Ah Chung Restaurant @ Pantai Bersih, Penang

HL (ex-colleague) and family picked me up from the hotel at Seberang Jaya,  and said that she will bring somewhere special for  dinner, hurrah…what is not to like about food . 

Our destination was  Pantai Bersih, the restaurant is just by the sea…nice… you hear the waves lapping the shore, the twinkling lights and occasionally the sea breeze will mess up your hair.. and chase away the mozzies. You can dine  indoor ( brighter and less mozzies) or outdoor (get to hear the waves and the breeze but more mozzies) , majority of the crowd were sitting under the stars

We had crabs fried with salted eggs…yummmmm…this was not very salty and there were more batter on the crabs that what I have tasted at other shops, the crabs were fresh , which was a big plus point… my fellow diners seemed very proficient in eating crabs with their utensils but alas, I am hopeless, but I would seemed so kampong ( which I am) if I use my hands..so what to do..one must do as the romans when in Rome lorr….so that deducted maybe 5% of the enjoyment from eating the crabs…maybe i  should have just shown my true ‘kampung colours’

 

Steam fish Teow-chew style-  the gravy was sweet and tasty and the fish was fresh, this was nicely done

 

Stir fried kailan – this was average , the kailan was kinda tough

 

Prawn rolls – the prawns were coated in a batter and then deep fried, the batter was quite thick but luckily crispy  so that it didn’t spoil the bite into the fresh and succulent prawn.

 

Kum Hiong Lala –the gravy was thick , slightly sweet and the kum-hiong flavour wasn’t that evident

 

Best dish of the night – this would be between the crabs and the fish

I  look around the place for the name of the restaurant, but I only saw 2 sighboards with ‘thank you very much’ , I continue to search for a name as we were exiting the place ,  and even at the entrance of the restaurant, there wasn’t a name ( maybe I didn’t look in the right place ?), anyway, HL’s hubby said that the locals refer to the shop as ‘Ah Chung’s restaurant in Pantai Bersih’, so there !

Restoran Sin Chua Kee 新蔡記海鮮飯店@ Kuchai Lama

It was a cold dark stormy evening, amidst the strong  thunder and lighting , suddenly there was s growl, and it grew stronger and stronger…err..it was only my stomach growling lahh..

Wikipedia Lim spoke highly of  Sin Chua Kee , smacking his lips as he mention the beer pork ribs  and with a reminder – go early, best to be there by 6, if not, be prepared for a long wait… as the clock was already showing 6:45 pm-I wasn’t so keen to go to SCK , but considering that  it was a rainy day – not that many people might ( should)  be out guarr, with that in mind we headed towards Taman Lian Hoe.

It must be our lucky day as there was one small  empty table available and the rest of the restaurant filled to the brim with noisy happy diners ( I assume they were happy lah)

One comment I would like to make is that the lady who took our order was very pleasant…like this maaa…service with a smile, you happy, I also happy! We ordered Assam fish ( house special) , beer pork ribs and also one vege, smiling lady also recommended the house special tofu, but we decided not to be greedy and stuck with  the 3 dishes.

While we were waiting and looking at the food at  the other tables, saw that most of them ordered steam fish ( not asam fish worr)  and also pork ribs. A chap came around our table and asked if we want some good quality/ guaranteed good, durian…err…does this mean we are in for a long wait ?

It didn’t took that long for the dishes to arrived ( another plus point) . The Asam fish arrived, covered with parsley leaves , there were long beans and pieces of tomato too. And the taste..Oh la la..yummy, the fish was fresh  and cooked just nice and and the asam gravy..ahh… perfect ..

The pork ribs…what can I say about the pork ribs except that  it was very good pork ribs, they were deep fried and covered in some thick sticky gravy, the flesh came away easily with each bite,  the meat wasn’t dry and didn’t stick to the bones, and I really really really wish there were more of this..

The stir fried vege with garlic was tasty, the vege was succulent and not overly cooked ,this simple dish was a good compliment for the ribs and fish both of  which had pretty strong flavours.

 

The meal, plus 2 rice and a pot of chrysentimun tea cost us ~RM45, which was quite reasonable for a very satisfying meal. Hoorahhh for Sin Chua Kee !

As we were preparing to leave ( also noticed this while we were eating)  there were a dozen of people standing around waiting for the tables..maybe they should have some durian while they wait ? ( this was not helped by the rain, which meant that they couldn’t ‘open’ the tables by the roadside)

Address and Location :

Head towards the Old Klang Road Market, turn into road leading to Jln  Kuchai Lama, about 500m away ( FYI i am a bad judge of distance, so don’t take my word for it ) look out for SCK on your left ( row of shop houses on a small slope).

Hai Peng Seafood Restaurant 海濱海鲜楼@ Old Klang Road

After a late meeting discussing about budgets and other morbid subjects we adjourned for dinner and the familiar question ‘where to go for dinner ah ?’ crop up. Welllll…talking about food and where to eat is absolutely more interesting that what we have been discussing !! When I suggested Hai Peng, Mr Boss asked ‘ Good food ah ? You eat there before ah ?’, My reply ‘ err..never eat before one, but this place been around very long liao ah..should be good la’ … with that.. we ended up at Hai Peng,

We were ushered to the back of the restaurant, which led to another connecting area where more tables were set up ( this looked somewhat like a beer garden environment :  more cozy and relaxed than at the front ). Both areas are not air-conned.

Word of advice, never go for dinner with a group that had another big meal the night before. When the waitress was recommending the  dishes, these guys went, ‘ oh, fish ah..we ate fish already yesterday, la-la ah..also ate already, sotong also’ I was getting ready to roll my eyes when disaster strikes, Hai Peng’s speciality is crabs and more crabs, there are 10 types of crabs, the most popular one being ‘ sweet and sour. Others include ; butter, salted egg, salt baked, Oat taste, pepper, steams and kum-heong’ and these people..these people ( all guys by the way) was murmuring ‘ crabs ah..so messy to eat la..hands get dirty, I don’t quite like eating crabs also’..And- with that-  we didn’t order any crabs….. I shed many silent tears….sniffffffffffffffffff..

First to arrive was the prawn fritters :- this was pretty ok, the outer crust was crunchy and the prawns were fresh.

Some of the appertizers include : century eggs and ginger ,roasted beancurd, we didn’t order any of these..snifff…but from reading some other blogs, comments are that both of these are good.

Mr Boss likes  chicken in Chinese wine ( yeah, the soup for ladies in confinement ) so, he ordered ‘Setiawan kampong chicken with red wine and vermicelli ( mee sua) ‘ hoping for something similar. Err…this is an interesting dish.. it doesn’t taste like the ‘normal’ Chinese wine..this is a hock chew speciality  i must say that ..this is an acquired taste lah…and I hadn’t acquired that taste..

Hai Peng is pork free , so we were limited in the ‘meat’ selection as SOME PEOPLE didn’t want to order crabs or fish , so we ended up ordering another chicken dish, Nam- Yu chicken, this is chicken marinated in nam-yu ( a type fermented bean which is normally reddish) and then fried. This was pretty ok, this finished in a matter of minutes.

 

Venison with spring onions and ginger came next, the venison was tender and tasted ok, I would like more ginger slices though.

 We also ordered a stir fried kai-lan, no pics sorry, as they ‘attacked’ the dish before I whipped out my camera. Anyway, scanning the tables around us, ALL of them , ALL of them, I tell you , had ordered crabs …you can hear them happily hammering away at the crabs ..

The total bill, ( plus drinks : Chinese tea and coconuts ; and white rice, came to ~RM105)

Please refer to Hai Peng’s webpage for more pretty pics :  http://haipengseafood.malaysianfood.com.my/

 Opening hours : 5pm – 12 pm

Hai Peng Seafood Restaurant
Lot KS-5 Taman Evergreen
4 1/2 Miles, Jalan Klang Lama
58200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-7982 5072/79816982

Map to Hai Peng ( extracted from webpage above)