Mighty Crab and Lasting Flavours

Few restaurants can flavour crabs well. One that does it extremely well is on the Asia Top 50. A less fancy place, in Bangkok isn't any less when it comes to doling out these crustaceans. One evening, our Saturday vegetarian friend missed out on our beautiful crab and insisted we take him back to the same restaurant, albeit in a different location. Maybe we teased him a little too much about how brilliant it was. The second helping was just as good as our first, the previous day.

On our first visit, the two of us got their classic fried crab in gravy. They call it the "AUTHENTIC FRIED CRAB," and normally when I see that word, I tend to get a little guarded. Not here. It didn't matter what was authentic about it. The crab was served in two parts, the claws having the meat with the flavours of the marinade making their way inside just enough and I think the masala was from the body of the crab. So we actually got two preparations, one to get our hands (and face) dirty and the other that could be eaten with fork and spoon. We got the medium crab and it was more than enough for the two of us and the salads we ordered gave our tummies the fibre. The gravy perfected spiced the helpings of jasmine rice.

The next afternoon, when our friend turned carnivore, he got himself the chilly crab and we got us prawns. We repeated the greens salad as it was perfect for our meal the last time. This chilly crab was a notch better. Since he was going to eat the crab alone (or so he thought), he got the small crab. I guess, because of the size, this time there was only prep without the body meat being served separately. Nevertheless, the chilly crab with its slightly runny dark jus without the overdose of crab meat might simply be the better version than the AUTHENTIC one. Our prawns in its simple chilly garlic sauce was just right for us, though (as expected) we did dig into his crab. How else will I write about it?

Both times, the crabs along with the salads, a drink each and some jasmine rice cost us about 1750 THB (about $60) which is about Rs. 3200 INR. Considering the size of the crab we had, it was beyond reasonable. Of course, if you decide to go with live crab, then you pay per 100g.

Somboon Seafood is located in multiple places in Bangkok. Terminal 21 mall near Sukhumvit has an outlet.