Kg. Air Hitam - coconut flower liquor mixed with guiness... 
Monday, July 12, 2004
Kg. Air Hitam Seafood Restaurant
The Kg. Air Hitam Restaurant is indeed unique, anyone first visit there will probably be memorable because of the long drive to the actual restaurant location through Kg. Air Hitam which is basically a palm oil estates. You will go through countless speed bumps which my driver's wira keep hitting despite me moving to the left, right or center of the car (always get blamed for this kind of things when you are fat). Along the way you will pass through villages houses and a temple which all sits in the estate. The road is dark as there is no street light but occasionally the restaurant provides an outrider (kapchai with wide windscreen labelled 'security' and blue siren light) escorting guests in and out of the place.
The restaurant sits next to Sungai Langat and if you look at the map the other side of Sungai Langat is actually Teluk Gong! The restaurant have a ship like structure which they placed their tables, so you can eat on the upper deck or lower deck of the ship. The restaurant doesn't serve pork, so it's cool to bring your muslim friends there too.
Straight to the food, we order Mantis Prawns which they fried the meat in flour and then covered it with fried spices. This defers from the usual style which after frying the meat in flour it will be stir fried with dry chili and sauce. The taste is good and fresh and the spices really added flavour to it. Next on the list is claypot kampung chicken which they steamed the whole chicken with wine and sauce, it have a natural chicken flavour but yet tasty serve in a claypot. The steam fish is good too, serve with curry sauce! We also ordered escargot which they baked with cheese which is ok.
For crabs we had two style, first is fried in salted eggs but the difference with those I have tried is the salted eggs are fried till it turns black in this case. Dry but taste good. The other style is the common dry chili kung po. Unfortunately the crabs they serve here are small ones like Teluk Gong type too, 3-4 crabs per kilo, not much meat and too much work for me. We also ordered a few other dishes but their fried sotong sucks big time, tasteless and too much flour and so is their tom yam prawns, served in a coconut but portion is small and taste is average only. But overall, my favourite is still the mantis prawns, steam fish with curry and the steam chicken!
Pricing is ok, the damage was about RM250 for 10 dishes which includes 3 kg of crabs (RM28 per kilo), rice, towels & etc. excluding the liquor the we had :P. Will definately come back again for my few favourite dishes, maybe they will have new signature dishes then?
If you need direction or reservation, below is their contact:
Restoran Makanan Laut Kg. Ayer Hitam
Lot 8620, Kg. Air Hitam, Batu 6 1/2, Jalan Langat
41200 Klang, Selangor. Tel: 012-6707796
Monday, June 21, 2004
Good Seafood in Cheras - Hau Kee Seafood
Not known to many, but well known to the local residents, Hau Kee Seafood is a three shoplots seafood restaurant in Taman Yulek, Cheras which serve chinese dishes. Heard from a colleague that the owner actually owns a seafood distribution business nearby as well.
Went there on Sunday night to celebrate father's day and the place is packed! Had to park my car in some alley far away and luckily we manage to secure a table, not the ideal size for 9 person but we figure there isin't much choice (went all the way there from Subang Jaya!).
Right before we order, the captain asked if we are ok to wait 1 hour plus before being served! Since we came all the way, we just say it's ok. Not the case for the table next to us, at least 3-4 families came sat on the table and left after they found out how long they have to wait. But surprisingly someone still fills up that table at the end of the day.
We ordered the salted egg prawns (one of their signature dish), pig's intestines in black pepper, fried snow fish, 4 kings of the heavens, fried pork and japanese tofu.
The salted egg prawns is good, fried to crisp cover in salted eggs, you actually eat the whole prawns, everyone loved the prawns. The other dish that's good is the steam snow fish, a slice of the snow fish about 2cm thick is fried lightly then cover with sauce (mainly soya sauce, very light) and top with some fruits salad (honey dew and longan mix in mayonese). The fish is tender and taste just right in the light sauce while the salad works as a great appetizer.
Pig's intestines is stir fried with black pepper and chili padi, you have to eat the intestines with the chili padi or add on the belacan chili sauce (which is really good) they served with it as the intestines doesn't absorb much taste. So what in the world is the 4 kings of the heavens (sei tai tin wong), well it's actually 4 types of bean vegetables fried in belacan, quite a common dishes and I know of many other places that serve this as well.
The pork is marinated with the usual chinese spices like any other fried pork. It has a slighly creamy taste when it hits the mouth not sure if they add mayonese or anything else to it but you can taste a little beer or liquor in the meat. The tofu is normal, served with crabmeat and egg sauce.
The total damage for the night was RM 128.90 inclusive of tea, rice & etc. The portion is ok so not too bad for it's price and the taste is good to, no wonder people are coming all over the places outside of Cheras to eat here.
The other dish popular here is their claypot mutton, have to try that next. Unfortunately I was told the crabs here is rather small in size, just like Teluk Gong, 1 kilo 3 crabs, so you can't ready get much of their meat. I think there are still lots of other dishes to try here, so I will definately come back again soon!
If want to go to the place, my advise is weekends be there 6pm or so, otherwise you have to wait for tables and food. Ok, directions now, if you are coming from Kesas (Bdr Tasik Selatan) towards Ampang, right before Makro, go down to the roundabout (instead of the overhead brigde across). At the roundabout do a 12 o'clock, then keep right. At the traffic right turn right and you are in Taman Yulek. You will come to another traffic light which you have to go straight. Once you passed the 2nd traffic light, go straight (you see BP on your left and 7/11 on your right), it's one way street, then take the first turning to your right, go all the way till then end and the next right (right before Rest. Ben something) and you will see Hau Kee.
Here's the address to the place:
HAU KEE SEAFOOD
No.12 Jalan Kaskas 2, Taman Cheras, KL Tel: 03-91300113
My only regret of going to Hau Kee is I didn't manage to take any pictures of the place - charger out of order, just bought a new one but didn't manage to charge in time :(
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Teluk Gong, Cheap and Good Seafood?
Once filled with palm oil estates, Teluk Gong more than 5 years ago is no more than a sleeply village. The only reason I remember passing that area back then was because that's the only road leading to West Port which was my client when i was doing advertising.
In the recent years, the name Teluk Gong have related itself to "Cheap and Good Seafood" spreading through merely word of mouth. Anyone who visits the place would definately come back as the food is good, seafood is great and price is reasonable. That was my impression two years back when I was introduced to the place.
The number of seafood restaurant there have mushroomed over the years from one to a few to many. Those older ones have also renovated themselves to compete with the new comers.
The usual chinese seafood is available here as well as non seafood chinese dishes. The more popular one would be pissing shrimp fried with mee hoon, marmite Crabs, salt baked crabs, steam fish, Chili La-la, red wine chicken, calrsberg steam chicken, salted chicken and guiness pork ribs.
I guess the most important factor in Teluk Gong success story is influenced by the ability to be creative and come out with new dishes to attract the ever demanding Klang Valley crowd while being able to keep the prices reasonable. The latest dish I know is Chicken Essence Steam Fish, yet to try that, hope to do so soon.
Most of the dishes are quite good, but I wish the crabs are just slightly bigger... on average they charge RM26-27 per kilo for crabs here and one crab weights about 300gm+. This is slightly too small and you don't get much meat. The legs are pretty much empty and you get some meat from the shell if you put in enough effort. I am just too lazy, to me crabs should be ideally 500gm and above. Some restaurant have slightly bigger one but they charge around RM30 per kilo but supply is limited.
One special thing about Teluk GOng you can't find town or city restaurant is Yeh Fah Chou - Coconut Flower Wine, which is a kind of wine which is extracted from the coconut tree. This stuff looks like thick barley drink taste slightly sour but great aroma. Mix it with guiness stout for the ultimate enjoyment, but careful a little too much you will start seeing stars!
The most frequented restaurant for me is Coconut Flower, but a recent visit to Glenmarie Bay is not too bad too. An average meal with reasonable dishes cost about RM12.00-20.00 per person depending what you order. Not bad considering that you walk away with a seafood filled and satisfied stomach.
Teluk Gong may still remains a favourite seafood place for most Klang Valley residents because of it's good variety and fair pricing. Personally I think quality is dropping but hopefully with more competitors coming up, existing restaurant would buck up their taste back to authentic rather than commercial. In the mean time, if I didn't want to go too far for budget seafood, Teluk Gong will remain my choice.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
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