That Lunch

With the new highway called LATAR, the journey from my parents’ place in Gombak to Kuala Selangor had been cut from 2 hours before to half that. Yesterday - as I was free, I decided to take them for lunch there. Luckily one of the driver was free and I had the chance to just chill out on the journey.

I though the crab looked smaller ....Thats the one ...Airy ....Time to orderWe left rather late as I had some things to do at the hospital that morning. We finally arrived at the restaurant at around 1.30. The crowd was still building up at the time. But the cook there was really efficient, and despite the crowd, we got our food quite fast as we were already hungry when we arrived.

Getting readyFresh fish coming in from the seaNeeded some spicing up ....The food were finally here ...We ordered a couple kilograms of crabs, some prawns and fish as well as vegetables. And true to our word, we finished them all. The crab was fresh but the highlight must have been the garoupa. It was exceptional!

And the aftermathIt was too warm to walk around. Anita shelved the idea of walking around to buy salted fish. It only took me 10 minutes before going to sleep at the back of the car …..

At Kuala Selangor

As I don't have any clinics, I decided to head out to Kuala Selangor for lunch. Anita and her parents came along. The boys decided to have the morning in bed. And we had our driver to do the driving, so I could just chill on the way there and back.

The food was still excellent and pretty fast despite a decent crowd at the restaurant. The garoupa proved to be a hit and my Dad in law managed to finish it off including the head.

A nice sea breeze to top things off. Now it was time to head home. More to write later.

Anita's Birthday Lunch

Anita actually had two lunches yesterday, with two sets of friends. And I was only invited to one, as the other was with her girlfriends. I had to cope with being the chauffeur though.

For the lunch that I joined, it was at La La Chong, a familiar place we went to before. Great cooking, with almost fresh seafood - somehow it was not so fresh yesterday. Great company, and great crab ....

Started with the prizes first ....Hmmm .... What to order?Crunching the starters ....The place was surprisingly empty for a Sunday afternoon, so we got our food fast and got to enjoy some privacy. It started with exchanges of gifts, some chit chat before the food came over thick and fast.

We ordered a couple portions of crab, a couple of fish, some cockles and vegetables. I must say that I was impressed by the crispy mantis prawns. The sauce on the crab was to die for - and most probably would so judging by the amount of calories and fat we consumed.

The orders then started to line up. This was the mantis prawn. Gorgeous!The table was soon full .....The birthday girl wanted to try everything ....The killer dish. Quite literally. The fatty crab ....The steamed fish was another revelation. Rather than steamed in a broth, the fish this time around was dry, leaving just succulent flesh to be scrapped and enjoyed with some garlic sauce. The cockles were too bitter for my liking though, so I didn't take much of that.

The crab was best enjoyed with some fresh bun, straight from their oven. It complemented the sauce beautifully, and it was not a surprise that it finished in double quick time.

Then there was time for cakes ....Nice one to top things off .....As I mentioned, the crab was not as fresh as I would hope. Thankfully, the cooking was great, and the sauce really made the dishes work. But compared to the fresh seafood from Kuala Selangor, it lost out big time. But for city dwellers like us who couldn't make regular trip out of town, it was not a bad return. Definitely would recommend the place although the crab may set you back a few bob. And not to be had regularly if you wanted to take care of your arteries .....

How to get there? Rather tricky to be honest. I would recommend that you just punch in these coordinate - 3.124607, 101.607771 - into your GPS devices and just follow the directions. Roughly it was located behind Tropicana City Mall, in Damansara.

Muara Sungai Duyung

The original plan was to go to Alai for dinner. They have the more famous ikan bakar restaurants in Melaka up there.

We booked transport for 6 in the evening and just before we set off, we asked the driver where he reckon we should go. He gave us a few choices and by the end of the discussion, we decided for Muara Sungai Duyung.

The queue built up the moment we were done with our orders. Lucky!Proper fresh fish on offer. You just pick the ones you wanted, they would weigh it and you then tell them how you wanted it cooked. Easy!And the otak-otak? That was something else!I thought I had been here once before, many moons back. The place had changed although there were still only one restaurant there. We arrived just after 6.30 but the place was already getting full. It was Saturday night after all.

The fish and crabs there were certainly fresh. The otak-otak was exquisite. We ordered a lot, finished them all. It was that good.

Anita had terubuk all to herself. I had siakap and stingray. No complains. The only drawback was the rice was overcooked of all things.

These tasted so sweet ....We took home some coconut jelly of course ....And it won't be complete without cencalok!Muara Sungai Duyung was located about 8km from City Center. But getting there might be tricky if you were not used to the route. We had a van taking us there, arranged by the hotel.

More stories from this trip here.

Lunch at Kuala Selangor

We expected that the traffic coming into KL would be more reasonable today this being Monday. But it was clear that some folks decided to return today, and the traffic today on the highway was heavier than usual. We decided to join the highway crowd with our littlw trip to Kuala Selangor for lunch. Luckily was left early and were only caught in a relatively heavy flow on the way home.

With the new highway - called LATAR now opened - it only took me 45 minutes to reach Kuala Selangor from Gombak. The highway still stopped at Ijok. No sign if the throughway to Lumut would be opened any time soon.

We went to the usual place at Pasir Penampang. But this time the food for some reason was rather bland. Maybe the main cook was away for Raya. But still we went for the usual crab and prawns. A whole lot of them.

After lunch, we went for a stroll along the village. There were many stalls selling seafood and other home made products. Another thing I noticed was the numbering on the door. All the shops there carried the number 168. An auspicious number I was sure.

On the way back, we took a detour around Bukit Malawati. It was the first time we dis that. We didn't realise that you could drive up the hill and do a nice relaxing round around the fort. Plenty of spots tonpark as well but we decided against that. Maybe next time. It was just too hot then.