Lunch at Kuala Selangor

Thursday was a day I planned to spend with an old friend, who is now working in Germany. Frankfurt was a new place for him and we certainly ha plenty to catch up on. Previously Specky was based in London.

He was back for a week, after a meeting last week. I went over to pick him up at around 11, and the initial plan was to head for a restaurant in town for lunch. Instead, we ended up in Kuala Selangor, having a gut-busting seafood meal. Two full-fat meal in a week was not good!

Central KL was hazy for the past week. It made such a change to have some fresh air.Getting settled in. The cutlery and utensils were left in warm water. A method for sterilisation I supposed. Autoclave anyone?It was a warm day and the cool lychee made a whole lot of difference.Lunch in Kuala Selangor was good as usual, and we went to one of the riverside restaurant in Kuala Penampang, our usual spot. We used the newly opened LATAR highway this time around, cutting the journey time considerably. With RM6 toll, it only took us under an hour to travel from Kepong to the restaurant. Usually, it could take close to two.

I only just realised the name of the restaurant after being here many timesThe landmark for the restaurant was this fat crab right at the front.The aftermath after the mealI could swear it was all his fault!We had sweet and sour crab, steamed fish and some cockles. And we still made it back to KL - for a post-lunch appointment to meet another friend - just before 3pm. A quick coffee, then off to drop Specky off at his parents.

Specky would be around until Sunday, but he had a family wedding to attend from tomorrow.

La La Chong Seafood, Damansara

Usually, we drove all the way to Kuala Selangor for our routine seafood feast. Yesterday was the first time we actually had something similar to this - a Chinese seafood meal - in town. And it was near Damansara, a place I was not really familiar with, but was glad to have come.

The occasion was Puan Anita's birthday. I wouldn't tell you how old she would be then, but there was a reason why all our cars carry the plate number 9972.

Earlier in the day, she was treated to a day at the spa in Ampang by my friends from the UK. After she was done, I picked her up from the spa, and we drove across to Damansara. The traffic was kind. The direction to the place was a bit tricky though, but I just followed the car in front.

There, we were joined by other friends - Amin and Syahril. In the end, it was a table for 13. We had the usual stuff - steamed fish, sweet and sour crab, soup, prawns etc. Azida, one of our friend, ordered lala - cockles - which was appropriate given the name of the restaurant. We were well bloated by the end of it.

My favorites were the steamed fish and crab. God knows how high my cholesterol went. The sauce went down really well with the hot steamed bun. All sticky and yummy. Unfortunately, I forgotten to snap pictures before we settled down for the food as there were plenty to catch up with the friends. And of course, I was busy stuffing myself as well.

The sight of my plate at the end of it. And this was my forst plate. I had two more after that ....I pity whoever having to clear the table after us .....I swore Syahril did this ....All the photos I had were of the damage that was done after the meal. I would definitely recommend the place again. Parking was aplenty, but the trick would be to find the restaurant in the first place. If you were keen, just enter these coordinates on your GPS - 3.124067, 101.607992 - and hopefully you'd be pointed to the right direction. Oh! And the Thai fresh coconut drinks were not to be missed as well!

I could see that the place would be packed for an evening meal. We actually arrived at the place after 3 pm, and there were hardly anybody there. The place were opened from lunch till late evening, and there was a separate air-conditioned area. The facilities there were clean, with plenty of places for handwashing as well. Refer at the photo above for the address and telephone number. Oh! They provide free wifi at the venue - albeit a slow one.

Sekinchan Ikan Bakar

If I were to be asked to give a one word review for Sekinchan Ikan Bakar, the word I'd use would be "embarrassing". I have heard so much reasonably good review of the chain, that when we came across an outlet on the way to I-City the other evening, my sister and I did not give it much of a thought. Anita was also into ikan bakar, so all was left was to get our boys to agree, and as their cousins were also along for the trip, they did not say much. We have already given them dinner prior to going out, so they were not too fussy about it.

The outlet we went to was in Shah Alam, right opposite I-City. Since we arrived there pretty early, well before sunset, we planned to pass some time there. So we sat down, and naturally, ordered some ikan bakar. Now, let me explain to you about how the order works. You don't actually ask for a menu for the fish. You go to the counter to choose. Unfortunately, this was where the problem lied. The workers at the counter did not know who came first, so, the more pushy you were, the more likely you would get your order first. And then, there was the risk of them messing out your order and until today, I was still trying to figure out how they could tell which one was your order. The restaurant was only a quarter full, and the still managed to mess up our order. And then they got the cheeks to say that it was our fault. To compound the matter further, they also messed up our drinks, which we ordered from the table, with the order clearly written. It was just plain embarrassing.

To be honest, grilling fish was not really that hard, and with the right equipment and experience, you would likely get it right most of the time. You have to make sure that you marinate it right, and perfect the sauce and air asam. Well, not only that the marinating sauce was worst than your typical teenagers running a pasar malam stall affair, even my clueless maid could make a meaner air asam. We ended up with a sour taste in our mouth - pun intended of course.

Save & Close

Ikan bakar - or grilled fish - if prepared the right way was a joy. It was plainly clear that Sekinchan Ikan Bakar had lost their focus as not only the messed up the actual meal, the bad customer experience we had made it unlikely that we would be giving the place the benefit of the doubt, even at another of their outlet. The workers there, being a mixture of locals and foreigners clearly couldn't clear less about how we felt. I shudder to imagine how they would cope with a full house. I would unfortunately label their outlet under "one which I would avoid". Please let me know if you have had a different experience, preferably indicating the venue which the fish was better. Bad service at these outlet were a given I was afraid.

Day One

The first day just flew by and it has been a long and tiring one. It was basically non-stop lecture from morning till about 5.30pm. We even had talks during the lunch break. And tomorrow morning, there will be a talk during breakfast. There was another satellite symposium later in the day, with dinner slapped in of course, but I don't think my brain could take it any longer. Instead, I went out with a few colleagues to Clarke Quay, on the other sude of town.

Dinner was a seafood affair, and it was great. I thought I may have doubled my cholesterol level with the amount of crab that I took. After dinner, we had a stroll down the quay, the weather being being very warm, with clear sky and full moon, made it it a relaxing one. Being Friday night, the place was packed and happening. It was the hip part of town, full of trendy bars, restaurant and clubs. Since we were all rather tired, we did not stay for too long. After 30 minutes, we climbed back onto the minibus, taking us back to the hotel.

Maybe I would catch some TV but honestly, I could do with an early night. Just called Anita and the boys, hitting the showers, then bed .... I'll blog more about Clarke Quay later as most of the photos were taken on my LX3.

Another PD weekend

The school holidays were almost drawing to an end. A couple of Anita’s aunties dropped by from Kelantan, and we thought it may be a good idea to take them for a short stay at our apartment in PD. We filled them up into the minivan and off we went yesterday. Today, we drove them to Melaka - our driver did the driving, and it helped since he was from there.

Heading to MelakaDinner at Kuala Sungai Besar

To Melaka we went, had a nice day being taken around on the trishaw - beca. On the way back to PD, we had a scrumptious fresh seafood dinner at Kuala Sungai Besar, near our driver’s kampung. He definitely had an inside knowledge of the area, and knew what to order. I just arrived at back to the apartment, had a shower and ready to hit the sack. Will update the blog a bit later in the week with the pics and stuff.