Happiness Is

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Traveling can be a quirky business sometimes. You can travel from sight to sight, forcing excitement and happiness on yourself by way of impressive things to look at or finding fun cultural differences between what you are experiencing and what you have always known. I'm not criticizing this; actually, I thoroughly endorse this type of traveling. When I say "forcing" I mean it in a totally good way. I love the constant excitement and memorable moments you bring upon yourself from never standing still. I think it's an incredible way to learn and gain perspective.

But... sometimes, the very best moments find you, totally unprepared, unknowing what you're about to experience.

Yesterday, that happened to me.

And now I'm going to write an entire blog about one meal:
Black Pepper Crab
Black Pepper Crab
Black Pepper Crab
BLACK PEPPER CRAB

Just typing it makes me happy again. But let me rewind this back to the very beginning.

When we first got into Singapore and were riding our taxi to our hotel, I decided to take advantage of the characteristic all taxi drivers seem to share - the willingness to chat - and quiz him about his opinions on the best places to eat. He wanted details, so I told him seafood. Without hesitating he said the crabs at a place called Eng Seng were the best, that locals would stand in line to get a seat for amounts of time incomprehensible to non-Singaporeans. He said it was only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel, but that we better get there around opening time otherwise we might have to wait a long time. It could even be possible that they would run out of crabs... which, judging by his tone of voice, would create many upset line-standers.

So with that little gem saved in our heads and not much else to do yesterday afternoon, we decided to walk on over to Eng Seng restaurant. We approached right at opening time (5pm) and only saw a few people sitting down, causing a little hesitation. As we were walking up, though, and older lady briskly walked over and in a friendly pushingly way sat us down at a table.

Her: You wan crab
Me: Huh?
Her: Crab, you wan
Me: oh, yeah
Her: 2
Me: yeah, 2 is good
Her: ruibmnqeribkjqa?
Me: (blank look)
Her: spicy or no
Me: o, spicy, yea
She smiles, letting me know it's OK that I'm totally clueless, and walks away.

After a guy from the drink stall (separate from the restaurant stall in this little food centre) comes over and takes our order, we wait. And relax. And soak up the atmosphere.

So let me explain the setting. We're sitting in an open air food court, with stalls of different food/drink vendors on 2 sides and two sides open to the surroundings. One side faces a fairly busy street of walkers and drivers, one faces a side street full of charming Peranakan (ethnic mix of Malay and Chinese) houses and shops. Along one of the open sides is a tank full of crabs. Dinner. Any question that it's fresh? We are surrounded by a table of young students, a table of businessmen, a table with a lone old guy sipping a beer, and a table of a family. Apparently it doesn't matter who you are, if you're a Singaporean, this is where you come to eat crabs. We are also, thankfully, in the shade, with fans blasting.

I was loving it, and we didn't even have any food. Maaaaan was I unprepared.

The pre-meal essentials come out first: chopsticks, a spoon, chili sauce (the greatest condiment known to man), and the essential hand wipes. We were pretty skeptical about the point of the chopsticks and spoon, but I was excited at the prospect of getting to eat anything with chili sauce.

Then the crabs arrive. One very large plate, overflowing with two extremely large crabs, broken up into a couple of pieces for us, and covered in a thick, gooey black sauce. It looked pretty good, though definitely different from the crabs I'm used to.

Now I should give a little preface here... I love crabs. I think my uncle in Maryland can make the meanest crabs, straight from the Chesapeake Bay to my stomach. I love rolling out the newspaper and paper towels and digging in. And I want to make sure he understands that I mean absolutely no offense, no disrespect, nothing, when I say that it took me about .03 seconds after first tasting this crab to realize that it was my absolute favorite meal, ever.

I won't get too boring about the details of the dish, but I will make the claim that whatever went into the black, gooey, sweet/spicy/peppery/perfect/blowsmymind sauce that the crabs were cooked in had to be delivered to Mr. Chef by angels.

Everything about the meals was perfect. The flavor, the total disregard for the mess you make of yourself, the atmosphere, the fact we had to eat them without knives or mallets (making us work for every bite and giving us time to savor it... our total time to eat 2 crabs was about 45 minutes). I was in a truly rare state of bliss. Rachel can attest that the extent of my conversation for that 45 minutes was:
"Oh wow, I think this is the best meal I've ever had."
"I'm so happy right now."
"You're going to have to work to convince me not to eat here every meal now."
"Yeah this is definitely the greatest meal I've ever had the privilege of consuming."

She really loved them too, just maybe not quite on the same level.

The pictures can attest, I was just at peace.

How happy was I? How good was the meal? Maybe this can explain. When were all done and the bill came, I was surprised to learn that it was $46 dollars, a little higher than the $18 I was for some reason expecting. It's a testament to the meal that without hesitating I saw the pricetag and shrugged and said "worth it." I would do it again in a heartbeat. I actually want to right now.

But... sometimes the perfect moment can only come when you don't plan for it.

And now I just wrote 1,000 words about one meal. I'm sorry. But I had to do it.

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Photos

Peranakan Architecture
Some of the houses along the road Eng Seng sat on.

The Dish
Rachel picking at some crabs.

Claws!
Rachel said this was for Uncle Larry.

Mess
Fingers a total mess and loving it.

The Damage
The remainder from our crabs, still swimming in that divine goo.

Bliss
Happiness is a perfect meal.

Comments

[david]

good choice
Hi, good recommendation from the taxi driver!! this is one of the place where Singaporean like me enjoy great crabs!! Cheers.

[Tracie]

Mmmmm crabs. . .
Hi Josh! You know, I had never really given any thought to visit Singapore but your incredible experience and writing ability has me thinking I must eat some of these before I die - kind of my own "bucket list" of gastronomical delights! Glad you are having the experience of a lifetime. Take care, Tracie

[auntie R]

crabs,crabs,crabs
Did you get the recipe?

[jrive]

recipe
Sadly I did not get the recipe... not sure they're willing to give away that sort of secret but I do happen to have half a day in Singapore on my way to China, so I might just have to return and try and get it :)