It was the first time for us eating crabs in such a clean, pleasant environment, in an air-conditioned restaurant in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur. We were pleased to be at TalkCrab, a seafood restaurant that had its beginnings as an online crab delivery service (of both fresh and cooked crabs) since October 2020.
The menu offered a bewildering array of choices but we were really looking for a feast of crabs, and seeing oysters on the menu, we would have those as well.
Crabs in Butter Sauce served with fried mantou. left. The sauce is so good!
The next best thing to do was to see what the diners in the next table were having. We asked, and they recommended the raw female roe crab, Teochew style. We ordered that and since there were only three of us eating, we plumped for two roe crabs (again) cooked in the signature butter sauce, accompanied by four deepfried mantou.
These came under the offer “Buy 1, Free 2” offer where we could have two roe crabs, 350g each at RM228. They came with a free fried egg rice and a plate of blood cockles. The cockles were not available that night and were replaced with Kam Heong La La (mussels).
The gorgeous roe in the female crab, served Teochew Style
We were gobsmacked by the thick orange roe in the shell of the raw marinated crab served Teochew style in a bowl of sauce brimming with umami. It was a blend of soy sauce, lemon juice, chopped garlic, chilli, coriander, and finished with a generous sprinkling of sesame seeds.
The perky, tangy sauce with well-balanced flavours complemented the delicate roe of the crab, as well as the raw sweet meat from its body, pincers and legs. It was truly an amazing appetiser. You could also have the Korean style raw marinated crabs here.
A tasty Egg Fried Rice
The Egg Fried Rice had enough wok hei (wok heat in it), tasted sticky and flavourful, with egg covering the grains.
Our next dish were the oysters (6 for RM90). We had opted for the Teochew sauce again but we were pleased with the plump raw oysters that threatened to slide off the spoon as we fished them out of the bowl. They were so good.
Plump Fresh Oysters in the hot and tangy Teochew sauce
The star dish of the evening was surely the Crabs in Signature Butter Sauce, served with four small mantou, and though we doubled the portion of buns at RM1 each, there was really not enough to dip into the scrumptious sauce.
The deeply flavoured creamy sauce, fragrant with curry leaves, embraced the roe crabs which were super fresh and sweet.
Kam Heong La La or mussels
The only drawback that evening was the La La in Kam Heong Sauce. We had expected a dry fried style with hot sambal and dried shrimp paste, but the mussels languished in a dark drippy sauce that lacked the flavours we craved for. Perhaps next time we could try the La La Pot, with 1kg of live Philippine clams at RM68.
We are also drawn to the Signature Platter of 2 A size crabs, 8 tiger prawns, 250g whole shell clams, 6 NZ mussels, 12 cuttlefish and 8 mantou at RM298 for three or four people. There are also vegetable dishes for a more balanced meal.
Eating crabs in a cool environment
TalkCrab is at 11, Jalan 15, Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, 52100 Kuala Lumpur, tel: 010 338 1788.