Fatty Crab - Out of Crab!!!

There was no crab at the Fatty Crab on the day I went, which automatically downgrades the restaurant. Apparently, the fryer was broken that day and the crab wasn't delivered. The waiter offered to get us a dish of the chili sauce that usually accompanies the crab. We took him up on the offer, not realizing it was going to cost us $9. I just wanted a taste! The sauce reminded me of spicy Thai Musuman sauce, but without the peanuts.

We ordered the skate fish which was crunchy and crispy (interesting that they were able to fry the fish without the fryer). I thought that the fish was very flavorful and tender. The steamed pork buns were extremely fatty. Inside the buns there were equal parts of meat and fat. Both my cousin and I removed the fat, and ate it with the Hoisin based sauce. I guess that they didn't have the crab, but they had the fat that day.

I really enjoyed the Nasi Lemak which I had never tried before. It was a bed of coconut cream soaked rice, with a poached egg on top and a piece of curried chicken. Around the side of the dish are little piles of sides, that reminded me of Korean Banchan side dishes. Pickled cucumber, small dried anchovies, peanuts, and other pickled vegetables. You mix everything together and it was a great combo of flavors and textures. The curried chicken was still on the bone and very yummy.

The Fatty Crab is a very small restaurant and we had a little bit of a wait for a very tiny table next to the kitchen. We didn't want to wait for a different table, and we didn't want to eat at the tables on the side walk so that everyone could see us digging into a messy crab (at the time we didn't know they were out of crab). The wait staff are very friendly.

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Fatty Crab
643 Hudson St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 352-3590
http://www.fattycrab.com/