CNA Life Style - Sri Lanka’s world-famous Ministry of Crab is opening in Singapore on Jul 3 to a welcome carpet rolled out by seafood-loving foodies.

After a couple of sporadic pop-ups held here over the years, the crab-focused restaurant by global superstar chef and restaurateur Dharshan Munidasa, which already has outposts in Shanghai, Chengdu, Bangkok and the Maldives, has found a space at Dempsey Hill to make its own.

“Singapore made Sri Lankan crab famous for us. So, it was always our intention to come here,” Munidasa, 53, told CNA Lifestyle. “Coming here was always going to be a lot of fun. Scary, too. Singapore has the biggest consumption of mud crabs in the world, I think, per capita.

“But, we are not the same as the restaurants that you see in Singapore. We are not a Chinese restaurant; we are not a Sri Lankan restaurant, either. We are a Sri Lankan crab restaurant in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Munidasa, the son of a Sri Lankan father and Japanese mother, showcases the produce of Sri Lanka using techniques that stem from Japanese culinary ideas and practices.  “Having a Japanese upbringing and Japanese blood in me, I think I look at it in a very different way, and the dishes we cook have certain philosophies, methods and techniques stemming from that. We are unique,” he said.

“And, also, the restaurant had its own amazing journey from being in Sri Lanka to becoming a world renowned Asia's 50 Best restaurant, and I think I'm proud to be the only crab restaurant that got on that list.” (His other restaurant, Nihonbashi in Sri Lanka, has also featured on the list, by the way. And, he has a steakhouse called Carne Diem Grill in the Maldives.)

Consistently pictured brandishing a crustacean in each hand, anything Munidasa doesn’t know about crabs is not worth knowing. On top of that, he even had the patience to show us the best way to break the crab legs apart. A minister of crabs, indeed.

CRABS FLOWN IN EVERY OTHER DAY

Ministry of Crab, consecutively listed on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list from 2015 to 2022, takes its governance seriously. Because it is committed to serving the freshest seafood, the restaurant has a no-freezer policy. Working with its network of crab fishermen all around Sri Lanka, live, wild-caught crabs are flown in directly three times a week.

“That’s different from what other restaurants do,” Munidasa said, and, he added with full disclosure, “it will be a little bit more pricey because of that.”

But, with a dish like the Pure Crab, which must be ordered at least six hours in advance, the difference is immediately apparent in the firm, bouncy flesh and intense sweetness. Simply steamed and chilled, the crab doesn’t even need the accompanying condiments of melted butter, calamansi ponzu and a chilli vinegar inspired by chicken rice chilli. “Order male crabs for more claw meat, and female crabs for tender sweet meat,” the menu advises.

Mud crabs served here range from the 500g “Half Kilo Crab” to the “Crabzilla”, which weighs in at over 2kg (prices start at S$75 for 500g); while giant freshwater prawns range from the 150g “Small Prawn” (S$25) to the over-500g “Prawnzilla” (S$50) – Sri Lanka is one of the few countries you will find prawns of this size.

Choose how you’d like your crab: Baked, steamed or cooked in Sri Lankan-style curry featuring moringa and pandan leaf. Flavour variations include Original Recipe Spicy Crab with Sri Lankan chillies; and Black Pepper Dashi Crab with Sri Lankan black pepper that has been hand-crushed on a traditional grinding stone.

But crab wok-fried with garlic chilli is the signature flavour, involving a rich medley of Italian olive oil, Japanese soy sauce and spice. Get the signature Kade Bread or garlic bread, resembling a slightly denser version of old-school, charcoal-grilled kopitiam bread, to mop up the last drops of tasty oil on your plate.

DEMPSEY OR BUST

Occupying a space at Dempsey Hill that used to be a pilates studio, the vibe of Ministry of Crab’s flagship Colombo restaurant has been replicated here. Although he’s doubtless had opportunities, Munidasa did not want to open in Singapore until he’d found a building with a similar colonial feel – or “ministerial”, so to speak.

“In Singapore, I think, location was something that was very difficult,” he told CNA Lifestyle. “We didn't want to be in a mall; we didn't want to be in a hotel. We always thought we should try to find a space in Dempsey. And, not many spaces open up here.”

Why Dempsey? “The location has the same vibe” as the restaurant in Colombo’s historic Dutch Hospital complex, as well as the ceiling height that “we need for flowers”, he said, gesturing to the enormous vases filled with towering heliconias on each table. “These were flown in from Sri Lanka. We tried to find some here in Singapore but they were shorter. I mean, if Singapore has been buying our crabs and flying them over for the last almost 40 years, why can’t we bring the flowers?”

If he sounds a little salty, well, it’s the whole reason Ministry of Crab was born in the first place.

The story of how he opened the high-end crustacean restaurant, together with Sri Lankan cricket legends Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, in 2011 is a case study in how cultural exchange can shape food identity.

SRI LANKAN CRABS, SINGAPORE’S APPETITE  

“My association with Singapore is long because I was born in Japan and we travelled to Sri Lanka, then after a while we switched, living in Sri Lanka and travelling to Japan,” Munidasa recalled. “Most of the time, as kids, (my siblings and I) were flying through Singapore. I remember I was about 12 and I had my first Chatterbox chicken rice. I used to fly through Singapore just to eat. Chicken rice, Hokkien mee, stingray and stuff like that. I always came here for the food.

“And then, I saw Sri Lankan crabs here, and how no one in Sri Lanka appreciated them because they were too expensive. That's how Ministry of Crab came about. We are the first restaurant to start using export-quality crab, or Singapore-bound crab, in Sri Lanka. I wanted to plate the best crabs of Sri Lanka (because) they should taste better when consumed in Sri Lanka.”

The official story, recounted on the Ministry of Crab’s website, is that the idea came to him while filming an episode of the television show Culinary Journeys with Dharshan about how the Sri Lankan mud crab was sourced in Sri Lanka and exported to Singapore to be made into the famous Singapore Chilli Crab.

And so, the restaurant was conceived as “a culinary homecoming for this majestic crustacean, which had long been more renowned overseas than in Sri Lanka.”

One gets the sense that in addition to being a nod to the Singaporean taste for Sri Lankan crab, opening his restaurant in Singapore may also be a bit of sweet retaliation for Munidasa.