Restaurant Review
14 Apr 2008

The Crab Shack – Ho Chi Minh City

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small crabz

Living in Saigon, I’m constantly adding new Vietnamese words to my vocabulary. It’s fascinating how some terms stick straightaway, while others, regardless of how many times I run into them, refuse to integrate into my lexicon. For instance, I can’t seem to remember the words for “menu” even though I ask to see one practically every day. However, just one tasty encounter with soft-shell crabs was all it took for the words cua lot to be forever seared into my mind. I guess the part of my brain that processes new information is directly connected to my taste buds.

I visited Quán 94, a restaurant specializing in crabs, a few weeks back with a travel journalist named Peter. I was so stoked about the place after my initial visit that I returned less than a week later with a posse of friends because great food begs to be shared.

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A section of the restaurant’s entryway functions as a makeshift kitchen, and the soft-shells are prominently displayed front and center. There’s something strange and yet strangely appealing about seeing the crustaceans alive and kicking prior to consuming them.

The not-to-be-missed dishes are the soft-shell crabs with tamarind (cua lot xao me – 75,000 VND) and the traditional battered and deep-fried soft-shell crabs (cua lot chien bot – 75,000 VND). The tamarind variety was doused in a glossy sweet and sour sheen that managed to leave me speechless. The soft-shells’ texture was nothing short of perfect and absorbed the tamarind sauce unexpectedly well. The battered and deep-fried ones were served up golden and crispy with a condiment made from fish sauce, ginger and chilies that complemented the texture and flavors beautifully. I can’t believe soft-shell crabs are available in Saigon for $2.34 a piece! Criminal.

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The glass noodles sautéed with crab (mien xao cua – 70,000 VND) and shrimp (mien xao tom – 70,000 VND) were also fantastic. Flavored with fish sauce and potent black pepper, the crab glass noodles contained generous hunks of meat and roe. Sure, there was the occasional shell, but I didn’t mind because these noodles were on par with Grandma’s. The consistency of the shrimp glass noodles was unbeatable and my dining companions were pleased that the shrimps were served peeled, a rarity in this country.

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The crab-stuffed egg rolls (cha gio cua – 55,000 VND) were deep-fried to order and served with vermicelli rice noodles, fish sauce, herbs, and lettuce. At 11,000 VND a piece, these were the priciest cha gio I’ve ever encountered, but absolutely worth every dong because the kitchen didn’t mess around with fillers like taro, onions, and woodear mushrooms. The innards were one-hundred percent pure crab meat.

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84 Dinh Tien Hoang Street
District 1, HCMC
Phone: 9101062

Saigon
13 Apr 2008

Vegetation Profile: Passion Fruit

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passion fruit small

The purple passion fruit is native from southern Brazil through Paraguay to northern Argentina. In Australia the purple passion fruit was flourishing and partially naturalized in coastal areas of Queensland before 1900. In Hawaii, seeds of the purple passion fruit, brought from Australia, were first planted in 1880 and the vine came to be popular in home gardens.

The purple passion fruit is subtropical and prefers a frost-free climate. The nearly round or ovoid fruit, 1-1/2 to 3 inches wide, has a tough rind that is smooth and waxy and ranging in hue from dark purple with faint, fine white specks, to light yellow or pumpkin-color. Within is a cavity more or less filled with an aromatic mass of double walled, membranous sacs containing orange-colored, pulpy juice and as many as 250 small, hard, dark brown or black, pitted seeds. The unique flavor is appealing, musky, guava-like and sweet/tart to tart. The yellow form has generally larger fruit than the purple, but the pulp of the purple is less acid, richer in aroma and flavor, and has a higher proportion of juice (35-38%).

With a sensational name like passion fruit, I was expecting something a little more grandiose, say, like a dragon fruit. But looks aren’t everything because passion fruits or chanh dây are far more interesting in the flavor department than a dragon fruit could ever dream of being.

Purple on the outside and golden yellow with a sprinkling of black seeds on the inside, passion fruits are primarily used for making juice in Saigon. The city’s beverage vendors are often heavy handed with the sugar, so make sure to specify ít đường (less sugar) when placing your order.

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