Ahhhh, lala, one of Malaysia’s favorite seafood. These shellfish can be had at seafood restaurants, tai chao (big fry) places, and even some of the roadside hawkers. Today, we’re going to look into one of the simplest ways of cooking your own lala dish that’s yummy and carries a kick. This is my recipe of fried lala with cilipadi.

For this version I used live white clams, but you can replace it with your favorite versions of other clams that we usually refer to as “lala” as well. The recipe takes less than 5 mins to prepare, and another 10 minutes max to cook. Here we go:

lala, spring onion, garlic, cilipadi
lala, spring onion, garlic, cilipadi

Ingredients:

  • 1kg lala, live would be better
  • 2 stalks of spring onion, chopped
  • 7-8 cilipadi, chopped
  • 4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 3/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 caps of shaoxing rice wine (optional)
  • pepper (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Cooking instructions:

  • heat up cooking oil in frying pan
  • fry garlic until fragrant, then add lala
  • add cilipadi, stir for a minute, add sugar, salt, and pepper
  • add two caps of shaoxing cooking rice wine
  • cover frying pan to allow steaming action, occasionally open to stir
  • lala is cooked when the shells are opened
  • sprinkle those spring onion while serving

fried lala with cilipadi
fried lala with cilipadi

The result is a plate of lala with some juice at the bottom that retains most of the seafood natural sweetness, but with added kick from cilipadi and additional dimension from rice wine. Enjoy and happy cooking!

KY cooks – Fried Lala with Cilipadi Recipe
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8 thoughts on “KY cooks – Fried Lala with Cilipadi Recipe

  • August 3, 2021 at 10:47 am
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    Those clams looked plump! I need to modify your recipe because my daughter cannot take spicy food, perhaps replaced with those big red chili.

    Reply
    • August 6, 2021 at 4:03 pm
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      Choi Yen: hahaha yah, big red chili is a good sub!

      Reply
  • August 3, 2021 at 3:59 pm
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    Ya, this is one of the simplest ways we’d cook la la at home if we can get our hands on some fresh la la. The only difference is I’d probably add some julienned ginger too 🙂

    Reply
    • August 6, 2021 at 4:03 pm
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      eatwhateatwhere: yesss ginger will be a good addition too.

      Reply
  • August 4, 2021 at 4:51 am
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    “some juice at the bottom that retains most of the seafood natural sweetness” That would be so very sweet…and with cilipadi, that would be so good!!!

    Reply
    • August 6, 2021 at 4:04 pm
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      suituapui: oh yesss, so good with rice! 😀

      Reply
    • August 8, 2021 at 1:19 pm
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      Monica: chinaman always eat with rice. hahaha.

      Reply

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