This is a very fragrant, flavourful and rather high-calorie dish. Some slight modification from me here to make it more palatable for those who’re a bit more health-conscious. This dish is normally done with whole crab, but I’ve used harvested crab meat here because I’m using it as a filling for wraps.

Bu Phad Pong Garee literally means crab fried with curry powder. It’s a relatively expensive dish, so it was pretty much out of my reach during my backpacking days, right up to the mid 1990s when I decided to settle down, buy a house etc. My first taste of Thai curry crab was an unforgettable experience.

There are numerous variations for this dish. I’m just doing it the most convenient way. It may not be the best, but it still tastes pretty good. The curry powder. It’s actually a special curry powder with more coriander than most Indian curry powders. Here, I’ve added some coriander powder to standard Indian meat curry.

Garlic and chilli. Most restaurants in Thailand would use 3 times this amount of oil. Fry until the garlic gets browned.

Add crab meat and oyster sauce. Mix well. Some people use fish sauce, but I think that’ll make this dish a bit too fishy.

Add in chopped Chinese celery, green onion and curry powder. Stir well.

Final step. Beat in an egg. Turn off the heat. Stir again and we’re done!

And here it is: Bu phat pong garee. Crab meat only in this case as I’m letting it go with wraps. Try it yourself. You don’t have to go to an expensive restaurant in Singapore for this.

© Chan Joon Yee

Chan Joon Yee is the author of Spellbound in Chiangmai, a collection of short stories based on sheltered and simple Singaporeans’ misadventures in the Land of Smiles.