Some of you might know that I play sports on a fairly regular basis. It all started from badminton, with my Monday evening group being the longest lasting session that has been going on for at least two years now. We always collect extra money each month, and every few month the pool is used for a feast. After all, that is why we exercise, right?

seafood, glorious seafood!

One of our regulars (who was also an ex colleague) was leaving the country last month, so it was a perfect excuse for the group to indulge ourselves in the farewell dinner.

The destination: Pantai Seafood at Kampung Sungai Kayu Ara.

I’ve heard much about this place, and even tried to go there once (but it was full.) The choices of live and swimming seafood is astounding, the number of aquariums is no less than the seafood restaurant I went to at Kota Kinabalu a couple years back. Huge grouper, abalone, lobster, geoduck, mantis prawn, and all sorts of shell fish swimming helplessly begging our mercy for a swift and delicious death.

huge live oysters, and geoduck sashimi

Anyway, for the 11 of us, we ordered a Mexican Geoduck set dinner that includes live oyster, geoduck sashimi, steamed fish (barramundi/siakap), boiled prawn, butter chicken, vegetable (lotus root), fried rice, and dessert (sea coconut). We also added sweet & sour crab and salted egg crab, as well as a big plate of noodle to fill us up.

The 10 oysters were really huge and juicy, reminded me of those I had at Kensington, Seremban. You know, the sort of seafood juiciness that is at the same time, void of any unpleasant smell.

It was also my first time having Geoduck, that unsightly shell fish that is similar to a baby elephant’s wiener, and it was very good! The meat is cut in little sashimi slices, wasabi is provided if you prefer to have it raw. Boiling chicken soup too if you want to have it slightly cooked. It was very sweet, something similar to scallop but even sweeter, the texture slightly chewy but similar to cartilage. I love it!

steamed siakap, boiled prawns, butter chicken, lotus root

The other dishes were a bit smallish in size if you were to actually feed 10 without having to order additional food. The steamed fish and prawns were obviously very fresh and tasted very good as well. Butter chicken didn’t disappoint either, if not a little unhealthy. Lotus root too, provided a refreshing change of taste from all the seafood and meat taste.

fried rice, crab with buns

The crab dishes we ordered were pretty good too. Salted egg crab is always one of my favorites, with the richness of salted egg yolk enveloping the shells, you can almost feel the cholesterol building up your arteries as you lick the goodness off that unfortunate crustacean. I love it.

The man tao (bun) goes very well with the sauce from the other crab dish as well. Sweet and slightly spicy crab sauce with the deep fried bun might seems like an unlikely combination, but any seafood lover (especially Chinese) agree to the awesomeness of it.

the noodle, dessert, and the gang

After all those goodness, we stuffed ourselves with fried rice and yee mee (noodle) with xo sauce. The fried rice was pretty ordinary and the noodle slightly disappointing with the amount of toppings rather limited. However, I’d still rate it a very good meal over all, I still can’t forget that geoduck experience.

The set was RM 398++, with the crab, bun, noodle, and tea, everything came up to RM 571 for 11 of us. A pretty decent value considering the variety we had. I believe I would return for more.

Address:
Lot 13575, Jalan Chempaka PJU 6A,
Kg. Sg. Kayu Ara, 47400 PJ
Selangor
GPS: 3.125756, 101.609126
Tel: 03-7725 5099

Tags:  badminton,  crab,  fish,  geoduck,  prawn,  seafood

Posted by KY | 36 Comments »

While Cheddie paid a visit to KL about 2 months ago, Cheesie and I went for a seafood dinner to commemorate nothing at all. I’ve decided that Lala Chong be the destination since I’ve heard about the place for the longest time but have yet to give it a try.

it was very packed

Lala Chong looks to be a halal place with many female Muslim working as servers. However, mud crab is served though, so I guess it would be up to individual’s interpretation on the appropriateness to eat here if you embrace Islam.

Anyway, for the two of us we ordered three dishes. A shiong thong 上汤 lala, baked crab, and a spicy paku pakis (fern) to go with some rice. The place was really packed on that Friday night, but luckily food didn’t take too long to arrive.

lala, paku pakis (fern), baked crab, cheesie & cheddie

The shiong thong 上汤 lala was cooked in this herbal soup with some chili padi, it was pretty good but unfortunately the shellfish lacks in size. For a place with the name Lala in it, I think that’s a bit wrong.

However, the baked crab was fantastic. I think only salt, plenty of ginger, and some chili padi were used; but the crab was very fresh, very sweet, and very very juicy. I really liked it. No thick sauce to mask the original taste of crab, and no messy wet fingers to deal with either.

Cheesie’s favorite dish was the paku pakis with canned tuna. I find it very interesting too, the texture of paku pakis is unlike other vegetables, and the taste of tuna, chili, and garlic made it a pretty unique experience. Can’t really have it without rice though.

Lala Chong is just opposite Terminal 3, Subang Airport

If I remember correctly, the dinner costs some RM 70 for the two of us. Pretty reasonable for what we had.

A little boy was really amused with Cheddie that night, as evident from that picture. I think he was asking if he could have her baked.

Address:
Lot PT 6824, Terminal 3,
Abdul Aziz Shah Airport,
47200 Subang, Selangor
GPS: 3.135145, 101.553626
Tel: 03-7859 1906

Tags:  cheddie,  crab,  lala,  paku pakis,  ringo,  seafood,  subang,  tuna

Posted by KY | 43 Comments »

A little while ago I received an invitation from Andrea from Restaurant Coca for a food review session. It was quite a while since the last time I had Coca (for steamboat) and remember the experience to be a rather good one. Anyhow, Suan, FA, Ringo, Tim, and I went to the session on a particular Tuesday night last month and gorged ourselves silly.

the five free loaders at Coca and our juices

Most of you might have been associating Restaurant Coca with their higher end steamboat dinners, while this is still true, our review session was to try on their newer Thai inspired dishes instead.

Most of us ordered juices to start the meal, and I just had to get the pretty curious Roselle drink the moment I saw it on the menu. For the uninitiated, it is a type of Hibiscus (ala our national flower) with the drink that is sweet in a different way. The Roselle tasted fresh and very juicy to the bite too, I love it. Unfortunately Andrea said they imported this particular ingredient from overseas and they aren’t available at the stores.. bummer.

pandan chicken, stuffed prawns, deep fried calamari

Next came three appetizer dishes: pandan chicken, stuffed prawns, and deep fried calamari.

Out of the three items, the stuffed prawns were a bit disappointing, but perhaps maybe it was the presentation. They look so awesome but at the end the taste was just average, a case of visual over hype I suppose. Deep fried calamari was one of Tim’s favorite appetizer, the fresh squid and the taste of batter was a good combination. As for me, I have to go with the pandan chicken, it was probably the best I’ve had, better than the “paper wrapped chicken” at balakong and even the same dish at De Chiengmai. The chicken very succulent and the marinate was just perfect.

seafood tomyam, steamed fish with thai sauce, tofu with scallops, kailan

After the pretty heavy appetizers, we had seven main dishes to go with rice. Steamed siakap with Thai sauce was very good, the sour and salty soup mixes well with the fish and garnish. Fried kailan provided a fresher taste, while the clay pot tofu carried a very strong sweetness from scallops, very nice.

However, I find the seafood tomyam a little too “lemak” (though milk is used in substitute of coconut milk/santan) and didn’t enjoy it much. To me, tomyam should be sour and spicy instead, so I find the experience a little strange. The green chicken curry, though lemak as well, tasted pretty good as that was how it should be.

deep fried mantao and chili crabs, butter prawns

The big ticket items were the butter prawns and chili crab. The buttery batter used is slightly different from usual, with more Thai inspired spices and thus carries a stronger taste that I find very nice. I had extra since Tim, being a noob, doesn’t eat prawns.

The deep fried mantao went really well with the sauce from chili crab dish. As for the crab itself, while not very impressive in size, was fresh and tasted pretty good.

the desserts: mango with glutinous rice, red ruby, sago in coconut milk

As our stomach started to expand like a hot air balloon and already having quite a bit of leftovers due to the impossible amount of food served. Andrea decided that the meal wouldn’t be complete without trying their desserts.

We had red ruby, sago in coconut milk, mango with glutinous rice, and ice kacang. I only tried a few spoonful from each of them. They were quite good, but to be honest, I was already over stuffed to the point of losing my sense of taste.

It was a pretty good dinner, and I do think that most of their Thai dishes were pretty good (especially the pandan chicken). While the price is a little on the high side, Coca offers a very nice ambiance with pretty good quality ingredients.

Address:
Subang Parade,
Subang Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.082109,101.585416
Tel: 03-5632 8766

Tags:  chicken,  coca,  crab,  FA,  fish,  ky,  prawn,  ringo,  squid,  suanie,  thai-food,  tim

Posted by KY | 30 Comments »

It has been a gluttonously satisfying weekend, I had plenty of Kalbi at Kangsane on Saturday night, and this superb hairy crab dinner last night at Restaurant King Crab. I couldn’t possibly ask for more.

can you see the crab roe?

Hairy Crab, or Chinese Mitten Crab (大閘蟹), an invasive species that is wrecking up river ecosystem in Europe and North America, is revered in Chinese cuisine not unlike sharks fin and abelone. I guess one person’s pest is another person’s delicacy. The fatty roe and sweet crab meat is highly sought after. Yang Cheng Lake, about an hour away from Shanghai, is said to produce the best hairy crab.

The hairy crab season starts from around August until December where the crabs are packed with roe and supposedly most fatty and delicious. Since King Crab is having a 5+1 promotion on hairy crab, we ordered 6 crabs (3 male, 3 female), with steamed fish (海底鸡), pork ribs, and spinach to go with rice for dinner.

they only serve live seafood here

The only one way to prepare hairy crab is by steaming it as to preserve the natural sweetness and not overpowering the taste with any spices. Sweet vinegar and slices of ginger accompanies the dish. At the restaurant, a waiter is in charged of shelling our crabs and prepare them for consumption, nice.

The taste of the roe, coupled with some vinegar, was just amazing. It was very succulent and rich, carrying a taste factor not unlike having foie gras for the first time. The crab was not overly cooked and the meat retains the sweetness that is similar to fresh lobster tail. The roe of the female crab was great, but the meat of the bigger male crab doesn’t lack behind either. It was very good, the best crab I’ve had so far.

the hot chick is obviously enjoying her food

After the crab, we had rice with the other dishes that includes steamed fish, pork ribs, and spinach with soup. The quality of these dishes were pretty good too; but after those mouth watering crabs, everything else just doesn’t excite the taste bud as much.

other dishes include vegetable, fish, and some good old fashion pork

Price of hairy crab at Restaurant King Crab are at RM 38/58/88/118 each. Our crabs were priced at RM 58 each, 150 gram for female crab and 200 gram for male crab respectively. The entire dinner was a little over RM 400 for four. Certainly not cheap, but it is a taste that is to be experienced at least once in a life time. Alternatively, you can fly to Shanghai next season.

Now where should I go this coming weekend?

King Crab restaurant is situated just opposite the Kelana Jaya LRT station

Address:
103-107, Jalan SS25/2,
Taman Mewah Jaya,
47301 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 03-7805 3282

Tags:  chinese cuisine,  Chinese mitten crab,  crab,  hairy crab,  king crab,  restaurant,  shanghai

Posted by KY | 28 Comments »

Itchy for steamboat again, the gang and I decided to try the “original” pulau ketam steamboat at SS15, Subang Jaya. The name of the restaurant is Bee Ho (美好海鲜火锅之家). This is of course, the same style as offered at the Patrick Teoh’s Damansara Village steamboat.

the chili paste is awesome!

Unlike the grand set up at uncle Teoh’s outlet, Bee Ho is just a big old school kopitiam. Meaning the tables near the sidewalk are much preferred as those situated deeper in the restaurant can be a little hot and humid with all the steamboat boiling on every table.

the steamboat, the crab meehun, and the two noobs.

For the 8 of us, we ordered 5 portion of standard steamboat meal, a plate of fish fillet (actually wanted to have the fish cubes but they ran out), string mushroom, extra meat roll, dumplings, and a big plate of absolutely must-order crab meehun.

The joy of having steamboat with plenty of people is that you have more choices ordering the side orders and not have to only settle for the standard steamboat meal.

the sloppy diner!

We boiled the soup with plenty of ingredients at least 4-5 times over. The ingredients were fresh and pretty good, the soup with good herbal taste, and the chili paste was really awesome. I think I had at least 3 small plates of those spicy stuff. Above all, the crab meehun was really something special, the aroma of crab soaked into the meehun, making it tastes unique of the crustacean’s sweetness, this is something that everyone MUST TRY at Bee Ho.

Bee Ho steamboat is at SS15, near the college areas.

The dinner only came to RM 17.50 per person that night. We had Chinese tea as drinks.

Address:
Bee Ho Steamboat Restaurant
no. 52 Ground Floor,
Jalan SS15/4C
Subang Jaya 47500
Selangor
GPS: 3.076773, 101.587862
Tel: 012-250 7717

Tags:  crab,  gareth,  hot-pot,  kim,  prawn,  pulau-ketam,  seafood,  ss15,  Steamboat,  subang-jaya

Posted by KY | 7 Comments »