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What did I just see? 🧐😂 Walking the crab, what the f... House Of Seafood Walks Their Crabs In Punggol Park https://mustsharenews.com/crabs-stroll-punggol/ In the last few weeks, you may have seen more people walking their dogs in Singapore, possibly to take a break from staying at home. Just like Singaporeans love their pets by taking them for a walk, a seafood restaurant says they love their crabs as well. Thus, their boss was seen taking them for a stroll in Punggol Park. They do this to ensure their crabs are “really meaty” for their patrons, they said. Is that not a form of animal abuse? What will be next? Lobster, stingray, octopus or even garoupa?

Clawing For Sustainable Seafood: Why These 4 Men Started S’pore’s First Soft Shell Crab Farm source: https://www.msn.com/en-sg/money/companies/clawing-for-sustainable-seafood-why-these-4-men-started-spores-first-soft-shell-crab-farm/ar-BBZFLC8?li=BBr8Cnr Clawing For Sustainable Seafood: Why These 4 Men Started S'pore's First Soft Shell Crab Farm From chilli crab, to salted egg crab, to soft shell crab, Singaporeans love to chow down on all sorts of dishes made from the tasty crustacean. Despite our ravenous appetite for it, there are only a handful of local farms that rear their own crabs here — unsurprising, with our limited land space. Instead, most of the crabs we consume are caught and imported from our neighbours. Here’s the problem: Crabs are quickly being over-harvested for consumption, which leads to their numbers in the wild depleting. That’s where Sam Chua and his co-founders at Crab Lovers Farm want to come in, running one of Singapore’s few sustainable crab farms at Neo Tiew Road. Good Care Makes Good Crabs Although he’s taking a chance in the field, 53-year-old Sam lays down a pragmatic truth about crab farming in Singapore: There are almost no crab farms here because Singapore is generally unsuitable for farming, due to high costs for land, labour and operations. Sam Chua, Co-founder, Crab Lovers Farm For that reason, he explains, most crab suppliers in Singapore only focus on trading rather than rearing. Traders import wild caught crabs from overseas and redistribute them to restaurants, hotels and supermarkets. While it’s an efficient system, the quality of crabs ends up at the mercy of factors such as polluted rivers and poor transport conditions. By the time the crabs have crossed seas to get here, they often lose a lot of mass and aren’t as fresh and healthy as they should be. In fact, it’s not uncommon for some crabs to die along the journey, leaving the live ones exposed to harmful toxins and bacteria released from the dead crabs too. Concerned about long-term sustainability, Sam and his partners decided to take a slower approach at their farm. A young crablet about to start its journey / Image Credit: Crab Lovers Farm They start out by bringing in younger or “lower quality” crabs and raise them till they grow big and healthy. Being territorial creatures, each crab is housed in its own individual unit, where it receives a constant flow of water and feeds on mussels and trash fish (fish that is deemed not good enough to sell). By doing so, they reduce mortality rates and produce higher grade crabs that are nice and meaty when they reach restaurants. Their Own (Soft) Spot In The Market But what really drew Sam to embark on this venture was the concept of creating Singapore’s first and only soft shell crab farm. On Crab Lovers Farm’s website, they call soft shell crabs “seafood in its most perfect state”, as it retains the flavour we love without the hassle of prying open shells to indulge. The idea was the brainchild of Gilbert Pang, one of the four co-founders, who has over 10 years of experience in aquaculture and researching the life cycle of crabs. In 2017, Gilbert roped in Norman Lim, owner of Sheng Da Fishing Farm, Alan Ong, owner of an electrical engineering firm, and Sam. Sam himself previously co-founded a company that provides factory automation solutions, which he has been running for over 20 years. “When Gilbert invited us to join the project, we realised there was no good quality soft shell crab supply in Singapore and that inspired us to move into [this space],” he shares. Alan and Sam also joined the team as investors, though they’ve declined to share how much they injected to start the farm for now. Being Soft Doesn’t Mean No Substance Interestingly, soft shell crabs are not a particular species, but can be any type of crab that has just gone through moulting, when their bodies are most delicate. To speed up production, typical practice in the industry is to chop off some of the crab’s legs or claws to artificially induce moulting. With this method, it only takes a few days to harvest soft shell crabs. However, Sam and his partners don’t buy into it. “This kind of farming is not only inhumane, but also results in a very low quality soft shell crab with much less meat,” he feels. To most consumers (ourselves included), it seems like the norm when you bite into a soft shell crab and find barely any meat under its crispy exterior. In all honesty, I never realised meaty soft shell crabs were even a possibility. Like most other suppliers, Crab Lovers Farm uses mud crabs. But instead, they let their crabs grow and moult naturally — which only happens about once a month. Although the yield is much slower, Crab Lovers Farm says their soft shell crabs can sometimes weigh more than 800 grams. Clawing Through Their Obstacles Talking to Sam, it’s easy to tell that he’s full of pride for his crabs. But rearing them to meet high standards wasn’t so smooth sailing at the start. In their early days, the co-founders met some pitfalls when they mistakenly placed their trust in the wrong partners who claimed to be experts in rearing crabs. We invested into their methods, but they failed. As a result we lost about 80% of our crab stock within two to three months. Sam Chua, Co-founder, Crab Lovers Farm Left to their own devices, developing a better system didn’t come easily. It took over a year of repeated trial and error before they succeeded. On top of that, Sam brought on his expertise in factory automation to help the farm work smarter. Using a data management system, they keep track of every crab’s activity, monitor their water conditions, and stay on top of feeding and cleaning schedules. “It’s like running hotel management for the crabs,” Sam says. “We know when they ‘check in’ and ‘check out’, and predict when it will be time to harvest.” Netting The Few With An Eye For Quality With the gears in motion, Crab Lovers Farm now makes a steady output. However, Sam shares that it’s also an uphill battle to find clients who are willing to shell out a little more money for better quality seafood. After multiple rounds of rejection, they found a sweet spot in narrowing their focus to boutique hotels and restaurants. Smaller establishments, where chefs themselves personally make the purchasing decisions, are more likely to value good quality beyond its price, Sam says. Through these experiences, they adjusted their production levels to harvest about 20kg of soft shell crabs each day, from a constant stock of 600 crabs on their grounds. For periods of high demand, they still maintain a larger standby capacity so they can push production to 100kg of crabs a day when necessary. Besides soft shell crabs, which take up 1 acre of their farm land, Crab Lovers Farm also produces other seafood in the remaining 9 acres, such as giant river prawns. Sam says the farm is expecting to grow more than 20% year-on-year. “Ultimately, our goal is to set up a crab hatchery in the future to tackle the issue of over-catching in the wild,” he tells us. Once again, land space in Singapore would pose a significant challenge to this ambition, and they may consider looking abroad to open their hatchery when the time is right. Find out more about Crab Lovers Farm here, and follow them on Facebook here. Featured Image Credit: Crab Lovers Farm

Had a go at the cold crab a few days ago. The last visit was a couple of years back. I honestly couldn't remember the price and did not bother to check on the Internet hence I was very surprised when I was charged $80 for 2 cold crabs! It is pretty good (with the chilli) if you disregard price but I definitely will not visit again.

Any one know where I could buy Alaska King Crab legs in sg for reunion dinner? Any problem with our custom if I order from Alaska and courier to sg? Thanks

Hi Guys, Reaching out to the community on lobang for the above, looking at getting it for CNY. any leads would be greatly appreciated Thanks!

any one got any recommendations for crab cakes? my wife loved the ones at mortons when we went there recently. now she having cravings again... Any other places with good crab cakes? ( hopefully cheaper than mortons)

Just tried it this afternoon. its good and lots of pepper taste! inside the bun have some fillings as well

Hi peeps, went to hokkaido for holiday and am missing the king crab there, is there any restuarant here selling japanese king crab?

Would you pay $130 for a plate of crab bee hoon? http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporesc...-100015055.html The chef of a popular seafood restaurant at Geylang has defended charging his customers high prices, including $130 for a plate of crab bee hoon. The restaurant in question, Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant, is under the spotlight after a Yahoo! reader said she was charged $421 for a dinner for four adults and two children when she visited the eatery for dinner earlier this month. Dinner at Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant came up to $421 for Gelene Ong and her family. Salesperson Gelene Ong, who went there with her family of six, received a rude shock when she saw the final bill. Her dinner consisted of crab bee hoon ($130), scallops ($50), conch or gong gong ($50), prawns ($77), frog legs ($78) and vegetables ($12). Other items on the bill were peanuts and drinks ($20.40) and wet towels ($3.60). However, chef Danny Lee said in response, "It's all a one-man show. Every dish we have, I make sure I take the orders and cook it myself. I also make sure that my ingredients are clean and fresh." When Yahoo! Singapore visited his restaurant this week, he also explained the steps he takes to ensure that his dishes are fresh. "For my gong gong (conch), I always tell people 'if you don't take my gong gong here, try not to take it elsewhere. I keep my gong gong in the tanks for a week for it to clear out the mud and dirt." He also voiced his doubts that other seafood restaurants actually serve live seafood. "They are serving such a big crowd everyday and they always only have a few fishes in the tanks. At the end of the day, you still see the fish swimming in the tank," said the chef. At the time, customer Ong said she had visited the restaurant because the place was recommended by her friend who said she should try the crab bee hoon. But she said she "didn't expect it to be so expensive" and was also put off by the lack of communication between her and the restaurant. She was not informed of the prices when her orders were taken. "The restaurant had no menu. The service crew was also pushy about getting us to order an extra fish when we already had so much food," Ong added. The extra fish she was asked to order was Cheng yu, otherwise known as Parrot Fish, and it comes at $120 per kilogram. Chef Danny Lee defends his restaurant's pricing. (Yahoo! Photo/Fann Sim) Chef Danny Lee defends his restaurant's pricing. Chef Lee clarified that his restaurant does not provide menus. "We don't have a menu. People who come here know me and, most of the time, they will ask me how much the dishes are. It just happened that on the day she visited the restaurant, she did not ask for the prices. Even if she asked, I would not have charged her differently," Lee said. Chef Lee took out a stack of receipts to show the amount paid by other customers. It was exactly as he said: the prices were standardised. Chef Danny Lee took out a stack of receipts to show us that he does not give special prices. It's not the first time the seafood restaurant has hit the headlines. Chef Lee, who is known to be the "food nazi of Geylang", can be quite obnoxious, according to reviews posted on popular food site HungryGoWhere. Potential customers visiting Sin Huat are also warned to be prepared for long waits and should avoid ordering from food stalls beside the restaurant. "Sometimes people complain I serve too slow. I only have two hands and I'm the only cook. People may see me looking like I'm angry or impatient because I have no time to entertain them," Chef Lee explained. His favourite customers are those who know how to appreciate good food. "No point buying cheap food and it doesn't taste good. There's nothing special about that," said the owner of the restaurant who's hosted the likes of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. Expensive meals have been in the limelight recently. Last month, Yahoo! Singapore ran a story about nasi lemak going for $8.30 along Upper Serangoon Road. An expatriate diner was also charged $1,107.32 for a seafood lunch for two at Boat Quay's Forum Seafood Village Restaurant earlier this week, reported Today newspaper. CASE has received 12 complaints for alleged overcharging by food and beverage outlets from January to May this year. Crab again!!! This time Crab Bee Hoon.

Anyone know of any good pepper or chilli crab stall(s) in Jurong area ? need not be in a resturant, any zhi char stall also can. Thanks for your help.......

Heard there is a famous crab stall at Blk 200 plus in AMK. Anyone know of this place? Understand it is run by two brothers? Yummy crab...

Reproduced here from one of my earlier posts: Long long time ago in the western part of an island there was a tiny kampong. In this kampong there was a famous chilli crab stall which due to it's previous owners' sheer hard work & determination made it the biggest both in terms of size & turnover in the whole island. And this caught the attention of folks from all over the island through word of mouth. The owner was even invited many times to other islands to teach the people how to whip up a nice spicy plate of A-class chilli crab. When there were rumours of several small operators each wanting to also set up chilli crab stalls to grab scraps of the kampong market share, the present owner quickly issued a statement: "My stall sources the best crabs in the whole island-there can be no other juicy crabs that others can get. The point is, there are no way these guys can get good-eating crabs because I myself have tried very hard to get them in the first place. In order for foodies to continue getting their delicious chilli crab, it is important that they continue to support just mine and not other stalls. If they want to try-try other stalls, there will be one day whereby my stall will no longer be viable and that they will not able to get a fix of my A-class chilli crab anymore. I know folks out there are saying that my stall is too dominating and my chilli crab is very expensive but you can be assured of the quality, nevermind there were unconfirmed cases of suspected food poisoning cases traced to my stall, the sales speaks volumes-even when my kampong stall is tucked at a remote corner in the western area where tigers roam, my supporters still flock there to taste my chilli crab. So is this good or bad? You decide. I am also aware that a previous owner mentioned that my few dedicated chief chefs should not work too long but retire to make way for aspiring young ones but I think given that these experienced guys are very difficult to find, I have to respectfully disagree with him on this. There were lately some grouses that I have employed some very young & inexperience managers who may not even know how to serve customers. Although they did not have to go through job interviews and can directly join in any of my departments, I can assure you that they are good people so please give them a chance to prove themselves to serve you better. I just want to send a message across the whole island that there can be only ONE true chilli crab store. No other stall can get the best crabs so if you think there can be another or few more like mine then you are dead wrong. I intend to make my kampong stall the best in the region if not the whole world so please continue to support me and the ones that will be replacing me. Remember there can ONLY BE ONE."

Hehe...have a craving for Alaska crab anyone...anyone knows?

Any ideas? Thanks!

Hi All, I have the sudden urge to eat cold crab. I have eaten at Bendemeer & Chinatown long time ago but dunno if the restaurants still around. Can anyone please advise where to find good & fair price cold crab? Thks!

anyone can advise where to buy those big Sri Langka crab. Tinking of cooking it at home .thks

I like to eat crab and is wondering where to find a place to send my maid to learn how to cook all sorts of crab cusines? Any recommendation? Thank you very much. Regards,

Can anyone advise where the nice chilli crab at Jackson kopitiam move to since renovation?

Hi, can anyone advise where to buy live sri lankan crabs? any idea abt the pricing? thanks in advance