chili crab

Singapore chilli crab consists of crab cooked in a thick chilli sauce, often accompanied by mantou buns. The sauce varies in sweetness and heat, and the buns may be steamed or fried. The National Heritage Board records the dish in seafood restaurants and tze char stalls, where Chinese dishes are cooked to order.^[1]

The board’s heritage account traces an early Singapore preparation to Cher Yam Tian’s chilli-seasoned crab sold with her husband from a Kallang pushcart in the mid-1950s. Later restaurant versions developed richer sauces, including additions of sambal and egg. Its practitioner account also describes the communal experience of sharing crab with family and friends.^[1]