sauce is based in tomato, egg and chili, an intense, slightly sweet flavour, and a mild burn of chili. All this enhanced by the crab meat and crab fat soaked into the sauce.

Deep Fried Bun (mantou) to dip in the sauce! Genius idea!!!

YUM! Uncle Shun, Aunty Heidi, Aunty Lynn, if you are reading this, come to Singapore! You will love the seafood here!!

Me chowing down on a crab claw :D

Had to have a second drink to cool off from all the excitement! Lime Juice - how refreshing.

The aftermath of the battle... I wish we had another plate of mantou to mop up this delectable sauce! But was stuffed max...

My plate of shell. What a meal to start off my eating tour of Singapore! First day and two national icon already eaten! No doubt I'll be trying this again soon....

One Love.