Chilli crab is Singapore's great seafood celebration, served at waterfront restaurants along the East Coast to tables that have abandoned all hope of staying tidy. The dish took shape in the years after the Second World War and grew into the crab that visitors fly in for. The gravy is the point: thick, sweet, sour and warm with chili rather than ferocious, with soft strands of egg running through it.

It is messy, communal and slow to eat, which makes it ideal for a race weekend crowd with a long evening ahead. The buns, called mantou, are there because nobody should leave a single spoon of that sauce behind.

The spice paste

Ingredients

• 4 fresh long red chilies
• 4 large dried red chilies
• 6 shallots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 inch (2.5 cm) fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon belacan
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) water

The crab in chili gravy

Ingredients

• 2 mud or Dungeness crabs
• 4 tablespoons (60 ml) neutral oil
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) ketchup
• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) sweet chili sauce
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon (13 g) sugar
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) rice vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) water or chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon (8 g) cornstarch
• 2 large eggs
• 2 scallions
• 1 small handful cilantro

Golden mantou

Ingredients

• 8 frozen plain mantou buns
• about 2 cups (480 ml) neutral oil for frying

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