As a child my favourite pastime was to go to the
paddy fields with my grandfather and literally dig out the small crabs from
their hideouts. I was quite afraid to catch those decapods scurrying really
fast on the grassland but my grandpa was adept in grabbing them. He would
collect tens of them in no time put them in a small container made up of bamboo
sticks with a lid. When the container filled up we would return as the crabs
made lot of scratching noise inside it trying vainly to crawl out. On reaching
home my grandmother would take out the crabs one by one and break their legs
and separate their hard flattened carapace and the folded abdomen. They would
try to grab my grandma’s fingers with their pincer like big legs but hardly
succeed. I enjoyed seeing how they were dressed and made ready to be cooked.
Only the big legs with pincers were used for cooking along with the hard cell
and abdomen. The little legs were discarded. My mother would cook them in an
earthen pot and the aroma of the curry would work as an appetiser for me. I
enjoyed the gravy and the meat that came out after cracking the hard cell of
the big legs.
Crab meat has been a favourite
dish for me right from my childhood. As I grew up we shifted to Brahmapur, a town near the Chilka lake in Odisha. This
salt water lake is famous for fishing of various kinds of sea food including
prawns and crabs. After coming to this town I was amazed to see very large
crabs being sold in the market wrapped in nets as those live crabs had the
capacity to slice your finger with their awesome pincers. My father would get
one of those crabs and my mother used to put it in boiling water without taking
out the wrapper net. Once the crab died and got boiled she would take it out
and cut it with a knife. She would then cook it with some spices adding a few
pieces of potato. Unlike the paddy field crabs these Chilka lake crabs had a
lot of meat and tasted much more delicious. And aroma of the gravy was really
unique. One has to eat this crab curry prepared in a Odia household to know
exactly what I mean.
If you are coming to Odisha
for a visit then don’t miss the Chilka lake and try crab curry with plain
steamed rice in a coastal restaurant. I bet you will relish the meal.
I have never eaten crab
outside my state, Odisha. I hardly find it in the menu card of most
restaurants. Few star hotels might have this item in their menu but not many
common men have access to those places. The Chilli crab in the Singaporean
takeaway menu fascinated my appetence for crab meat. This cuisine is prepared using
mud crabs and stir-frying it in a semi-thick, sweet and savoury tomato and
chilli based sauce. Despite its name Chilli crab is not a very spicy dish. Chilli
crab has been promoted by The Singapore Tourism Board as one of Singapore's unofficial
National Dishes, and can be found in seafood restaurants all over the island.
It is traditionally eaten with bare hands as a means to savour the juicy crab
meat with its sweet and spicy chilli sauce.
This dish was created in 1956
by Lim Choon Ngee and his wife Cher Yam Tian at a humble seafood eatery at
Kallang River. Their original version was fresh crab cooked with chilli and
tomato sauce, and served with crusty French bread. But now several variations
are available in various restaurants in Singapore. No Signboard Seafood, Red House,
Seafood Paradise, Jumbo Seafood, Mattar Road Seafood Barbeque are some of the
top restaurants offering this delicacy.
However,
I still doubt if this crab preparation can actually beat the simple household crab
curry preparation in Odisha.
To know more about Chilli
Crabs and other Singaporean cuisine click on the link: http://discover.stayfareast.com/
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