Singapore Eats: Jumbo Seafood Restaurant

Singapore has a special place in my heart because it is the first country I've traveled to outside Philippines!  

It all happened when I was hired by the bank that never sleeps in 1996.  I was part of a Regional Office so my work gave me the opportunity to travel around Asia.  This was actually my first and only job (for close to 13 years) until I "retired" when I got married.  When people ask me how I managed to stay, I just tell them two things:  I love what I am doing and I love the people I work with!  (As Confucius said . . .Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life!)

Soooo going back to Singapore, haha . . . 

One of the first restaurants I've tried was the Jumbo Restaurant in East Coast (thanks to our Singaporean Consultant who has become a dear friend) and the best thing I ever ate during that dinner was. . . Chili Crabs!  It is one of Singapore's most popular dishes.  

There are a lot of places to get Chili Crab in Singapore and I am sure locals (and tourists) would have their own favorite place but I keep going back to the first place which made me fall in love with this dish.

So when we went to Singapore last month, Jumbo was part of the itinerary.  We went there for lunch and ordered the following:

Crispy Fried Baby Squid

Cereal Prawns

I wanted Mom to try the Chili Crab BUT she doesn't like spicy food and I think she won't be able to take the heat so I asked the waiter what crab dish can she recommend that is not spicy.  So she said Steamed or " Sautéed" and I chose the latter one.

When our order came. . . I was surprised to see this!  

I was worried that it might be curry!  So I had a bad case of hearing. . . what I thought "Sauteed" was actually SALTED, haha!  The sauce was made of salted egg.  It was our first time to try this dish too and we loved it!  It is not salty at all, it had a good balance.

And of course, we had to order the famous. . . Chili Crab!

Finger lickin', lip smackin' good!

Don't forget to order Fried Mantou with your Chili Crab!  They are good in itself but best with the Chili Crab sauce.  The sauce is savory, spicy. . . I don't know what goes in the sauce, it is just packed with flavor!  Whoever invented this should be given a National Award, haha!  Sorry, wasn't able to take a photo of the bread because we were just too excited (and too hungry) to eat!  But they look like this . . . 

Image from www.yelp.com

You need to dunk (not dip, but dunk!) these bread on the sauce and savor the goodness of both.  Heaven!

Oh and if you're wondering what the kids had, they enjoyed the Yang Chow Fried Rice.

My mom has such simple taste which actually makes it harder to please her when it comes to food, haha!  But I'm glad she enjoyed eating at Jumbo and was happy with the freshness of the seafood.

I know writing this post would kick in cravings for some seafood goodness. . . I think I should start looking for places in LA where I can get some Singapore Chili Crabs!

For more details about Jumbo Restaurant and its other locations, please visit their website.