Over the weekends I went to Kuantan for a short trip with Sheryl. We didn’t have any concrete plan, and it was basically just an opportunity to spend some time and catch up after she’d come back from her post graduate studies in Europe. After all, it was some 7 years since we were last living together in the States.

Pak Su seafood restaurant, with the best al fresco dining experience

After spending better part of the afternoon chilling at Cherating beach sipping coconut juice, we decided to check out Pak Su seafood restaurant by the beach. It was partly due to convenience as Pak Su is located rather close to where we were staying.

While this is a Chinese restaurant, it is also halal, and there were quite a number of Muslim patrons and workers alike at the premise.

We took a table at the al fresco dining area by the beach. The scenery was incredible, full moon, strong waves, and the rather powerful sea breeze makes up for one of the best seafood dinner ambiance I’ve experienced.

fresh Canadian oysters, vegetable, butter prawn

For the two of us, we ordered a pair of fresh Canadian oysters (RM 8 each) to start. They were huge, juicy and absolutely delicious, the other other place with comparable oyster would be Kensington at Seremban.

Butter prawn (RM 20) was another commendable dish, it was cooked in the “wet” style (there’s also the other butter prawn preparation you might have had from Chinese wedding dinners, this is not the same method). The prawns were huge, fresh, and rather delicious.

To fulfill the illusion of having a complete meal, we ordered a plate of vegetable (豆苗 RM7) too. It was however, a bit too old and not something I’d recommend.

stuffed crab and steamed siakap

The one famous seafood dish everyone must try when at East-Coast is the stuffed crab. Pretty much every seafood restaurants from Kuantan to Kemaman will have this particular dish on the menu.

We ordered two stuffed crab from Pak Su (RM 6 each). It was basically a crab shell stuffed with plenty of crab meat and god knows what else, but it was quite tasty! I would order more than one next time, it was like having the best of crabs without having to deal with the whole peeling off crab shell nonsense.

The steamed siakap (RM 18) we had was forgettable. The fish steak as per recommended by our server was way too tough it felt like we were chewing on cardboard. There are quite a lot of other live fish to choose from though, so perhaps other choices would be better than what we ordered.

KY, the awesome view, and Sheryl

The service at Pak Su follows the life style of east-coast Malaysia quite a bit too much, it was horrendously slow. While it didn’t take too long for us to get our food after ordering, getting the attention of servers to start the prepare our table/ordering/paying/getting change took way too long.

Our dinner was RM 84 in total, including 5% government tax, pretty reasonable price that is comparable to KL standard.

As for the food, there were dishes that was rather good (oyster, stuffed crab, butter prawn), and some were pretty lousy (vegetable, fish). However, I do feel that this place is worth visiting even if just for the ambiance. You really have to be there to appreciate it.

Address:
Pak Su Seafood Restaurant
No.4/1417, Batu 6, Lot 922, Kg.Bahagia Beserah,
26100 Kuantan , Pahang Darul Makmur.
GPS: 3.87582, 103.36636
Tel: 09-544 8025
URL: paksu-seafood.com.my

Tags:  crab,  kuantan,  oyster,  prawn,  seafood,  sheryl

Posted by KY | 26 Comments »

As a practical joke from this God person, people are made in such a way that food always tastes better when we have to travel long distance to obtain them. Something that you can get right next door is never as satisfying as the one you have to spend an hour’s journey getting there.

Hence, the place to go for seafood when you’re in Penang is not located on the island, it is this little fishing village called Tambun on peninsular side of the stat. The place is anything from 40 min to 1.5 hours away from the island, depending on the mercy of traffic.

Jon, Jun, and Wai Meng, check out the big fat mantis prawns swimming!

And since we were in Penang over the long weekends, it took us well over an hour to get from the little motel at Tanjung Tokong to Gee Seng Seafood Restaurant at Tambun. The road from Penang bridge onwards was alright, it was getting to the bridge that took the longest time ever.

Lesson Learned: never try to drive anywhere far within Penang over any long weekends.

fried squid, prawn with Nestum, fried noodle, crab with salted egg

This was actually my first time at Gee Seng seafood restaurant, and it was almost a couple years since I last went to Tambun. We somehow found a parking space deep inside the village and made our way to the restaurant.

For the five of us, we ordered deep fried squid, prawn with Nestum, crab with salted egg, giant mantis prawn, noodle, and a plate of vegetable for some sense of balance.

love the giant mantis prawns, says Elfie

Despite the crowd, our dishes didn’t take long start arriving at the table. They were fresh and really tasty, despite having scored almost negative when it comes to presentation. I particularly like the giant mantis prawns (RM 60 for the 3 we had), very succulent and sweet, did you know that these creatures have polarized vision?

Nestum prawns (RM 23) and deep fried squid (RM 18)  too were top notch, but I thought the crab with salted egg (RM 47) was kinda average, would have been better if they were bigger.

Together with the vegetable, noodle, and tea, the bill came to RM 155.50, which translate to only RM 31 per person for the 5 of us for some rather satisfying food. Everyone agreed that it was worth the drive, but perhaps next time we should try somewhere closer? emm

Address:
Restoran Makanan Laut Gee Seng
860, Bagan Bukit Tambun,
14100 Simpang Ampat, Penang
GPS: 5.271221, 100.443385
Tel: 04-588 7200

Tags:  crab,  elfie,  jon,  mantis prawn,  Penang,  prawn,  seafood,  tambun

Posted by KY | 28 Comments »

Back in 2008, Shiang and I had a little year long bet. The exact details aren’t important, but due to some luck and a lot of cheating, I emerged the victor. We then decided that the appropriate winning prize would be a nice dinner, and Diadomon Japanese BBQ restaurant was chosen.

Horng and Jeff were the two lucky dudes who happened to leech this meal off Shiang for absolutely zero effort, risk, and monetary contribution.

Diadomon Japanese BBQ restaurant, buffet style

Diadomon is located at Great Eastern Mall, which is in turn situated on Jalan Ampang, roughly half way between Ampang Point and KLCC. Getting there during rush hour can be a bit daunting, but with the liberal usage of the newly opened DUKE highway or our super advanced SMART tunnel (depending on where you’re from), it shouldn’t be too tough.

Parking isn’t a problem either if you are willing to part with RM2 to go into the basement. If you’re willing to spend a good chunk of money on food anyway, why not a couple bucks to park your car?

sashimi, grilled fish, prawns, and chicken.

Daidomon is one of those buffet places where you get to order the dishes, or in this case, raw and marinated ingredients so they are served fresh. However, an extensive line up of ready-to-eat dishes are available too, and of course, you don’t have to wait for those. There’s sushi roles, fried chicken, snail meat (very delicious!), edamame, kimchi, sashimi, and more.

From the ocean, we had sashimi (salmon, tuna, butterfish, mackeral), oyster and scallop (limited to one serving only), prawns, and marinated seafood. The sashimi were pretty decent, but honestly speaking not something to shout about. The grilled seafood though, were quite good, but it takes a bit of practise to get it just right.

Prawns were quite large and fresh, and I particularly love the big scallops, but too bad it was only 2 pieces per person.

ox tongue, beef sashimi, marinated beef

From the farm, we had plenty of beef with some chicken and lamb too (Jeff doesn’t eat beef). The marinated beef belly was really awesome and are ready to eat after minimal grilling time. I suggest asking for a serving of raw garlic and fry them on the grill first before starting to grill actual food, that’ll add an extra hint of aroma to the grilled food.

Ox tongue is one of my favorite part of cow to eat, and it’s great that Diadomon allows unlimited order, somewhere in an Australian farm, a deft cow hates me.

yukke sashi, KY, Shiang, Jeff, Horng

For the braver souls, Daidomon also serves several types of raw beef. The gyu sashimi (thinly sliced raw beef) is probably the easiest to swallow, while the yukke sashi (marinated beef with egg) can be a bit too much especially for a first timer. I love the gyu sashimi but to be frank, I think the yukke sashi was a bit too raw and maybe slightly too rich for my liking. It’s no wagyu tartar at Cilantro that’s for sure, but Shiang loves it.

Over all it was a very satisfying dinner that left all of us barely able to walk back to the carpark. With their ever long lasting promotion, the price came to over RM60  per person after service charge and tax. Pretty good deal if you ask me, I have no doubt this won’t be my last visit.

Check out their promotion on the website.

Address:
Diadomon
Lot 4, Level 3, Great Eastern Mall
No. 303, Jalan Ampang
50450 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.16027,101.736746
Tel: 03-4252 8155

Tags:  BBQ,  beef,  Buffet,  grill,  horng,  Japanese,  jeff,  sashimi,  seafood,  shiang

Posted by KY | 32 Comments »

If my memory serves me correct, this should be the third time Cheesie and I went for a seafood dinner. Together with Cindy, we decided to give South Sea Seafood a try instead of Lala Chong, which we went on the first two occasions.

There are a few more seafood places in the vicinity and I have a feeling it’s only a matter of time before we sample all of them.

South Sea Seafood, very big selection of live seafood

South Sea Seafood is located just next to the runway of the old Subang Airport, parking is a relatively painless affair as the restaurant has a dedicated free car park right across the road with friendly parking attendance ever so eager to assist you. Definitely a plus point.

There are plenty of aquariums with live and some pretty exotic seafood on display at this restaurant, snow crab, abalone, mantis prawn, geoduck, etc. Pretty similar to Pantai Seafood in this regard.

baked crab, steamed red snapper with ginger, two-style kailan

For the three of us, we ordered a couple kilograms of baked crabs, a pretty good portion of steamed red snapper, and a two-style kailan to go with some rice. Crustacean, fish, vegetable, balance and complete.

The size of the baked crabs was very good. The top half of the claws were as big as Cheesie’s oversized shades, and most importantly, they tasted so succulent and flavorful. By having crabs prepared this way, you get the natural flavor of the seafood, and thus freshness is most important since there are no strong spices and other ingredients masking the original taste. For good quality crabs, avoid having them with fancier preparation methods.

Cheesie, Cindy, and Yours Truly having a crabby time!

The steamed red snapper is topped with a layer of finely chopped garlic and spring onion. The greenish sauce goes well with the fish and gives it a slightly spicy and fresher taste.

Deep fried shredded kailan leaves topping the more conventional sauteed vegetable of the same kind looks like a pretty weird combination, but they actually tasted rather nice. The crunchy deep fried leaves carries a texture not unlike dried Japanese seaweed and gives the normal kailan dish another dimension. I liked it.

South Sea Seafood is located by Subang Airport runway

The girls had some ice cream as desserts to conclude the dinner. Everything came to a total of a little over RM 100, a pretty average bill for what we ate. Cindy also wrote about the experience here, where she tried to play with a small boy during our dinner (small boy didn’t want to layan her).

Address:
No 229, Jalan 2A,
Kampung Baru Subang,
40000 Subang, Selangor
GPS: 3.140688,101.54691
Tel: 03-7846 1401

Tags:  cheesie,  cindy,  crab,  fish,  seafood

Posted by KY | 33 Comments »

My futsal buddy (don’t judge a person by his look, he’s a much better player than me) Shiang has been asking me for a dinner at his family restaurant Tram Car for quite a while. I finally managed to find time and two pretty ladies and headed there some two weeks ago for dinner.

Tram Car is actually run by the same people who ran the old Cable Car at Jaya just down the road (now Jaya 33)

Tram Car, the “new” Cable Car

Grace, Eiling, and I met Shiang at the restaurant on a Thursday night and business was pretty brisk. The restaurant is located just opposite the big Toyota showroom and service center at Seksyen 19 so you actually have a choice of pretending to be a pontential Toyota buyer and park your car there for free, or by the road, or pay for it at Jaya 32 for a safer choice.

Escargot, prawn cocktail, soups

We started off with garlic breads, salad, and a dozen escargot. The garlic breads were actually pretty nice, but I only had a bite in order to save my stomach for more. Escargot is always one of my favorites and I think I must have had close to half a dozen snails to myself while the girls finished the rest. I like the cream sauce that goes with it.

garlic bread, pandan sago dessert, salad

Next came three bowls of soup, sharks fin with crab meat, oxtail soup, and French baked onion. I find the soups pretty thick, and if I try to finish the whole bowl I probably could fill my stomach pretty good with the accompanying garlic bread and salad without going for the main course. They are, however, pretty flavorful though.

The nicest appetizer we tried was actually the shrimp cocktail. Generous portion of prawn on fresh vegetables with home made thousand island dressing and topped with ebiko. The dressing tasted very sinful and I think the ebiko is a really nice touch.

baked fish, steak combo, seafood platter

I think I was already half full when the main dishes came. Eiling got the baked fish (which is covered with white sauce and mushroom, plus a baked potato), Grace had the seafood platter, and I went for the the steak combo.

I took a bite of the baked fish (kurau filet), though aesthetically not very pleasing, I must say it actually tasted pretty nice. The steak combo I had was very rich, with two huge tiger prawn that are absolutely delicious, and a piece of steak that proved to be a bit too much for me. The seafood platter was not bad at all either, according to Grace.

,
grace, shiang, eiling

Tram Car priced themselves rather reasonably. The soups are from Rm 6.90 to 11.90, baked fish, seafood platter, and mixed grill are RM 17.90, 27.90, and 45.90, a dozen escargot for RM 26.90. Well, you get the idea.

Other than western foods, there are plenty of local delights like fried rice and various noodle dishes too. There are also lunch specials at RM 14.90 (and lunch can be quite packed)

Map to Jaya 32 at Seksyen 19, PJ

If you’ve been to Cable Car before, Tram Car would be very similar.

More photos at here.

Address:
B-11-01, 32 Square,
No. 2, Jalan 19/11
46300 PJ, Selangor
GPS: 3.111131,101.631936
Tel: 03-7958 8588

Tags:  eiling,  escargot,  grace,  seafood,  shiang,  steak

Posted by KY | 45 Comments »