There’s hardly a need to convince anyone that crabs are sinfully delicious. So much so, indeed, that the taste is immortalized in the Filipino folk song. Tong tong tong tong pakitong-kitong/ Alimango sa dagat/ Malaki at masarap / Mahirap mahuli / Sapagkat nangangagat (“alimango” means crab, while “masarap” means delicious, good luck in translating “tong tong pakitong-kitong”). I could imagine Mr. Krab, Spongebob‘s grumpy and greedy boss at the Krusty Krab, would be just as tender and succulent when cooked.

Seafood is a safe bet as an “offering” for balikbayan Filipinos. For US balikbayan extraordinaire Jean and our friend Joyce, the first bet was, of course, Dampa Seafood Paluto in Pasay. The next trip item, watching a movie in a cinema with comfortable fully reclining chairs, made the decision a bit complicated.

The huge Mall of Asia, around 5 minutes away from the venue, is a good option. It houses the Philippines’ first-ever IMAX theater, with a Director’s Club Theater that boasts of around thirty La-Z-Boy seats.

But they wanted another world-class venue that houses that kind of cinema, Resorts World Manila — “Manila’s first integrated tourist attraction”. Among the amenities is the casino (the main reason for the use of “bet” in the title of this post), but perhaps we’ll try that another time. There are shops and arcades. There’s a theater which is currently showing “The Sound of Music” (extended to February 12). It has a lot of restaurants, including the Red Crab Alimango House. And its Cinema 1 houses the huge fully-reclining chairs. Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner were there, I mean, in the Mission Impossible (Ghost Protocol) movie, so we decided to bet on this venue.

Think of a Red Crab, a BluFish and a Flying Pig. What do they have in common?

They’re all restaurants that serve good food, all creations of Chef Raymund Magdaluyo. What do you order at the Red Crab? Crabs and then some. It might be a welcome surprise to know that this Alimango House also serves other seafood items (like kinilaw sampler, for our appetizer) and non-seafood items (like chicharon bulaklak, also for our appetizer).

The star of the show, of course, is the alimango (crab) that is malaki at masarap (big and delicious, translation for the benefit of non-Filipinos who are still discovering that it’s more fun in the Philippines).

Choosing the right one(s) for our palates wasn’t easy as we thought. Steamed Crab, Crab Maritess, Thai Chili Crab, Deep Fried Crab, Crab Szechuan, Crab in Sour Miso Soup, Shruti’s Crab Curry, Classic Crab Adobo, Lola Julie’s Crab Pateros, Butter Ginger Crab, Crab Singapura, Raymund’s Salt and Pepper Crab, The White Pepper Crab, Fidel’s Black Pepper Crab. We would have been happy with the basic steamed crab, but chose to bet on something different, crossed our fingers and hoped that we won’t regret it.

Steamed Crab. It made sense that we choose the non-standard fair because it’s not every day, or every month for that matter, that we eat at a restaurant that specializes in crabs. Crab Maritess. Good choice, but someone already tried this so it’s out. How about the crab in coconut milk (ginataan)? Hmm, what else. Fifteen minutes into the selection process, with the waiter standing beside the table, we finally settled on the crab with salted egg (forgot how it’s named in the menu) and Raymund’s Salt and Pepper Crab. We added Crab Relleno (for anyone who wants the easier way of enjoying crab meat) and Seafood Kare-Kare (to check how non-traditional kare-kare would taste like).

First to arrive was the Kinilaw Sampler. Tastes really good, with a nice presentation. What’s better, in our opinion, is the fact that it was served with the vinegar removed from the dish — the fresh fish meat wouldn’t be “cooked” further by the vinegar. Then came the chicharong bulaklak (boiled, seasoned and deep-fried pig omentum, not intestine). We thought it was too salty for our taste buds, which is probably coincidental considering that we made the same observation on the home-made pork and beans at Flying Pig.

Really not a problem because we’re at Red Crab mainly for, well, the crabs. On the other hand, as to the crab relleno, let’s just say we would stick to the whole crab the next time we visit Red Crab.

To be continued . . .