Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Visit to Pasir Penambang, Kuala Selangor


Recommended Posts

During hawker food brunch at Tepee's cum meet-up with Krista G a couple of weeks ago, the topic of an outing to buy seafood fresh off the fishing boats at Kuala Selangor (means at the mouth of the Selangor River) had cropped up. After some humming and haaing about when to go ecr and maukitten decided that the past Saturday was as good a time as any to go :biggrin:.

So off we went (ecr, "Mr. ecr", maukitten, boo_licious and me. Tepee had to pull out of the trip :sad: as she had a 8th moon 15th day family dinner.). The game plan was to get there around 3pm when the dishing boats pull in with their day's catch, make our purchases and go back to cook our bounty at ecr's.

The drive to Pasir Penambang, a sleepy fishing village at Kuala Selangor, is about 1 1/2 hours away from KL - we forgot to take a shot of the picturesque scene of wooden houses on the banks of the river ... so guess we'll need to go again yah :raz:.

There was a wide variety of seafood there, fresh and cheap compared to KL prices. maukitten was seen buying up half the market ... guess that's what happens when you let a cat (maukitten) loose at a fish market :laugh: ... anyway, we filled two coolers (one was huge) to the brim.

gallery_3270_1752_69839.jpg

Top left: Balitong - a species of whelk

Top right: crabs ... uhm don't know what kind

Bottom left: Mantis prawns

Bottom right: Mackerel (ikan kembong)

After making our purchases, we got some pulut panggang (glutinous rice with a dried prawn and kerisek filling, wrapped in banana leaves and grilled) from a hawker next to the veggie stalls and we sat at a road-side drinks stall savouring these and cooling off with ais-kacang (shaved ice dessert), young coconut water and sugar cane juice.

Dinner was:

- mantis prawns (lai liu har / hare kor) - maukitten did a yummy chilli-tomatoey dish with these - perfect with copious amounts of white rice ... which we didn't have as we needed to concentrate our efforts on the seafood;

- humongous prawns (maukitten steamed these with a fragrant home-made lemongrass oil);

- clams (lala) - boo_licious prepared these with ginger, garlic, chilli (mirin?) all wrapped in a foil packet and grilled by the grill-master "Mr. ecr"

- a great big red snapper (sang hoong joe) - ecr baked this in the oven with Indian-style spices and lots of cilantro;

- a sea bass (siakap) and some little mackerel (kembong) - I marinated these with Chermoula, a Moroccan herby spice mixture of cilantro, parsley, garlic, cumin, coriander and lemon juice and grilled by the grill-master

- a "love fish" (ai ching yuaccording the fish monger - strange looking creature that had no scales but a tough leather like skin, I was too busy struggling with my putong hua to take pictures so am waiting for "Mr. ecr's" slides) which was steamed with Kikoman fragrant soy, sesame oil and a dash of mirin;

- our free fish, a tenggiri (I think ... a type of mackerel) which the fishmonger threw in for free - doused it commercially bottled nasi lemak sambal and added some shredded kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut), thinly sliced lemongrass and kalamansi juice, wrapped it in foil and tossed it on the BBQ.

Err... we bought more than this of course ... personal purchases for use later this week :biggrin:

ecr also made a garlicky oven-roasted beans while boo_licious also whipped up a chicken mango salad and cucumber, pomegranate and mint salad. Dessert was a beet and polenta cake from ecr and a plum torte from me.

gallery_3270_1752_54630.jpg

Top left: maukitten's ass-kicking sweet n' spicy mantis prawns

Top right: boo_licious' grilled clams

Bottom left: Chermoula grilled sea-bass and mackerel

Bottom right: ecr's garlickyy oven-roasted beans

(My pictures of the other dishes didn't do justice to the food ... am waiting for boo_licious' pics).

While doing the prep, maukitten and I started panicking at the amount of food we had ... so we quickly rustled up another couple of reinforcements as ecr had threatened that no-one was leaving her house till all the food was gone or we had to go home with leftovers. Any volunteers next time :laugh::raz:?

Edited for typos

Edited by Shiewie (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since you asked :rolleyes: , there's another trip to Temerloh for killer ikan patin in the offing....altho' somebody's household is needing some ikan haruan(snakehead fish known to have excellent healing properties for wounds/surgeries/stitches...hint, hint), hor?

Laksa, don't say we didn't let you on.

Edited by Tepee (log)

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Patin, siakap, lala, la liu har.... you guys are driving me crazy!! I'm ready to do anything for some good seafood.

Me: "Your honour, they posted pictures on the Internet and all. Of course it was very much provoked"

Judge: "Oh, why didn't you say so earlier? You're free to go"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You guys ROCK!!! (You pea-puh very know how to enjoy har?)

*sigh*

Panicking because you have too much food?  What a predicament.... you guys suck!  :raz:

This is called "ngan foot thoe jak" (Cantonese for our eyes were bigger than our stomachs) mah :raz:!

Patin, siakap, lala, la liu har.... you guys are driving me crazy!!  I'm ready to do anything for some good seafood.

Me: "Your honour, they posted pictures on the Internet and all.  Of course it was very much provoked"

Judge: "Oh, why didn't you say so earlier?  You're free to go"

And now to further aggravate the matter, have a look at boo's pictures :biggrin: !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh well, this makes me a little blue. :raz:

But thanks for sharing!

I always liked ikan kembung, which was the good fish that was often available (unfortunately, not every day) in Merchang back when. Never liked ikan selayang; too many small bones. Do people still eat ikan selayang?

Michael aka "Pan"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Act III, Scene II: Temerloh pics have been posted. Pictures of the patin fish shows the meat looking incredibly firm and succulent....

Laksa: (Hanging head with dirty hands and face.)

Judge: "Not again! What have you got to say for yourself now, my desperate friend?"

Edited by Tepee (log)

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh well, this makes me a little blue. :raz:

But thanks for sharing!

I always liked ikan kembung, which was the good fish that was often available (unfortunately, not every day) in Merchang back when. Never liked ikan selayang; too many small bones. Do people still eat ikan selayang?

What can we say, Michael? We'll make it up to you when you do come over again...preferably timed together with Laksa (and family).

About ikan selayang...don't think that's a popular fish for the ethnic chinese, at least not for me...I avoid fishies with too many fine bones too.

Edited by Tepee (log)

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think most of my Malay neighbors thought much of ikan selayang either. They said "Isi sikit, banyak tulang." (Little meat, many bones.) But it was cheap and it was still better than that really salty dried fish we had to eat all rainy season!

The really prized fish in the area was ikan aya (tuna). That cost a lot more, but it was great! And the best fish I had during my first trip to Malaysia was ayam laut, the "chicken of the sea." Forgive me if I've asked you before, but have you had that?

Michael aka "Pan"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought the ai qing yu quite tasty, but what a weird fish --- skin almost like rubber gloves. Vendor pulled it right off in one or two sheets.

Actually we all didn't really share the pulut panggang --- since Mr ecr and I hogged most of them! :raz: (sorry 'bout that...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

... the best fish I had during my first trip to Malaysia was ayam laut, the "chicken of the sea." Forgive me if I've asked you before, but have you had that?

I don't believe you've asked me this before. Yes, I've tried it a couple of times. The ayam laut is offered as one of the ikan bakar (grilled fish) choices, very smooth meat.

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

Link to comment
Share on other sites

... the best fish I had during my first trip to Malaysia was ayam laut, the "chicken of the sea." Forgive me if I've asked you before, but have you had that?

I don't believe you've asked me this before. Yes, I've tried it a couple of times. The ayam laut is offered as one of the ikan bakar (grilled fish) choices, very smooth meat.

Yeah, and a really fabulous taste! Genuinely a bit chickeny, I thought.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

... the best fish I had during my first trip to Malaysia was ayam laut, the "chicken of the sea." Forgive me if I've asked you before, but have you had that?

I don't believe you've asked me this before. Yes, I've tried it a couple of times. The ayam laut is offered as one of the ikan bakar (grilled fish) choices, very smooth meat.

Yeah, and a really fabulous taste! Genuinely a bit chickeny, I thought.

I haven't tried ayam laut before! Tepee - which ikan bakar stall should I go to for ayam laut?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Shiewie, according to him, most stalls should have it. He has even bought it once from the wet market...called kai yuk yue. (er...DH's the one who does the marketing).

If I'm not mistaken its a type of parrot fish, looks like this.. it's been too many years...

parrot01.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
I don't think most of my Malay neighbors thought much of ikan selayang either. They said "Isi sikit, banyak tulang." (Little meat, many bones.) But it was cheap and it was still better than that really salty dried fish we had to eat all rainy season!

Ikan selayang is commonly used as the main ingredient in the laksa gravy(the white gravy commonly eaten in Kelantan and Terengganu) and also used to make kerepok. Though it has the many tiny bones, but the meat is considered 'tasty' and it comes cheap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...