Claypots Seafood Bar (St Kilda)

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Geek hubby and myself are normally not that fond of mussels. They tend to be overcooked, meaty and slightly brackish in taste. And there’s this stringy pubic tuft in them that gets caught in your teeth sometimes, think it’s called the ‘beard’. But this bamboo basket of mussels was, I quote geek hubby, “insanely fresh”. And only 1 of them had a beard! Lol the rest were ‘clean shaven’. But I agreed with geek hubby, they were cooked perfectly! Look at the picture below, the meat’s still so succulent and clean with no opaqueness. The dish was topped with coriander, chilli and lemongrass so there was a slight Asian slant to it.

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Okay, that garlic chilli oil cradling the king prawns —> “Swoooon!”. Geek hubby simply said “This chilli oil is the ideal seasoning for any food that you’d ever want to eat”. Troubleand I couldn’t stop nodding our heads. So so good for dipping your breads in. That’s why I told you to save your breads served at the start of the meal. You see? I always have your interest at heart. And please, for this one meal, ignore any silly phobias and aversions towards oil and calories and so forth. Its okay to get fat from prawn oil, after all… it should be considered the nectar of sea gods. Okay, that’s enough bardic yodelling. The prawns themselves were just as amazingly fresh and cooked to perfection. The prawn legs were so crunchy that I ate them all.

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In my notebook, I wrote “chaotar flavour excellent, delicious. I started using my fingers at the end. Swabbing rice and gravy from everywhere after the bread ran out.”. (‘chaotar‘ is Singlish for grilled/burnt taste)
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Hahaha! I have no idea what I was thinking or trying to phrase. But I think I was trying to describe how the meal ended in an almost feast-like barbaric way for us. Digging out the bug’s flesh with my fingers, grabbing rice, or breads, dipping into this gravy or that sauce. That’s eating turned into something primal, tactile, tasty, and absolutely joyful. I seriously take after my dad. You should see him eat crabs… OMG, scary yet mesmerising, and very appetising!

Trouble and hubbyseemed to really enjoy the crabs. The meat was very fresh and succulent. I will confess now that at this point I had started medication for a tummy bug and it really curbed my appetite. So that night, I basically looked at food with puzzlement rather than my ususal anime-like enthusiasm. Because this dish was named ‘chilli crabs’, I had unreasonable expectations of how it should taste, ie. like Singapore chilli crabs. It tasted nothing like that of course, there wasn’t much spiciness to it.

By the time we got to the stingray we were very full, so we were just stuffing ourselves at that point. I feel really bad for being brutal with this dish. But once again, I was disappointed. The sambal had lots of garlic, but didn’t have enough heat and was too sweet. The stingray itself was cooked to a firmer, meaty texture. I kept recalling how smooth, juicy and silky stingray dishes can taste like back home, served on a banana leaf, complete with a lime and cincalok chilli sauce. This version didn’t satisfy me. But trouble and hubby thinks it isn’t a bad dish.
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Moral of the story is, giving your dish a hawker food name raises the ante significantly when it comes to hardcore fussy Singaporean and Malaysian diners like me. Beware. ;-)
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Despite one or two misses, Claypots has got to be one of the best places to get seafood of the freshest quality and at reasonable prices. If you know of other excellent places, let me know! Trouble and hubby liked the food here because it’s cooked in an almost Mediterranean style with hints of asian flavours/spices that weren’t overpowering. I’d say come for lunch when it’s peaceful, sunny and quiet. Or turn up early for dinner so that you won’t be disappointed if they run out of things.
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This also marks the end of my cousin trouble food posts. Bye bye, awesome geek hubby food-pic contributions. I think they had a pretty good time here and they were wonderful guests in my home. Trouble even said that they could easily come visit again because the food here is so good! I say man…. Anytime!! Before they walked through the sliding doors at Melbourne airport, troublewhispered to me “you’re very fun to eat with.” WIN!! :D