It’s time for another recipe sharing session. This time it’s seafood – fried prawns with soya sauce, a simple to prepare and yet pretty luxurious dish (just because prawns are so expensive these days).
I had some prawns in hand thanks for mom who actually works in a market, and since I ran out of asam to make my favorite nyonya style sam prawn, I went online to look for something simple to prepare, and landed on this fried prawns with soya sauce recipe from Babe KL. I know Babe KL & Capt’n Hook personally and was sure that her recipe wouldn’t go wrong.
trim off all sharp edges, add pepper, salt, corn starch
Anyway, here are the ingredients you need:
big prawns, I had XL prawns, bigger the better
1 bulb garlic – chopped
2 inches ginger – cut into stripes
2 tablespoon corn starch
salt & pepper
1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce
2 tablespoon dark soya sauce
1 tablespoon soya sauce
a couple stalks of spring onion
cooking oil
cook the prawns and place it aside
Prawn preparation steps:
trim off the all appendages of the prawns with a scissor
clean and pad dry the prawns with paper towels
marinate prawn with salt, pepper, and cover with corn starch
heat up some cooking oil and fry prawns till reddish (2-3 minutes)
set prawns aside
ginger, then garlic, then prawns, and all the sauces, finally spring onion
Remaining steps:
heat up oil (or just use the remaining from frying prawns)
fry ginger for a minute, then add garlic (because it takes longer to cook ginger)
when garlic & ginger starts to turn golden, add in the prawns
add worchestershire sauce, soya sauce, and dark soya sauce
stir fry till fragrant
add green onion and stir a little more just prior to serving
there you go, classic fried prawns with soya sauce
So there, the dish really turned out pretty well, I actually wished that we had put in even more garlic & ginger cos they really brought out the taste of the prawns and went well with rice. For those who likes it a little sweeter, feel free to add a teaspoon of sugar too.
There’s a new diver in town! Haze just did her PADI Open Water certification at Pulau Sembilan, which is a cluster of small islands half an hour’s boat ride away from Lumut. The underwater condition, and thus diving, was subpar at best. Visibility was quite poor except for one of the dives, and there wasn’t exactly a lot of exotic creatures to spot either.
However, for whatever that is lack in diving, the couple dinners we had at the area more than made up for it.
Hai Tien Di Seafood Restaurant, Sitiawan
On the second night of our stay at Lumut, Haze and I joined our fatty dive master James, together with fellow dive buddy Alan to Hai Tien Di seafood restaurant at Sitiawan with the promise of awesome fresh oysters and yummy seafood.
It was about a 20 minutes drive away from where we stayed at Marina Island Pangkor, and we were not disappointed.
check out the size of fresh oyster there
We ordered 10 big oysters as appetizer (RM 5 a piece), and just check out their size! They fleshy part of the oysters were as big as my palm, easily the biggest oysters I had.
Coupled with the fact that these creatures were actually alive in the tank prior to being served, they were absolutely delicious. A dash of lime or some Tabasco sauce was all it takes, and try not to make the mistake of putting it in with one mouthful lest you wanna make a full of yourself having oysters spilling out at the corner of your mouth.
Positively tasty.
steamed prawns, they were alive moments ago
Our biggest main dish was the steamed live prawns. At Hai Tien Di, you get to choose between the “normal” frozen prawns, or the live prawns from the tank. We of course, went for broke and chose the later.
With live seafood, the simplest cooking method is usually the best. This is to preserve the essence of the taste, so for this dish, we have it steamed, as recommended by the operator.
The prawns sliced in halves, and steamed with a bit of ginger, fried garlic, spring onion, light soya sauce, and Chinese wine. It was delightful, packed with that seafood sweetness. At RM 65 this was definitely not cheap, but worth it nonetheless.
fresh oyster, fried vegetable, steamed grouper
A seafood meal is not complete without fish, so we ordered a live grouper, steamed teow chew style (RM 35). It was of course, absolutely fresh and went well with steamed rice.
We also had a plate of vegetable (RM8) to satisfy the vitamin c/fiber requirements. You must always have a serving of vegetable at every meal, no?
we sure did have our stomachs stuffed
The service at Hai Tien Di was pretty good, food came quite fast as well. I can’t say that this is a place that is economical (for a small town), but the quality of fresh/live seafood here was stunning, and those oysters were absolutely delicious.
If you find yourself at Lumut/Sitiawan, this would be a place worth visiting.
Address: Hai Tien Di Seafood Restaurant 522 Kampung Cina, 32000 Sitiawan, Perak GPS: 4.190067, 100.684217 Tel: 05-692 4679
Lot 10 is one of those shopping malls that has seen better times. Some 15 years ago, it was the premier place to shop, that was before Suria KLCC, before Mid Valley, and of course, before Pavilion.
These days, Lot 10 is keeping up with the newer malls by reinventing itself a little bit, starting with the excellent food court that is Hutong, and now, the Shabu One steamboat buffet restaurant. I’m not sure if that’s their strategy, but stuffing the mall with good food might just bring in the crowd.
Shabu One, the new steamboat place at Lot 10
I first got to know about this place from my colleague Sheng, who has a bit of a hobby in monitoring online group shopping deal sites. The dude brought 4 coupons to the Shabu One, so we headed over to Lot 10 for a Friday lunch without much expectations.
After all, the full price for lunch/dinner was only RM27.99+, and we had bought the coupons for something like another 40% off of that.
seafood and fishball-ish choices are aplenty, check out the clams!
While the restaurant is certainly not very posh, it was clean and comfortable. If you’re looking for decorations the class of Shogun or Jogoya, this is not the place for you.
On the other hand, if you love steamboat with a good selection of seafood at reasonable price, this is the real deal!
veges, noodles, and there are some pre-cooked dishes too
There’re three types of soup to choose from: clear soup, tomyam, and ma-lak (嘛辣). We had our pot split between the ma-lak and clear soup.
To be honest, the ma-lak soup was a bit of a let down. The clear soup too was slightly bland, but nothing a bit of seafood (crab in this case) can’t fix. We didn’t try the tomyam soup, so I can’t commend on that.
beef slices, various condiments, desserts, ice cream
The selection of food here is as good as anywhere else at this price point. I particularly love the super big clams they have on that day (not sure if it’s an everyday thing), along with the cuttle fish, lala, prawns, bamboo clams, and more. They are constantly being refilled too, which is always a plus.
Other than seafood you do get the usual suspects: plenty of fish ball lookalike and taste-alike stuff, big selection of vegetables, mushrooms, noodles, egg, and sliced beef.
There are also a buffet line of pre-cooked dishes such as fried noodle, curry chicken, hot and sour soup, sausages, tea leaf eggs and more so you can start stuffing your mouth from the get-go, before the steamboat is boiled.
our stomach was completely stuffed, was a great lunch for sure
As for desserts, the choices aren’t great. There’s ice cream, kuai leng gou, fruits, and a few other Chinese/Taiwanese jelly thingy. Then again, who has stomach for desserts when you go for steamboat?
Overall it’s a pretty decent place to go, pretty good value for what you have to pay, and I think we’ll be back again for some long lunches in the future.
Lobster is one of those sea creatures that usually means slightly different things to different people. The image of lobsters that we’re familiar with are usually the spiny lobster, which is quite a bit more prevalent in Chinese cuisine and local seafood restaurants.
The Lobsterman, however, serves only Homarus Americanus, or the American lobster, which is easily identified with their iconic big claws. Lobsterman is in fact the only lobster specialty restaurant in the country.
The Lobsterman. Homarus Americanus
My only previous visit to this restaurant was some 7-8 years ago, prior to the birth of this blog. I’ve been longing to head there again for a while now, so for Haze’s birthday, we went there for dinner.
The menu at Lobsterman is quite extensive (you can find a full listing on their website). Other than lobsters, they serve beef, chicken, salmon, cod, and a couple lamb dishes too.
Lobsters are priced according to weight:
550gm (1.25 lb) QUARTERS RM 98
700gm (1.50 lb) HALVES RM 118
800gm (1.75 lb) SELECTS RM 128
900gm (1.75 lb) SELECTS RM 138
1kg and above lobster count by weight rm160 per kg
this sweet lobster was our dinner, your life will be well delicious
However, the best deal would be their lobster special menu priced at RM 128. For that you get baked escargot/half dozen New Zealand mussels, soup of the day, live Atlantic lobster (550 gram) prepared in style of your choice, seafood rice/pasta, dessert of the day, and tea/coffee.
If I remember correctly, I ordered the same deal during the first visit and it was something like RM 98 then. Marginal increase in price over the years, plenty reasonable.
baked escargot and cream of mushroom
We ordered the special set with and upgraded lobster (700 gram for extra RM 20 just cos the ran out of 550 gram lobster) and an Uruguayan tenderloin (RM 56) to share.
First to come was the baked escargot and it was much better than expected. The escargot is shelled and served in a special plate. Plenty of cream, cheese, and the snail goodness. We loved it.
The cream of mushroom soup tho, was very ordinary, and I wouldn’t recommend ordering if it wasn’t part of a set.
700 gram lobster, char broiled the traditional American style
We had our lobster prepared the good old American way – char-broiled.
Alternatively you can have it prepared HK style (garlic), Japanese (sashimi or soup), American (stuffed, simmered), France (Terragon butter baked), Italy (lobster thermidor), local (stir fry salt & pepper or XO sauce), Chinese (braised yee mee, steamed, lotus leaf), Indian (curry), Thai (tomyam) and more.
I’d recommend sticking to methods that involves less spices in order to enjoy the natural taste of the seafood. I had tried lobster sashimi before and it was really good.
the birthday girl was obviously enjoying the lobster much
The char broiled style too was excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed the lobster. It was fresh (obviously), firm, and flavorful. There was a side of butter to go with the lobster but I find it unnecessary, it was really good on its own too.
we also ordered the filet mignon, pleasantly surprised with how well it was
The Uruguayan tenderloin was a slab of prime barrel cut filet mignon at 220 gram. Haze loved it rare and that was how we had it. We ordered it with the sauce on the side and ended up not touching the sauce at all. The meat was tender and really turned out to be much better than anticipated.
It was probably one of the best non-wagyu/kobe beef that I’ve ever had. Would probably go there again when I am in for some good beef.
Horng, Suan, Yuki, and Kerol came in to surprise the birthday girl
After the dinner, Suan, Horng, Kerol and Yuki came in for a little surprised cake for the birthday girl. I had to delay our departure from the restaurant to make this happen as the guys were stuck in traffic, but alas it was a real surprise.
A good dinner, and pretty reasonably priced (I wouldn’t say affordable). Everything ended up around RM 250 (with drinks & taxes), but it was well worth it.
Address: Lobsterman Homarus Americanus 53 Jalan SS 2/30 Ss 2, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Website: lobsterman.com.my GPS: 3.114334, 101.621717 Tel: 03-7877 6772
Some of my favorite seafood dishes involves squid, and once in a while at mamak nasi kandar places, I’ll be tempted to take one of them big squids, but those things are always so ridiculously priced that I always stopped myself from committing that financial suicide.
Good thing is, squids are actually not expensive as an ingredient to cook. This is my recipe for whipping up some asam squid curry, it is pretty simple and can be prepared in less than half an hour, including cleaning the squid and preparing the home made curry paste.
ingredients for asam squid curry – dried chili, shallots, squid, asam, onion
For the curry paste ( you can skip this portion if pre-made curry paste is used, like one of those from Adabi). This is for portion of 2.
Ingredients:
8 shallots
1 bulb of garlic
8 dried chili (fresh red chili would be ok too)
Use a blender and blend the ingredients to pulp, set a side.
grind your own curry paste – with dried chili, garlic, and shallots
Ingredients:
4 medium to large size squid (clean but leave head intact, I take out the eyes and beak too)
2 small red onion, sliced
3 table spoon of oil
3 table spoon of asam
1.5 cup of water
fry the curry paste, then squid, finally add asam water
The cooking method:
mix water with asam
heat up cooking oil and fry the prepared curry paste till fragrant (1-2 minutes)
add squid and sauté for 2 minutes
add onion, and cook for another minute or so
add asam water (strain away the asam seeds)
bring to boil and ready to serve
squid curry for two, yummeh
The result is a pretty yummy squid dish for two, add another plate of vegetables and it’s a balance dinner to go with rice already. Check out my cooking session for more recipe.
