Crab bee hoon

Apart from the traditional chili crab and black pepper crab, Singaporean cuisine offers another delicacy that features the prized crustacean - crab bee hoon. This hawker-style dish consists of rice vermicelli (bee hoon) and succulent Sri Lankan crab meat.

Both are cooked with an aromatic chicken or seafood stock. Depending on the cooking process, the dish may come in two different versions: a dry version or a soup. Infused with a smoky wok-hei flavor, the first version calls for the ingredients to be stir-fried and braised in a wok over high heat, resulting in a dish of noodles and crab meat doused with gravy.

Often served in a clay pot, the other version is a type of soup in which the noodles and pieces of crab are more or less submerged in clear or milky broth. Interestingly, the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain highly recommended the stir-fried version of crab bee hoon served at the Sin Huat Eating House on his show.