August has always been a busy month for me, celebrating birthdays with and for various friends and family members, thus things gets a little backlog and got spilled over to September, looking at the rate that I have the chance to write, I'm afraid that it will spill over to October too. BUT I'm fine with it though, this means that I am spending time with family and friends instead of being cooped up at home or staying up late into the night to try to push out posts.
Today I am penning down a special post, a post about friendship and of course good food.
The 4 of us have known each other since Day 1 in our secondary school, mucked around through 4 years of it in different classes but always hang out together during recess time till we eventually "flew" from the nest. Even though one of them left us on 2nd year, I kept in touch with her still through those years. Things got a little bit complicated & lost when we stepped into the Working World, suddenly every thing seems to be going faster than we can keep up. We lost touch with each other for a decade (I think) after that and all thanks to the great old might Facebook, we managed to connect back again!
This time, we have all been promoted to Mothers with children of our own, though no longer the teenager girls but we still giggle like one, joke and poke fun at each other like the good old days whenever we are together . However, its all serious talks when it's concerning our kids, no jokes only putting our hats together to think of a solution. We shared with each other our woes & worries, our happiness & achievements (Yes, mothers no doubt but we still have dreams and goals!)
We rarely have a chance to meet up due to our individual work & family commitments, it's tough for us to meet up once a year but when we do, time zoom past too fast. This August we made it a point to meet up coz we didn't managed to last year. Since I rarely dine out in recent years, I leave it to the girls to decide and they are such a gem~ to choose a place that is near my office so that I do not need to do a mad dash after work to meet them.
Our all girls dinner was at Dancing Crabs, Louisiana Seafood @ Orchard Central, a place where we have never been to and only heard of. We took a chance because we wanted to try a different kind of cuisine plus how wrong can seafood be besides not being fresh and possibly getting food poisoned? Ok, scratch that, I was being too morbid. We wanted to check this place out coz we really love crabs and hate to cook them at home; all the hassle of and the cleaning up etc...
I didn't have time to check out their website to see their menu other than their location at Orchard Central, I have faith in the girls to choose good restaurants that serve good food. The restaurant did not disappoint us, we had such good food & time that it earned itself a chance for a second visit in future.
Dancing Crabs - serving a mix of robust, country-style Cajun seafood and the distinctive richness of Creole cuisine
Are you ready to be enticed by me and Dancing Crabs?
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As this is the first time I am visiting, I am clueless on what to expect but judging from the photos on their website it's going to be quite a messy and interesting affair. We know that to truly enjoy crabs we have to eat it with our hands, the joy of cracking open the hard pincer shell to get to the juicy meat has such satisfaction that no other food can match. How can we over come this challenge without the risk of getting our clothes dirty? Well, have no fear! Dancing Crabs provides each patrons with a plastic apron as a measure to prevent stray sauce from landing onto your clothes. And Nope! no plastic gloves will be provided and you must be kidding us to even THINK of that!
It is PERFECTLY okay to be Messy at the table and to Eat with Your Hands
Now, the standard utensils that are given to you will be the tools you need to get into the crabs for their meat. So don't expect to see forks, spoons, knives or even plates on the table. The food are either served in baskets or in aluminum pots. As for the crabs, they are dumped onto the middle of table covered in clean plastic sheets for all to savour the goodness the communal way OR you can opt to have it served in the pot but where's the fun of it?
Oh, another thing, since we are using our hands to eat, this means we give each other our FULL attention! Love it! No hogging on the phone with eyes glued to it's screen. This also mean that lesser photos were taken except for a quick snap before attacking the delish food. And don't worry about your sauced covered fingers, there is a washing area within the restaurant with soap and paper hand towel to rid them off.
If you are expecting a restaurant that is brightly lighted because you think eating crabs needs loads of lights so that you can see what you are eating, then you are wrong! The restaurant has spotlights all around and especially near or above the tables, so no worries that you will miss any tiny bits of that crab meat in between the shell.
I like that they list out the different choices of food on the wall. so while you are waiting in line you can have an idea what they are serving and check it out on the menu once you are seated.
We made reservations days prior so we were seated the minute we arrived at the restaurant. First time to the restaurant, we took out time to go through every single item on the menu.
We think freshly squeezed Lemonade @ SGD4.00 - SGD4.50 goes well with the seafood better than any soft drinks (too much gas too). I love my Pink Thyme Lemonade with added soda, the bubbly feel and taste was refreshing~ This may be a small jar of drink but trust me, its enough to last the whole meal. The food is so flavourable and juicy that we didn't find the need to drink the lemonade to wash down the food nor to get rid of an overwhelmed taste of saltiness or such. The lemonade sort of refresh my taste buds and further enhances the goodness of the food.
We think freshly squeezed Lemonade @ SGD4.00 - SGD4.50 goes well with the seafood better than any soft drinks (too much gas too). I love my Pink Thyme Lemonade with added soda, the bubbly feel and taste was refreshing~ This may be a small jar of drink but trust me, its enough to last the whole meal. The food is so flavourable and juicy that we didn't find the need to drink the lemonade to wash down the food nor to get rid of an overwhelmed taste of saltiness or such. The lemonade sort of refresh my taste buds and further enhances the goodness of the food.
Well, I'm not really into ordering starters but the girls wanted something to munch so we ordered Caesar Salad @ SGD10. Our waiter (sorry, I did not manage to catch his name) came with our salad in a bag, shake it in front of us to mix everything up, and poured the salad into the pot. When I say it is perfectly OKAY to use your hands, I really mean it, we were supposed to eat the greens with our hands too but we didn't feel comfy with that (still trying to get accustomed to the idea) so we requested for forks and plastic forks were given to us in a breeze.
Crunchy romaine lettuce, tender chicken breast and waffles cut into bite-sized mixed in the dressing, what's not to like about this salad?
Crunchy romaine lettuce, tender chicken breast and waffles cut into bite-sized mixed in the dressing, what's not to like about this salad?
The Beer Battered Mushroom @ SGD8 was value for money to me, the mushrooms are big and not teeny tiny type, plus they are crispy on the outside juicy on the inside. Yupe, we too have to eat these with our hands, we did had our reservations initially, these are deep fried in hot oil, won't they burn our delicate fingers? We approached the mushrooms with caution, no one screamed Ouch!, they were warm to touch thus its safe to pick them up with your fingers. We would expect the mushrooms to be lukewarm too but surprisingly they were hot, not pipping hot but hot enough.
Clueless to which combo to order and the size, we seek our friendly waiter's help who suggested that we try their Dungeness Combo @ Seasonal Price that consist of 1 Dungeness Crab, 300g Prawns, 250g Clams, Potatoes, Corn, Sausages cooked in Spicy Miso Butter Sauce.
The crab with the other ingredients and sauce was boiled in a bag and served to us with an option to have it on the table or in the pot. Well, they say "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" so of course we want the food on the table! The pile of food does not look much but trust me, the 4 of us were stuffed full!
Wait, ONE crab for 4 pax? Is it enough? Will every one get to eat the crab?
Don't worry! One fat & juicy crab is definitely enough to go around, we each had our equal share of the crab. And the crab! Yes the crab, the Dungeness crab! You can tell that it is fresh because the meat is sweet and easily get the meat off the shell.
The prawns and clams are fresh too, in fact the whole bag is full of goodness that we literally finished every thing. If we have some mantou or bun I would think we will have finished up the sauce too. That night, this combo cost us SGD184! We agreed that the price is reasonable because the food is heavenly good and excellent!
There you have it! We spent two hours there unknowingly! Chatting and talking, catching up with each other. Great company with great food always sets the mood right for every one.
Give Dancing Crab, Louisiana Seafood a try the next time you have a gathering with family or friends, it may be pricier than other restaurants but the dining experience is totally different. From the reviews I read about on their excellent service by their staffs, I think it just gave us an extra reason to head down to the restaurants. They have other branches besides Orchard Central, do check out the locations at their website.
And yes, we will definitely be back again to try their other food in the menu!
And yes, we will definitely be back again to try their other food in the menu!
Dancing Crab, Louisiana Seafood @ Orchard Central
Orchard Central #07-14/15
181 Orchard Road
Singapore 238896
Tel: +65 6509 1878
Fax: +65 6509 1879
Opening Hours : DAILY
Lunch: 11:00am - 3:00pm
Dinner: 5:00pm - 10:00pm
(Last order 9:30pm)
Reservations : Highly Recommended
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I had such a wonderful gastronomic time at Dancing Crabs that I wanted to share it with my family too! Well, no trip to the restaurant but I try to create it by making Cajun Seafood in a Bag that weekend~ Same different though but who cares? Still, the goodness of fresh seafood for every one. I have more ingredients in it and the price I paid for them is close to SGD100. No Dungeness crabs or Sri Lanka crabs, only 2 flower crabs because the crabs at the supermarket that day wasn't really fresh.
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This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.
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