"Rich broth with generous servings of seafood"
One Saturday night we packed the whole family into two cars and took the 40min drive over to Klang and after many toll booths and a couple of wrong turns we finally arrived with rumbling tummies in anticipation of the tasty dishes my dad had described.
An interesting thing to note is that there are quite a few Chinese seafood restaurants in Pandamaran town away from the waters edge. I usually equate delicious fresh seafood with the sea, but my dad’s enthusiasm for the place was enough for me to know that the food would be good despite the lack of an ocean view.
A specialty dish here is the ikan pari with the ginger chilli oil. Unfortunately they had already sold out for the day, and it was only 8pm! We asked if any other fish could be prepared in the same way and the owner agreed to serve us something similar. We also ordered the kangkung belacan, sizzling tofu, seafood curry mee, and the chilli crabs.
The curry mee was the first thing to arrive at our table. A large clay pot is filled with a curry broth and a generous serving of noodles, plump prawns, tender squid, and chopped up ikan pari. The broth is undeniably flavourful without being extremely spicy. It is also not too thick, which makes slurping it up a pleasure. This could have been dinner on it’s own as there was plenty to go around
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"The seafood is very fresh"
Although my uncle was driving and yours truly was happily sprawled in the back seat enjoying the movie playing on DVD I couldn’t help notice this road trip was taking awfully long. Rumbling tummies and a blurred sense of direction was not a good combination. Finally, we made it after soldiering through the horrendous rain. Tea-time meal options were limited around Pantai Cherating so we decided to have a hearty dinner to compensate for our insatiable craving for something spicy.
Ikan bakar was agreed upon unanimously as the preferred dinner option. We stayed at Holiday Villa Cherating and the place we chose - Restoran Zaryam Sri Rampai, was actually next door to the hotel. There are a number of family-run restaurants dotting the road in Kampung Cherating Baru that dishes up ikan bakar. We chose this one as it didn’t have many people and therefore our theory was that we would get our meals faster!
The seafood is very fresh at Zaryam Sri Rampai. If you are having ikan bakar, you can have a choice of fish kept in the ice-filled box ranging from siakap (seabass), pari (stingray), bawal (pomfret), kerapu (grouper) as well as squid and prawns. “We guarantee the seafood is always fresh as they are from the day’s catch,” says Azhar Yam, the proprieter of Zaryam Sri Rampai.
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"Fresh imported seafood!"
This lovely place has turned seafood into fine pieces of art and the menu here is seasonal depending on what they have available. This ensures that everything is always uber fresh. The menu boasts a wide range of seafood with choices like oysters, langoustine, boston lobster, monkfish, lemon sole, and more. This is definitely the spot for lovers of all things fishy.
The lunch menu here is a real treat and I can see it being a great place to entertain clients. I enjoyed the little bread buns that were served before the meal. These are small enough to remain warm out of the oven and are delightful with a smidgen of butter. The best part is that there are frequent bread refills, but don’t get too full because you’ll need room for all the other yummy dishes.
Our meal started off with an amuse bouche trio…a gratinated mussel with garlic butter, a creamy pumpkin soup shooter, and a wassabi mayo tuna cannelloni. The mussel was scrumptious and really stood out. We then had to choose between a bouillabaisse and the goat cheese salad. The bouillabaisse is beautifully rich, tinged with the deep orange of saffron and chock full of mussels, fish, prawns and squid. The goat cheese is cooked in a pastry and is served with baby greens and stewed apples. The sweetness of the apples pairs well with the muskiness of the cheese.
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"Fleshy claws, crusty with creaminess"
The front of the menu was a manic looking crab that looked a little 'kemaruk' (itching with anticipation). I understand its pain. I was starvin' Marvin and everyone has been raving about the salted egg crabs here. "You want the ones with the big fat claws?" Asked the lady. Hell yeah! She came back with some keropok to munch as I rubbed my hands.
Let me be the first to say that I don't really like too much yolk in my diet. As a small child, I would painstakingly cut around a bull's eye trying to outwit the runny yolk. Holding my breath, I lift it out from the centre and will it not to spill its yellow goo on my whites. However, salted egg crabs when done well does not have that overpowering yolky taste. Infact done extremely well it renders the crabs creamy and crunchy like a refined Asian buttermilk crust.
And yeah the salted egg crabs here are pretty incredible. Crusty with creaminess with claws so fat with flesh you hardly have to break a sweat. I'm a bit of a lazy crab eater. So a crab that's fat and yielding is the best kind. In fact, there was so much flesh we couldn't eat them all. Mount Crabalu laid unconquered. Flavour-wise it's salty and rich with flesh still juicy. My only complain is that I like my crabs with a little gravy to sop with some nice mantau. However I must admit, this is a nice change.
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"Sunset and seafood for top bliss factor"
After lazing for about two days, a trip was in order for some fresh seafood out of the resort we were staying in. In Pangkor town, I've always remembered eating sweet and sour crabs and fish head broths. "You have to order the dried chilli crayfish here," said our van driver as he deposited us somewhere out of town.
Ye Lin has been around for decades but we've never been here before. Always game to try somewhere new, we settled in at a table laid with a fetching crumpled plastic tablecloth. All of us had skipped lunch, and were ravenous. The crayfish in question is actually pulled out of it's skin, deep fried in flour then cooked with spicy sauces and dried chillies. It is ridiculously good which bodes well for the sotong goreng tepung. Squid here is fresh, dipped in the same batter and fried quickly. It's crunchy and soft- everything you ever wanted from a sotong goreng tepung.
Other stuff we ordered were venison in ginger, yum! Soft and meaty to balance all the fishiness, some great seafood fried rice and steamed fish. We asked them to cook it tauchu style and it came in a thick sauce full of dark bean paste, scallions and chillies. The fish is nice and firm and the sauce has a spicy bite to it. I was a bit slow and by the time I got to the fish, there was only the crunchy gill area left (operculum) and the head. Lucky for me it's my favourite part!
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"Relaxing seafood by the lake"
For a while now, everytime I come over to my sister's there's always some 'tapau' container in the fridge with Restoran Tasik Indah on it. This restaurant in Shah Alam near the lake has become one of her favourite haunts. Admit it, if you don't actually live in Shah Alam, there's small likelihood of you eating there. But after listening for the 1,000th time how good it is I finally bundled her in my car and drove to the boonies. First thing I noticed is that this place is full. Packed with Malay families stuffing their faces with all manner of sea creatures.
The very bossy waiter hustled us to a table by the lake and proceeded to whip up all sorts of things we have to eat. Hence we ordered crabs, sweet and sour prawns (everyone had been having an overload of butter prawns recently), steamed cod, sotong goreng tepung, beancurd with minced chicken and asparagus belacan. Food was a little slow due to the amount of people but not too slow that you might want to stomp out.
Let me cut the chase. The best dishes of the night were the sweet and sour prawns, beancurd and the steamed cod. The steamed cod is incredible. So fresh that it has a buttery complexion- a real joy for a fish lover such as I. It's steamed just lightly in soy sauce with slivers of ginger and scallions. It's not too expensive either. Five, fat fillets cost about RM100 which is cheaper than buying the fillet yourself and cooking it at home. If you ever come here this is the dish to order.
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"Butter 'basah' crabs waiting for a soft fried bun"
Sunset, seafood and scintillating conversation, an enticement for us to brave a weekday traffic and go to Pulau Langat for dinner. After an age on the highway, bumping through a palm oil estate, avoiding dogs with attitude, a herd of goats and a goose with a naughty behind we arrive in time for sunset on to find… the restaurant is gone! Closed, boarded up, a sign in Chinese indicating probably a new venue but alas! None of us are Cantonese literate. The romantic boat where you can have dinner under scarlett tanglongs is now a concrete field.
Stuck in nowhere between Klang and Banting and by now quite ravenous we decided to go to Tanjung Harapan for seafood. “Yes, down the road that looks dark and dodgy”, says our friend. It’s Sleepy Hollow kind of creepy. “Are you sure there’s something down there? Swear it,” I stalked her on the phone.
“Yes, yes, I swear I was there last week.” And then, suddenly out of nowhere are two brightly lit artificial ponds. For recreational fishing. It was packed for a Tuesday night. Where do all these people come from? Has Klang such little entertainment? And it’s opened 24 hours! So now we know where insomniac fisher-wannabes hang out.
Beside these ponds, a beacon of hope shines in neon. Bagan seafood- a large airy restaurant halfway into the swamp with fishing nets covering the front part. “Suicidal birds,” explains the waitress.
So it’s crabs cooked in ‘butter basah’, a huge plate of butter prawns, garoupa tiga rasa to start with. Then crab fried rice and asparagus belacan, crabmeat egg fu yong and sizzling Japanese tofu with more seafood. We are HUNGRY!
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"Hot and crisp omelette riddled with oysters"
It's been a while since any of us been to Pulau Ketam and we must say that nothing much has changed. At Port Klang we found the jetty that goes to Pulau Ketam and had to stand in a longish boat for a trip to the island. We passed a lot of mangroves on the way all the while taking in err… fresh air and the prevalent fishy smell. No prizes for guessing what we were going to eat that day.
First up we were greeted with a row of chicken feet drying in the humid air like a macabre art installation. There were also sea eagles on the hunt on a nearby island (probably been driven crazy by the smell of fish). On the mud flats just below the jetty were loads of tiny crabs and mud skippers and we even saw a green crab with purple limbs. There was also a small heron looking for a bite on the mud flats.
But lets get to the food. There's been quite a bit of mixed reporting where this restaurant is concerned but it's still full of people. So always an indication that a place is edible. First up, some mantis prawns cooked in batter. It had a more intense taste than normal prawns, almost like eating the head part of the prawn throughout. The way it was prepared reminded us a little of how they make sweet and sour pork. Then, from the restaurant next door came omelette with oysters. Again some friends mentioned to us that it's a bit of a hit and miss. On the day we came though, we found it quite satisfying and got a little tongue-burn from eating it hot and crunchy.
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"Surprisingly good salted egg crabs"
“What? You ran out of lala?” Oh calamity, especially after I’ve raved to my sister that the lala in superior stock is top notch. The place is packed and sometimes I wonder if a crowd begets a crowd, like can you rent-a-crowd when you need people to populate your eatery? I must admit though if a place is empty or ‘sejuk’ as Malays call it, punters are less likely to come in.
However, everyone seems to have their faces deep in the food and dinner starts early here. Barely 8.30pm and they run out of lala. I wonder too if they purposely have a limited amount of lala since scarcity also makes a mob hanker for something even more. As I contemplate the dastardly things a restaurant can do to hoodwink unsuspecting diners, the rest of my ravenous tribe ordered, crabs- 2 kinds, butter prawns, steamed fish and greens. Lala… another day, sigh…
Siu siu makes their food quite delicious. The spicy crabs in a sweet and sour sauce is dripping with gravy. Crabs are fresh and yes! They have mantau here. Fried sinful buns to sop up gravy with. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the salted egg crab here is quite tasty too. It’s crisp and the egg taste is not too overpowering. Personally I like my crabs with gravy since the right kind of sauce can make rapturous tongue music with the savoury-sweet crab flesh. But for a dry crab dish the salted egg isn't bad and I don't even like yolk.
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"End your meal with some crispy lotus filled pancakes"
“Okay, grab a prawn by the tail and peel it off like a coat.” So I grasped the slippery tail and slipped off the slick shell. It shrugged off smoothly leaving quivering pink flesh just balanced on the bottom shell. Of course at the same time I was also trying to suck off the juices from the said shell. It always pains me that parts of the prawn that soaks the marinade and sauce is the part that people discard.
The mantis prawns (which looks like a langoustine) came to our table hot and crisp. At South Sea it is fried in butter with scallions, garlic and chillies forming a crunchy exterior. You can munch most of the legs and shell after you’ve sunk your teeth into the soft, succulent flesh. It has that juice dripping-down-your-chin appeal to it. I imagine the skin can make a great bar snack, crispy, salty and addictive. Don’t waste the carapace either, because you can crunch that down too and lick all the goodness right down to the gritty eyeballs.
Earlier we started the meal with some geoduck sashimi. The seafood here is über-fresh since South Sea has a modest array of tanks outside. The weird-looking geoducks were fished out alive before sliced into sashimi. I seldom order geoduck but when I do, sashimi is the way to go. It has the consistency of firm abalone and delicious with wasabi-soy. They also provide a hearty clear broth, where you can dip in your slivers of geoduck cooking it into tender clam pieces. It’s the myriad textures of this deep burrowing sea critter that makes it a popular request at fresh seafood restaurants. The broth itself is good enough to slurp on its own while you await the next dish.
The fish here is simply steamed garoupa, firm and flaky. My sister claimed the head straight away. The fish is fat so the cheeks are puffy and full of meat. The soya sauce itself is delicious poured over rice.
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