Lots of food has been consumed over the last week, and much of it was marine in origin. On Thursday we were left in the hands of a Japanese chef at a restaurant owned by one of Mum's tenants. The initial courses didn't bode well for our evening meal but I feel the kitchen lifted their game by the third course in. We figured they were trying to impress when they brought out this huge boat of sashimi, with a plate of toro (tuna belly) as the centre piece. The other large cuts of milk fish, scallops, salmon, yellow tail and prawns didn't go unappreciated either.
The following courses continued to rise in quality; a mammoth plate of slow cooked tuna jaw with meat that slid off like a lamb shank, cold soba noodles coloured with sakura flowers and finally a gentle but surprisingly complex scoop of sakura flavoured ice-cream. Great stuff.
On Sunday we drove for over an hour to the port of Klang, where we hoped to find some good food at an authentic fishing village. Unfortunately the restaurant we were hoping to eat at, which came very highly recommended by a friend of Uncle Wing's, was closed for lunch. Bummer.
Not to be discouraged, we asked the locals for an alternative and were directed to another nearby restaurant which was serving. It was a frighteningly dishevelled shack, with laundry draped on any available surface and a toilet (I use the term
very loosely there) disturbingly close to the kitchen. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, some of the best food can be found in the grottiest of hovels, so we ordered a few dishes and hoped for the best. We were to be sorely disappointed.
Leaving with a bad taste in our mouths, quite literally, our palate keenly awaited salvation at a little place Yvonne knew of in Hulu Langat. Heaven knows how she found out about it as it seemed to be hidden in a valley off the main road, but I guess word travels quickly based on the horde of cars parked for dinner. The place, a small Thai fishing village, may have been unimaginatively named the
Veg Fish Farm, but the aroma from the grill and the frequent happy clatter of plates certainly helped whet the appetite of eager patrons. We amused ourselves by looking out for the occasional fish that jumped out of the surrounding lake.
One thing that can be said about Malaysians, they'll drive anywhere and wait, if not always patiently, for an unbelievably long time if good eats are to be had at the end of it. Our timing was impeccable as this is what the
carpark looked like ten minutes after we arrived.
Thankfully after a reasonable drive (compared to the earlier slog to Klang) and what would have been a 15 minute wait, we were treated to
incredibly good eats. Pipis, steamed and salt baked talapia, calamari covered in salted egg yolk, spinach leaves coated in a salt and pepper batter and the most fragrant seafood tom yam soup I've ever had. We also had chilled coconut milk with a treasure trove of jellies, red rubies and fruit to round off the meal, flanked by that ubiquitous Thai dessert; fresh mango with sticky rice. I was absolutely stuffed by the end but managed to cram in a few mouthfuls of glutinous rice, saturated in velvety coconut cream. My diet has officially gone to hell.
Going to pay for this on the scales.
