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:
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:
grind your own curry paste – with dried chili, garlic, and shallots
Ingredients:
fry the curry paste, then squid, finally add asam water
The cooking method:
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.
Cheers and happy cooking!
Curry fish head is one of the Malaysian delicacies that is pretty tough to find anywhere. While most of us consume this at restaurants, it is actually pretty simple to prepare them yourself, and here’s the recipe that I hope you find useful, especially for those who are reading this outside our beloved country.
I like my curry fish head with plenty of vegetables – and here I put tomato, bell pepper, okra, long bean, and brinjal, but if you can generally substitute them as per your liking.
I also use a pre-packaged curry fish paste to keep it simple, but for those who wants it more “authentic”, you can prepare the curry paste yourself by blending curry powder with shallots & garlic, for example.
Anyway, here goes!
plenty of vegetable makes this a complete meal
Ingredients:
fry the chili paste and vegetable first before adding fish
Instructions:
add tomato, then coconut milk
The result is a huge portion of curry fish head that can feed a small family. Just add rice and it’s a complete meal by itself already. Total cooking time should not be more than half an hour too so there’s plenty of time for you to play with your kittens.
Haze and Vinn liking the curry
Cheers and happy cooking!
A week ago I was invited to Opus Bistro for a revisit, this time around it’s an event organized by MilkADeal, the group buy website that not coincidentally, is having a good deal for Opus Bistro right this moment. Details of the deal at the bottom of this post.
My previous visit at Opus Bistro was a wine tasting event with Montana wine while this one is a purely food oriented session with all the dishes here available on their menu (Opus’s website).
Opus Bistro at Jalan Bangkung, Bangsar
We were seated on the first level, a tastefully done dining area fit for private functions as well as cozy dinner without the usual noise associated in a busy restaurant.
Many of you aren’t necessarily interested with the thickness of chair cushion and how many replica pantings are on the wall, so lets go straight to the food, shall we?
seafood antipasti platter
Like most finer dining places, we started off with some bread that you dip in olive oil and balsamic vinegar while sipping a glass of white wine, but that is pretty dull to describe, move on to the first dish then – the seafood antipasti platter (RM 45.)
Here is a dish with some of my favorite ingredients – squid, scallop, tiger prawn, and clam. All perfectly prepared but come in different texture and flavor that compliment each other rather well. I love it.
risotto ball, seafood spaghetti, grilled lamb cutlets in red wine sauce
Then there’s the risotto ball (RM 22), something that is quite unique to Opus. It is sort of a vegetarian “meatball” that the health conscious should love, but meat lover such as me find slightly lacking.
The seafood spaghetti (RM 22/36) is a delightful dish especially if you didn’t have the antipasti platter to start off dinner. Here you find mussels, prawns, squid, and clams accompanying the pasta in olive oil and herbs, almost healthy.
The grilled lamb cutlets with rosemary in red wine sauce (RM 58) is a dish that can satisfy anyone with a huge appetite for meat. There’s a choice of mint sauce too if red wine sauce isn’t your thing. The meat is tender and succulent.
aglio olio with smoked duck, roast cod, tiramisu, chocolate desire
For those who love to venture into the slightly wilder side, there’s linguini aglio olio with smoked duck (RM 17/30.) The smoked duck breast carries a slightly salty smokey taste that will satisfy your curiosity.
We also tried both versions of roast cod (RM 58) at Opus. I personally favor the one with white wine sauce over the lemon caper sauce but truth be told, both were excellent.
For desserts we had tiramisu (RM 16) & chocolate desire (RM 20). The hot chocolate in pastry combine well with the cold vanilla ice cream to serve as the far better dessert for the night.
Haze, KY, Ringo, Kerol, and Suan at Opus Bistro
Opus Bistro is in effect, a place with pretty good food at a still affordable pricing, a poor man’s fine dining restaurant if you would.
The good news is, in the next 6 days (till 10th of May, 2011), you can get a deal from MilkADeal that maks Opus a must-visit place. The deal is – RM25 instead of RM74 for a Main Pasta + Wine / Fruit Juice / Soft Drink. Click on it, purchase, redeem, and enjoy!
Address:
Opus Bistro
67, Jalan Bangkong
Bukit Bandaraya
59100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.138116, 101.669197
Tel: 03-2092 4288
A couple weekends ago I went back to Penang for a little get together with my family in conjunction with Mom’s birthday. Even though we don’t usually celebrate birthdays, it is still a son’s responsibility at least to try to make mom happier during times like this.
Soon Lai Seafood, Penang
Instead of any fancy place (she warned me not to bring her for Japanese food), one of mom’s favorite places is this inconspicuous house-turned-restaurant place that goes by the name of Soon Lai Seafood Restaurant. The eatery is located in the housing area just a few blocks away from Lam Wah Ee hospital.
scrumptious butter crab
We ordered 6 dishes for the 5 of us, with the big kahuna being their butter crab (RM 42). The way they prepared this this is a little different, crab’s cooked with butter, onion, and even some spring onion. It turned out very good, mom suspects that the crabs are sourced from Kuala Kurau, where you find the best mud crab around the country.
I actually have aunts from fishing village in Kuala Kurau.
deep fried grouper, thai style pork hand, veg, tofu, spinach soup
You can’t have a seafood dinner without fish, we took the recommendation from our friendly server and ordered the “weird taste” deep fried grouper (RM 39). I’m not so sure about the name, but the fish was good not not exactly weird. The sauce is a mixture of plum and chili (and more?) with plenty of thinly sliced fried ginger on top.
Another must-order item at Soon Lai has got to be their Thai style pork knuckle (RM 18). It’s similar to the more familiar German style pork knuckle, but this one’s with Thai style chili sauce and mint leaves draped over it. The combination of crispy pork skin with the underlying fat plus that sauce – heaven!
Mom, KY, Haze, Jerry, Sister
The other three dishes were tofu on hotplate (RM 8), spinach soup with century egg (RM 12), and vegetable with sambal (RM 6). No disappointment at all with these side kicks either.
We had rice for everyone, and a couple bottles of beer too. It was a very satisfying dinner.
The bill? Less than RM 160. Now that’s great value. You have a choice sitting semi-alfresco or in air conditioned room too.
So if you’re looking for a decent seafood at a bargain right on the island, this is where you go.
Address:
Soon Lai Seafood Restaurant
15, Lintang Batu,
11600 Green Lane, Penang
GPS: 5.386974, 100.306149
Tel: 04-658 9799, 016-441 3666
