Malaysian Style Chilli Crabs

This is my first time cooking crabs!

Yup, I finally found the courage to cook crabs after a few years of gathering courage to do so.

I love eating crabs and have always wanted to cook crabs myself, but I was afraid that cleaning the raw crabs would be a very difficult task to do. That was why I had put off the idea of cooking crabs for so many years.

Last week, I finally plucked up the courage and told myself that it is now or never to cook crabs or I’ll never do it. So off I went to order some crabs for dinner.

I was not able to get any of my friends to teach me how to clean the raw crabs, but thanks to You Tube, nothing is impossible! After watching a few You Tube videos on how to clean raw crabs, I finally learnt how to clean the raw crabs. Cleaning the raw crabs are surprisingly easier that what I thought it would be! All you need to do is cut the crabs into portions and clean off the gills and other unwanted bits off the crabs.

Finding the recipe for cooking the crabs was very easy too. I got this recipe from one of my favourite food blogs called www.rasamalaysia.com. I followed the recipe with some minor modifications and found that the sauce was too watery, so I added more cornstarch/corn flour to it. The recipe was good and the end result was absolutely divine.

Here’s the recipe with some of my modifications:

Malaysian Style Chilli Crabs 

Malaysian Style Chilli Crabs

Ingredients: 

4 raw blue swimmer crabs
3 tbsp oil 3 garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, sliced
3 tbsp cornstarch/corn flour (mixed with some water)
1 egg, beaten
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Sour and Spicy Sauce 

5 tbsp tomato sauce
5 tbsp Lingham’s Chilli Sauce
1 heap tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Chinese Rice Wine
½ tsp white vinegar
1 cup water

Method: 

Refer to You Tube videos to learn how to clean the raw crabs.

Mix the ingredients for the Sour and Spicy Sauce in a bowl. Set aside.

Heat up wok with oil until hot. Add the garlic and ginger and stir fry until slightly browned. Add the crabs and fry for about 10 seconds. Add the Sour and Spicy Sauce and stir the sauce together with the crabs. Cover the wok lid and boil on medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the crab is cooked.

Uncover the wok and add in the cornstarch/corn flour mixture into the sauce. Stir until sauce thickens. Add beaten egg and swirl it around the sauce. Cook for about 30 more seconds and add salt, sugar and more cornstarch mixture if needed.

Serve with rice, steamed buns or fried Chinese buns.


Cheers,

Caroline Poh

The Best Chinese Roast Duck and Roast Pork in Adelaide

My visit to Adelaide is incomplete without a visit to my favourite Chinese roast duck and roast pork restaurant. To me, Hong Fat BBQ Restaurant serves the best Chinese roast duck and roast pork in Adelaide.

The restaurant is situated in Chinatown, near the Adelaide Central Market. You can easily recognise the restaurant by looking out for the roast pork and roast ducks hanging outside the shop’s side window. The restaurant’s interior is not very posh. Hence, the prices of the meals there are very reasonable. My husband and I can get a meal for roughly $10 which can be shared between the two of us because of its large portions. Imagine having a complete Chinese meal of meat, vegetables and rice for two people at around $10…That’s only $5 per person!

When you order the Chinese roast duck and roast pork in Hong Fat BBQ Restaurant, you can choose to have your roast duck and roast pork served with rice. You can also choose to takeaway the roast duck and roast pork and cook your own rice at home.

My husband and I will usually order the two combination meat (roast duck and roast pork) or the (roast pork and BBQ pork) since my husband loves their BBQ pork. If we are doing our grocery shopping in Chinatown and have no time to get home to cook the rice, we would order the combination meat and rice. If we are not in a hurry to eat straight away, we would normally takeaway the meat and cook the rice ourselves. By cooking the rice ourselves, we get to save money on our food expenses.

We introduced many of our friends and family members to the roast duck and roast pork at Hong Fat BBQ Restaurant. They were all very happy with the roast duck and roast pork that were served there.

Besides the roast duck and roast pork, Hong Fat BBQ Restaurant also serves other delicious ala-carte meals such as sweet and sour pork with rice; roast pork and beancurd in bean sauce with rice; battered fish and sweet corn sauce with rice; and salt and pepper whitebait with rice. Most of the dishes we ate there were really delicious.

No matter how many roast ducks and roast pork I ate at various restaurants in Adelaide, to me, Hong Fat BBQ Restaurant still serves the best Chinese roast duck and roast pork in Adelaide. Try it and you’ll love it!

The roast duck I ate at Hong Fat BBQ Restaurant, Adelaide

If you are interested to dine at Hong Fat BBQ Restaurant, below are the contact details:

3/75 Grote St Adelaide SA 5000
(08) 8410 0908

Cheers,

Caroline Poh

Rundle Spices, Adelaide, South Australia

Whenever I am in Adelaide, South Australia, I always look forward to dining at Rundle Spices. Rundle Spices is Chinese/Malaysian/Thai influenced restaurant serving a wide variety of dishes from finger food to main course meals.

The restaurant is situated at Rundle Street, just minutes away from Adelaide’s famous Rundle Mall shopping centre. The restaurant is opened for lunch and for dinner. If you want to get better value for your money, I would recommend you to go there during lunch time as they would have set lunch menus on offer at a fraction of the price as compared to if you were to dine there for dinner.

Although there are many dishes to choose from at Rundle Spices, Adelaide, my husband and I would always order their Thai fried rice and fried spring rolls as those dishes give us the best value for our money. As the Thai fried rice comes in a huge serving portion, we are able to share one plate of fried rice and just order a plate of fried spring rolls for our side dish.

We have been to Rundle Spices, Adelaide, South Australia many times and we were never disappointed. Their food tastes very authentic, their waitresses are very polite and helpful; and they always give us very fast service. The interior of the restaurant is also very pleasant and the chairs there are really comfortable.

Thai Fried Rice

Fried Spring Rolls

I highly recommend you to dine at Rundle Spices, Adelaide, South Australia simply because it is a really nice restaurant with great tasting food and wide variety of dishes to choose from. Try it and you’ll be back for more food from Rundle Spices!

Here is the address of Rundle Spices:

278A Rundle St Adelaide SA 5000
(08) 8232 9288


Cheers,

Caroline Poh

The Best Hot Chips in Riverland, South Australia

I seriously have not heard of anyone who does not go crazy over good hot chips. 

We can eat hot chips with so many different sauces and seasonings. You can have them with plain salt, chicken salt, tomato sauce, chilli sauce, rich brown gravy or black pepper sauce. My husband and I absolutely love eating hot chips. We like our hot chips to be served with chicken salt and a generous dollop of sweet or hot chilli sauce. 

When our favourite local deli closed down one day, my husband and I were very upset. It is very easy to buy hot chips anywhere in Australia, but it is very hard to find the best hot chips in Riverland, South Australia. Some hot chips we bought elsewhere were just lacking in the right amount of seasoning and crunch. Some were even too soggy for us to savour. The local deli that closed down had been the best hot chips that we have ever tasted in Riverland, South Australia. 

After hearing news that the deli was closing down, we shared with our friends from another town about our disappointment that we would not be able to buy good hot chips anymore. Our friends suggested that we try getting the hot chips from the Caltex petrol kiosk in Berri, Riverland, South Australia. Berri is a small town situated about 15 minutes drive away from where we live. 

We initially had difficulty finding the place as it is in quite a secluded area at the outskirts of Berri town. However, after getting directions from a friend who goes there to get her hot chips, my husband and I finally found the place. 

When we ordered our hot chips, we were asked whether we wanted a small, medium or large packet of chips. There were sample packets at the counter to show us roughly how big the packets were. We decided to get the medium packet because we felt that it was the right amount of chips for both of us to snack on for tea time. 

We waited for quite long time for the chips. When we finally got our chips, we were surprised when the staff handed to us a huge packet of chips instead of the medium packet of chips that we initially thought we were going to get. That ‘medium’ packet that we ordered had enough chips to last us for a snack, a dinner and a supper! 

The best hot chips in Riverland, South Australia

The chips were absolutely fantastic…with the right amount of crunch and chicken salt. I guess I just found my favourite hot chip shop in Riverland, South Australia. I shall crown these hot chips as the best hot chips in Riverland, South Australia…until I find another shop that sells better hot chips than this one. 

Got your favourite hot chips experience?
 

Cheers,

Caroline Poh

Our visit to the Mallee Fowl Restaurant in Riverland, South Australia

Ever since my husband and I relocated to Barmera, Riverland in South Australia, our new-found friends spoke very fondly about the Mallee Fowl Restaurant in Riverland, South Australia to us. According to them, the food served at the Mallee Fowl Restaurant is exceptionally good and it brings out the true essence of authentic Australian cuisine.

Although we had always wanted to dine at the Mallee Fowl Restaurant since we moved to Riverland, we held back from going there because the food there was above our budget.

When my sister came down to visit us in Riverland, South Australia, my husband and I finally had the opportunity to dine there as my sister offered to treat us for dinner at the restaurant as she did not want to miss out on the opportunity to dine at one of Riverland’s most iconic restaurants.

We had a very pleasant experience dining at the Mallee Fowl Restaurant. Firstly, the restaurant is set upon a beautiful garden surrounding that reflected a unique Australiana theme. The interior of the restaurant represented an old fashioned Australian pub. I was fascinated with the antique ornaments that were displayed at the restaurant and sturdy wooden tables, chairs and bar top that played a part in creating that Australian pub effect.

The food served at the restaurant was absolutely fantastic. In my opinion, the food tasted like home cooked food with a bit of a gourmet twist.

We had the Mallee Jackaroo, which is pork medallions with quince and pear sauce and crispy prosciutto and the Jolly Jumper, which is a dry marinated kangaroo fillet with mushroom and port wine sauce for our main meals. We also ordered a Greek-styled chargrilled quail for our entrée. All three dishes came with a salad each.

As we wanted to try as many dishes as possible, my sister, husband and I decided to share all the three dishes we ordered so we can taste a bit of each dish. 

Our favourite dish among the three dishes was the kangaroo fillet dish.We especially adored the port wine sauce served with the kangaroo. It tasted really unique and scrumptious. 

Cucumber, carrot, lettuce and sprouts salad

Carrot, broccoli, cauliflower and corn salad

The Mallee Jackaroo - pork medallions with quince and pear sauce and crispy prosciutto

Greek-styled chargrilled quail

The Jolly Jumper - a dry marinated kangaroo fillet with mushroom and port wine sauce

If I was given the opportunity to dine at the Mallee Fowl Restaurant again, I would definitely go there again. I would highly recommend it to anyone wishing to try gourmet home cooked Australian cuisine at its best.

Cheers,

Caroline Poh