Crabs at Chaaya Blu redefines Trinco seafood

Out at sea, the lanterns on the myriad fishing boats twinkle under a canopy of bright stars, while the waves below punctuated by silver streams of moonlight form the perfect background to the majestic silhouette of Swami Rock in the distance.

In the afternoon, this canvas is transformed – the blue waves rise and fall, kissing the edges of the famed wide Trinco sand as the imperious monolith of Swami Rock looks out to sea in all its regal glory. The milieu is tranquil, one of relaxed abandon that can only permeate when sun, sea and sand come together for a perfect holiday.

But Chaaya Blu Trincomalee raises the bar a little further when it comes to holiday indulgence. Simply sit in the seaside café-styled Crabs, sinking your feet into the sand to the music of the waves, while studying an extensive menu which is truly a seafood paradise.

The dedicated kitchen at Crabs, coupled with excellent knowledgeable service, is certainly something that adds flavour to the array of dishes. Whether its crab wonton with Creole crispy fries and hot plum sauce or Thai style crab salad for an eastern touch, the fusion dish of crab royal on Caesar salad with shallow fried calamari rings or for a touch of India with prawns from the Mogul Kitchen, these entrees are delightful. The salmon Carpaccio also gets a resounding ‘yes’ for those who would prefer to leave out the crab. If it’s a multicourse meal that you’re after, then the soups don’t disappoint either, with its choices of the classic crab and corn soup with egg drops, prawns in laksa cream or the crab bisque with a touch of fusion given its lemongrass frittata and a hint of Hennessey.

Executive Chef Chanadana Jayawardana has been extremely busy. The menu is unusual, unique and emphatically customised to assert the diversity of Sri Lanka’s seafood, while retaining the very definite spirit of Trinco and her seafood. The little cafe is abuzz on most evenings as diners indulge in everything from crab tetrazzini which is a delectable dish of layers of green asparagus, creamy spaghetti and crab meat ragout topped with parmesan, traditional baked crab and crabs and corn fritters accompanying a tangy cucumber relish and Spanish green salsa.

Given that guests do have a penchant for eastern flavoured seafood preparations, Crabs adds a wok fried sea crab spiced with chilli garlic and ginger, crab a la Singapore bringing in the flavours of fried lagoon king crab tossed with a mildly spiced tomato sauce or the east coast favourite of crab Szechuan, the Chinese black pepper and rice wine infused meaty Arugam Bay stir fried crab.

And prawns are available either stir fried in kung bo sauce, crisp fried with a sweet and sour sauce or slow cooked in an Indonesian rendang sauch. Oh, and there’s lobster too (in season of course) and cuttle fish, freshly picked from the north eastern waters that surround Chaaya Blu.

Butter grilled lobster, lobster cooked in cream, wine and cheese (not for the faint hearted of course) or a good old Sri Lankan lobster curry! The cuttle fish is either wok fried, infused in a black bean garlic sauce or southern fried and served with a tomato sauce.

For those not quite inclined towards crab, lobster or cuttle fish, there’s a choice of modha steamed in banana leaf, salmon medallions in a creamy caper sauce and baked red snapper complimented with Thai jasmine rice.

But the chef-d’oeuvre in the Crabs restaurant’s menu is ‘The Blu Supreme of Crab,’ the chef’s signature dish that is absolutely ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ delectable. Prepared to an authentic Jaffna king crab recipe, the bowl is large and brimming with crabs sitting in aromatic gravy that can be quite heady, served with steamed jasmine rice and a salad. The dish they say is enough for two (which in reality is more than enough for two) but you are allowed to be over-indulgent, so just go ahead – stick your arms in and enjoy! It is heaven in a bowl. And once all is done, there must always be room for dessert and the selection is guaranteed to transport you to another realm.  Cold berry cheesecake, Baileys coffee mouse, tiramisu or Thai crispy cinnamon crepe are some to look out for or dig into, as the case may be.

Seated within that beach hut, where an open kitchen permeates an aroma of seafood that can be quite intoxicating, Crabs has got the recipe right when it comes to giving diners the complete seafood experience, indulging them in sun, sea, sand and seafood in infinite proportions.