My only request to my cousin Celia was that we try to find Crab Bee Hoon in Singapore. (Mari had seen Anthony Bourdain try it, and now she's all hot to follow in his footsteps.) Cel got an idea--we'd go to eat at a great place she knows called Jumbo's.

Well, upon arrival, Cel had faxed me a message telling me a lot of things, one of which was that our dinner had been changed to Long Beach at Dempsey, not Jumbo's. I was too tired to pay attention to that one important little detail. The whole time since pre-departure, I was mentally and verbally fixated on Jumbo's on the East Coast. That's all I talked about all day--we were going to Jumbo's on the East Coast for Crab Bee Hoon.

What a nightmare! We finally got to Jumbo's, and I see a poster for Jumbo's on Dempsey, opening April 2008. Suddenly it kicked into my subconscious!! When Lucy, Susan, Elyse and Stacy arrived, I used Elyse's cel to call Cel. "No! It's Long Beach at Dempsey," she said, and while it was easier for her to come meet 7 of us instead, JUMBO'S does not serve crab bee hoon.

Meanwhile--are you still following?--I still didn't GET that the restaurant name was Long Beach at Dempsey. I thought that was the new address for Jumbo's. So off we go in 2 taxis to Jumbo's @ Dempsey. We get there.....no Cel. She calls Elyse, and we must now walk another 10 minutes to a restaurant called LONG BEACH. I felt so bad--but I seriously had no idea what they were talking about, so I was totally confused. Plus I was the only one in the group who knew Cel, so 6 other people were wandering around blind. AUGH.

The saving grace was that the meal was so fabulous that it made up for everything. (And on the other end, I hope Cel & Viv have forgiven me!)

We had dishes that are typical to Singaporeans...Black Pepper Crab (a must if you like spicy food); and chili crab, which was not as spicy but super rich with a chili-cream-butter-egg sauce. For added ecstasy, you mop up the sauce with a deep fried bread. There was also a sesame dough filled with shrimp paste, kind of like a shrimp gin dui; and boiled prawns. Once we finished that off, they brought asparagus in garlic and Kangkong Blacan, a choy sum-like dish in garlic, chili, and fish sauce. The highlight, of course, was the Crab Bee Hoon: the "bee hoon" is the skinny vermicelli noodles, the rest is a crab soup with a rich creamy broth...and this one was made with brandy.

We were pretty well stuffed by the end, which was a fitting way to celebrate Mari's birthday!

Tags: crab bee hoon, Long Beach at dempsey, singapore

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 24th, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.