The house specialty came before the house t-shirts. Anyone who has joined us for chili crabs at the beach goes home with an embroidered, slightly cross-eyed crab t-shirt. 
Originally developed so that guests could put this shirt over their nice clothes and the t-shirt would get all the splatters of crab sauce and we could all get down and dirty, the shirt has become THE house shirt… If you see anyone wearing this shirt, they have almost certainly had Marketman’s chili crabs over the years… With the 8 kilo or so bounty of the freshest crabs last weekend, and several guests in-house, we just had to cook up some chili crabs…
I have posted the recipe before here. It is really very simple. 
If you have fresh crabs, you will seem like a brilliant cook to most folks if you try this recipe. The platter here holds about 4 kilos worth of crab, cooked. The total batch of 8 kilos fed 14 folks very well and there were even some leftovers. And if you are really good, some guests, who are timid about digging in as they are averse to peeling the crab, even have some crab PEELED for them. Ridiculous, I know. But once they try the dish, they almost all ask for it again. If you have never tasted chili crabs before, please do so and you will understand why they are the house specialty at the beach…
19 Responses
i wonder if and when i can have this shirt ? …. wishful thinking hehehehehehe :)
You and Mrs. MM are the finest host and hostess for ensuring your house guests enjoy picking on the crabs and providing them a shirt aka bib to catch all the yummy good stuff especially if they did not have extra change clothes. Aside from the crab shirt you also offer your guests “picked†crab meat to enjoy chili crabs. I am giving you the Michelin award for good foods and hospitality. The chili crabs look great and delicious with lots of rice who cares about carbohydrates. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Beautiful pictures! I haven’t seen this earlier post. Can’t wait to get my hands on fresh, fat crabs. Cold season is the best time to get them! Yum, yum!
I’ve been buying dunganese crabs here in LA Chinatown for years and I think I can use your recipe for these crabs. I have been in search of the Tahn Long Crab recipe. Yours is prolly close enough. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi MM, will surely try this when I go home in January. I always had them with ginger and scallions from the chinese restaurants. Alimango is abundant in Roxas City, Capiz where my sister lives and your recipe’s not that complicated so I think I can do it. I’ll have it with Lipitor on the side. :)Hahaha. Thank you for all the wonderful posts.
i remember bringing home some live crabs that i found at market here in Kobe and excited ly showed them to my kids. then they asked what i was going to do with it? huh?????(we’ll make them our pets). i instinctly knew how they would feel if i told them i was going to cook ’em. gosh and they saw me plunge the crabs in boiling water. well of course then none of them wanted to have anything to do with the crabs. with the horrified looks on their faces and at the same time asking me how i can do such a cruel thing i lost my appetite. i made crab omelet the next day. LOL!
most kids nowawdays are so far removed from the source of their food because everything is beautiful packaged in supermarkets. my kids would probably turn vegetarian if they only knew….
the shirt is a clever idea!
I’d like to see/taste you cook this for curacha or tatos! yum!
Marketman you make it hard being away from the Philippines! :-) Wonderful post.
grabe! kakagutom naman yang sunod sunod na post mo on chili crabs. You are really rubbing it in. I am off to go crab hunting already. Yum! yum!
I love crabs and I would love to own that shirt…….=)
i too thoroughly love chilli crab! have a cook that makes an original version as taught to her by a singaporean chef. she took weeks with the chef but she has got it down now.
rampau, that’s “dungeness” crabs.
speaking of which, i have again a slightly controversial comment to make: cold water seafood (eg europe, Australia, New Zealand, japan etc) tastes better than our seafood caught in tropical waters. I believe the cold water allows the fish and crustaceans to develop a higher fat ratio (ostensibly for protection against the freezing oceans) and higher fat = more taste. for instance i prefer dungeness crab to our local crab species. not only is the shell thinner and easier to get to but the meat is also sweeter.
MM, if you love seafood then Istanbul is a must visit. Fish and crustacea caught in the mineral-rich, icy-cold Bosphorus yield the most incredibly succulent, supertasty flesh imaginable. If you think i’m exaggerating check it out for yourself. The rest of turkish food is terrific as well; fits our pinoy palate perfectly, not quite like arabic food (which i also love), the comparison of which would be the first guess of foodies who have not been to Turkey yet.
mouth-watering post. especially for someone like me who was allergic to crabs and shrimps as a young kid. somehow got rid of it in adulthood, and up to now, am still trying to make up for lost ground.
off topic, have you heard of or read ‘’The Governor-General’s Kitchen: Philippine Culinary Vignettes and Period Recipes (1521-1935)’’ by Felice Prudente Sta. Maria? alejandro roces wrote glowingly about it in today’s phil. star.
if you or anyone here has,would you know where we can get a copy? roces says it’s a must for people who are into food and history.it sounds salubrious.
ok, sorry, couldn’t wait. i googled it and found a link to anvil publishing. placed an order for it online. P1300. i think it’s well worth it.fyi.
Choy, yes I have heard about it and will be getting a copy. I understand a lot of the recipes are in their original form…it certainly sounds very interesting and a friend of mine who has seen it was all raves… gonzo, interesting theory on the seafood from cold water…I would buy the theory on shellfish in particular as mussels, clams, lobsters, etc. from cold waters do seem to be spectacular. But on other fishes, I like the tropical ones. Hmmm, I have never been to Istanbul but would love to go some day…
Marketman: as always, I love reading all your posts.
choy: thank you for that info. I’ll also get a copy online.
only thing missing is the fried manthou ;) looks awesomely spicy!
ohmigosh.. my stomach’s rumbling already from all the yummy post from MM… wish i can also have one of those shirts… and tons of the chili crab…hehehe!! keep it coming MM.. your site is the best talaga!!
Was looking forward to the weekend all week long as I only get to cook on weekends and so wanted to try the chili crab recipe. Well it was a big hit with my family. Served it with fried okoy that I found in the market (North Greenhills has a mini version of the Salcedo Village market on Sundays) when I bought the crabs and a watercress salad with chopped red eggs, tomatoes and onions. Super duper yum. Ate more in that one meal than the entire week!