Bukit Tambun Seafood - Prawn Village

Bukit Tambun, a small fishing village before Penang (heading up north) have been growing itself into a seafood paradise over the past few years. There are so many seafood restaurants here that you will be confused which to go!

I was on my way back from Alor Setar yesterday and decided to check out the place again, this time, I went to Prawn Village.

This restaurant is quite deep in and you can immediately identify it with plenty of cars parking opposite it. However, they charge RM2 per car!!! I am not sure if its because I am driving a KL plate vehicle, but better not argue, can't afford to get my tyres slashed :(

Anyway, opposite the road is Prawn Village, its almost hidden in between the small shoplots houses along the road, you had to step down to the restaurant and you will be greeted by the row of live seafood on display. Pricing is ok, quite cheap for some and some are ok. Red snapper is RM20 per kg, meat crabs RM25 per kg. All sort of seafishes and shell fishes is available.

My favourite at Bukit Tambun are squids! Small little squids fried to crisped, the mix with pineapple and cucumber on a sweet, spicy and sour sauce, must be eaten hot! They call it the kerabu squid here or in hokkien, Kerabu Sotong Kia :)

I also ordered a red snapper steamed teow chew style, the assam flavour is just nice and the fish is fresh (what am I taking about? It was alive moment before I ordered it :P).

Prawns are so so, cook with pineapple in sweet sour sauce and served in a bamboo. Crabs are normal normal la, nothing fantastic, I generally prefer BIG meat crabs, 2 for 1kg is perfect. Those they have here are about 600-700g for 2 crabs, not much to eat!

Overall price is ok, RM10 for sotong, RM 17.50 for 2 crabs, RM20 for fish and RM 12 for prawns.

The most important of all, is that the view is still scenic by the river with birds flying around and locals moving about the river or staying next door. Add that with the nice evening breeze, just fantastic.

Can't wait to come back again on my next trip up north, hopefully the next time will have more people (cause that's when you can get greddy and order like mad)!

Hanoi : Feast at the Snake City

After a stressful presentation in the morning where the chickens were trying to convince the ducks, we were all invited for dinner. A suggestion came from the host which mentioned something about 'cobras'. I couldn't believe my ears at first but in the end made up my mind to be just an accompanying guest and shall not dine!

It was 5.30pm when the transport came. In we go and along the way met up with the other MPV to snake city. Upon entering the restaurant, we could see all the decorative ornaments related to the dinner about to be served.
Having taken our seats, we waited while chewing on some rice crackers.

Our Viet host mumbled something to waiters and the next thing we knew they brought 2 cloth bags tied at the top. Upon releasing the knot, out comes our dinner, cobras. Some of us jumped upon the sight of the snakes.

I believed we were asked if the selection was good enough and the next thing we knew, there was going to be a live performance in the 'dinner' preparation.

I shall save the gory details on how it was prepared but each of us ended up having 2 shot glass. One was red in color and the other yellow. The red glass contains fresh snake blood mixed in alcohol or maybe chinese wine. The yellow glass contains extract of the gallbladder mixed in snake wine. The waiter left them on my table and all I wanted to do was to take the pictures. Then there was two beating hearts left on a sauce plate. Our Viet host insisted that one of us would need to take one. I am glad that I was not the chosen one.

It was then when everybody got up for a bottoms up cheers which seems inevitable for me despite pretending to want to take more pictures.

What does it taste like? Well I'd like to think its vodka and nothing else. After finishing both shots, here comes the main dishes.

The first dish seems to be snake stew in thick soup.

The second dish is deep fried snake wrapped in seaweed.

Then came the barbecue variety.

Next came the calcium rich deep fried minced bones.

Stir fried onion leaves with snakes.

Fried rice in snake oil.

Deep fried snake rolls/roe.

Herbal snake soup.

Our host also treat us to some nice folk song as we approach the end of the meal. It looks like its a popular song as we see other tables clapping to his performance.

Definitely a meal to remember by for most of us as foreigners not because of its great taste but rather the experience itself. I believe the entire meal should have costed us not more than US200.

According to our host, snake meals are beneficial to health especially for the elderly (which explains why I could not sleep for the next two nights and still feel energised!)

Labuan Seafood & Chicken Wings

Went on a one night short working trip to Labuan with my buddy Raz-da-man. Decided to make the best out of this trip (stressful meeting mah) and try the local speciality, chicken wings and seafood (According to Alex, our office Labuan expert :P).

However, knowing Man, before we can venture out, we stocked up the apartment with lots of duty free beers! RM1.70 for local beers and RM2.50 for imported! Wines start from RM10!



Its my first time here and its amazingly such a small town and there's hardly any cars on the road after 7pm! We couldn't get a cab on the street and we end up walking to the shoplots behind Mariner Hotel.

We stumbled into our first makan objective, Chicken Wings :). Per order is 6 pcs @ RM6, that's very reasonable. The wings are serve burning hot, with a squeeze of lime and a dark dip (spicy, sweet and sour).

Next, we went to New Sung Hwa Seafood which is next to the market. Its upstairs at the PCK building which have a pub downstairs (fyi, 1 jug of beer at the pub is RM13 only). Its a small little corner upstairs, probably 10 tables or so, price is quite cheap, RM80/kg of lobster, prawns start from RM60/kg. You can basically get fishes, crabs, lobsters, prawns, giant calms and all sort of shell fishes here.

Since there are only 2 of us, I ordered fish to be fried with ginger and soya sauce, 4 giant prawns (RM90/kg), 1 fried squid and 1 vege. The fish is so-so, with more people I would have ordered a seabass to be steamed, squid is cut and deep fried, the dip is sweet and sour. The best are the prawns which is fried with minced garlic, simply fantastic. Everything with rice and drinks is RM58.00.

Cab are hard to find unless you call for one and its RM10 everywhere within town. So when we are done with dinner, we decided to just stand downstairs and enjoy the breeze from the ocean. Then one of the restaurant guy came down and asked if we have transport. I say no, waiting for taxi and he laughed! Hehe... but he was nice enough to give us a lift back to the hotel, small town people are friendly. He told me its his sister's restaurant and they are planning to extend 1 unit next door. Also, its always full on Saturday. I asked him about chicken wings in Labuan and he said the best are out of town in the kampung. The funny thing is when I told him I come from KL, he told he will be here through AirAsia's free ticket and he really want to eat Ipoh Chicken Rice here, but that to us is like... what? Hehehe... so I guess we are mad about their seafood and there, they fancy our everyday food here. Funny but think about it.



Overall, its not a bad trip after all, and I think its a good place to return for a good quiet holiday, probably go snorkelling by day and seafood hunting at night. I shall be back ;)

Soon Seng Bak Kut Teh

So yes, we all know that Klang is the "mothertown for all bak kut teh" (direct translation = pork bone soup) and we have tried so many style, some have more herbs, some are lighter, some are sweeter, but what about dry bak kut teh?

Meru in Klang is the place to go! Right behind Klang Parade are some new shoplots and one of them is Soon Seng, a new, clean and comfy place to have bkt.

Just like most modern bkt restaurant, its well ventilated with water thermos every corner for you to refill your tea pot with hot water, provides tissues, etc.

Environment is comfy and clean, but most important of all, the food is still good. 1 portion of normal bkt will cost RM8.50 while the dry one will cost RM9.00.

The dry bkt is cooked with thick dark soya sauce with dried squids and chilies plus lady fingers. The meat looks like those in the normal bkt. Its tasted amazingly good, great aroma and you just can't stop. The normal bkt here is never the less quite good.

As per my makan buddy Jack's comment "this is now the best bak kut teh I have eaten" :)