KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 – One of the best things I discovered during the movement control order (MCO) was how much better it was to eat crabs at home.
It is such a luxury to sit in the comfort of your home and slowly savour every bit of the crustaceans. It becomes even better if you discover excellent crab dishes like those from Mr Crabie.
Based in Mont Kiara, this food entrepreneur was recommended by a friend who tried them out one weekend.
Unlike other crab places that usually use Indonesian crabs, Mr Crabie uses "live" Sabah mud crabs that have a firm, meaty texture. The meat also tastes sweet on its own so big bonus points from me.
You will also find it much easier to extract the meat from every part of the crab. The shell is not overly hard on the smaller claws so either pull them out whole or just slowly break the shell to enjoy every bit of the meat.
They offer six different cooking styles for the crabs. You have their signature creamy spiced butter sauce, traditional steamed with an egg white, Sarawak black pepper with onions, sweet and spicy chilli sauce, aromatic coconut milk Nyonya curry and a spicy oriental sauce.
I decided to order their crowd favourite butter sauce which I balanced out with the steamed variant.
The traditional way is the best to test out how fresh the crabs are since there is no heavy sauce to hide behind.
You get a variety of sizes to choose from that range from large to giga XXXL. The large crab starts from 450 grams and it can go up to 900 grams to one kilogram for the giga XXXL.
Prices start from RM58 to RM138 per crab, depending on the size you select. There's various deals available such as discounts if you order up to a certain amount.
For instance, you get a 10 per cent discount for an order of two crabs or 20 per cent discount for an order of three crabs and above.
During the weekends, there will be special offers from Mr Crabie so do look out for the promotions that are found on their online order form. If not, just ask about the promotions that vary each weekend.
I had ordered the mega XXL crabs upon recommendation from my friend who found it was a good size to enjoy.
When my order arrived, I zoomed in on the steamed crabs. They were such a delight to eat as the meat was sweet and tasty with that sauce laced with Chinese rice wine, spring onions and ginger.
You get a barely set egg white in that sauce that adds a nice creamy element too. As I had it delivered, it wasn't piping hot when it arrived but it didn't matter as it was delicious even when it was cold.
The butter crabs were creamy and decadent. Usually restaurants tend to make a thicker butter sauce indicating the use of flour to thicken it but this version has a slightly thinner consistency which I prefer.
It also tastes a little lighter on the palate so you can eat up more of the sauce that has curry leaves inside it. Since you get four complimentary pieces of golden mantou with each crab order, use that to mop up the delicious butter sauce.
As there were too many crabs to finish, I put them in the refrigerator to eat the next day. It still tasted good eaten cold.
Aside from crabs, you can also order prawns cooked in the same sauces except the steamed variant. There is a choice of white prawns (RM68 for 600 grams that gives you about 10 to 13) or sea prawns (RM128 for 900 grams that gives you about 6). The sea prawns are huge and measure about 10 inches.
They also sell herbal jelly or guilinggao to help you cool down after the crabs. Currently, they're also looking to expand the menu to include vinegar pork trotters.
Last but not least, you get top notch service when you order from them. My order was sprinkled with lots of thoughtful messages. I had ordered two crabs since I wanted two different cooking styles and they added another crab without any extra charge.
They even gave me two complimentary portions of herbal jelly. While I didn't get my crabs delivered as I did a self pick-up, they also offered to send them to me without any charge since I was relatively near them.
Note that they only process orders a day in advance and the cut off time to place your orders is 6pm. Orders are delivered from 11am to 8pm.
Mr Crabie – Delicious Crab and Prawn Dishes, Mont Kiara, KL. You can WhatsApp 018-3662222 to order. You can view the order form at https://tinyurl.com/MrCrabieOrder Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrcrabiecrab
