Crab Craving? So Sinful!

I was not a great crab lover but it all started by this one crab dish and oh boy! since then I am stuck and can't do without it whenever I drop by a seafood restaraunt. I use to find crab dishes are such a hassle, to eat and not much meat, shell bits always get stuck in between by tooth and take such a long time to eat while other dishes get cold at the end of the day. But now, I would tell you yet another story, "eating pleasure, eat crab". The crab dish that strike me so much was the dry salted egg crab (ham tan hai), oh boy lovely. The shells are coated with salted egg yolk and enhance the taste of the crab. The freshness and the aroma of this dish can be enjoyed.

Myself and Sunny are now a regular at Mei Chixuan Restaurant, Kota Damansar and Steven Cheng is the head chef of this eatery and one of our big contributor to Big Boys Kitchen. We have no problem having him to cook for us as we trust his kitchen skill. Through him we also learn a lot of things regards to food that we never ever know till today and more to learn.

Back to crab, a lot of restaurant in KL and PJ offer a variety of crab dishes and do you know where this crab supply comes from? Locally? Well the demand is so heavy and the local supplies were unable to meet this demand and according to Steven, most of the crabs are imported from Bangladesh and Indonesia. The one below, dark and reddish is from Bangladesh and air flown. This type of crab, the meat is a bit soft and is good for cooking chinese dishes. As they are air flown into Malaysia, during this logistic, a lot of crab may be dead during the process, due to change of temperature. Thefore the price of this life crab can be expensive and sometime you may not get fresh one. I heard some of them goes straight goes into deep freezing and when cooked, they do taste different ,the meat become watery and soft or strainless meat and not an idea crab dish.

The one below is indonesia crab, it has a pale colour compare to the one above. The meat taste much better, the meat is much better, crunchier and it bounches when you bit into it. Lovely. I was told the are not as expensive as those from Bangladesh as the logistic is easier and the crabs are easy kept fresh.

We came to know that now crab dishes can be done in so many ways that can't be imaginable. The crab dishes that I am going to post are those dishes that we had eaten and cooked by Steven himself and we find them incredible marvellous. We usually pick a night to dine crabs when we are relax and when we are not in a rush as we like to spend time enjoying cracking those shell and sipping the meat out from the shell.

"Kam Heong Hai" is a delicious crab dish cook in dried shrimp, curry leaves and curry powder. Looks beautiful, remarkable taste".

"Sup Ham Tan Hai" Salted Egg Yolk Crab with gravy is very unique and something new to me as I alway have them done dried. Oh those rich gravy, what a winner!

Oh My favourite dish all time, salted egg yolk crab. No need to explain, try them yourself.....lol!

"Lat Chee Hai" Crab cooked with dried chillies is such a winner, we love them. you can taste the freshness of the crab... people says "sin mei". With the taste of the mild hot chillies and also the seasoning, oh oh....it is now my love at the first sight! Tell me why I would not want to have another kilo of this crab. "Lat Chee Kai" instead of crab, chicken is replaced, taste so gorgeous, just like being in heaven!

This "Tim Chau Hai" can be strange, definitely to us. Something new. Looks like I want to divorce them at first sight, why? Don't they look unattractive. Well, I would recommend you to have a bite, as we did that too...oh boy it was lovely, mild sweetness and aroma of home make chinese wine. I guess just like some of us, never judge a person by the look, what is inside can be a treasure.

If you around Tesco, Curve or Ikea, you can visit Steven as he is always there busy preparing great meal. Stven's Mei Chixuan restaurant is located at Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

Other links on Mei Chixuan:

Eat First Think Later
Living in Food Heaven

Restauant Mei Chixuan
N0 32A1, Jalan PJU5/10,
PJU 5, Dataran Sunway
Kota Damansara
47810 Petaling Jaya

Yours Sidney