Seri Petaling Seafood Village

The Boss decided she would show those willing and able a slice of neighbourhood seafood that was turning into a regular spot for her family.

Seri Petaling Seafood Village is located at an unassuming spot, on the road running somewhat parallel to the back of Carrefour. The place was brightly lit, open air and already nicely filled with diners - we switched our hungry blinkers on and listened, bright-eyed and bushy tailed while munching on peanuts and sweet potato chips and Boss helmed the ordering for feast.

Alas, Devastation befell us! The lady informed us that they had run out of crabs! What kind of seafood restaurant runs out of crabs at 8.30PM? A busy, popular one, evidently! We had to make do, and made do we did.

Green Dragon - as green as our colour, watching a neighbouring table suck down the claws of the last crab of the night. Oh we'll get you one day, just you wait!

Fresh, sumptuous, utterly finger-licking Assam Prawns - we downed two plates of these babies!

The Salt & Pepper Squid disappeared as fast as it came - crunch crunch, gulp, gone!

The Assam Fish is probably the best way to prepare the tilapia (fei chow yu or African fish) here. The second preparation of similar fish which came later revealed that maligned swampy freshwater taste.

Mud - lovely on skin, not so in my fish

And came our favourite part the meal - the Salted Egg sigh, everybody together, now! The prawns gleamed in golden grandeur and the squid shone supreme.

TV snack on its own, totally!

Not a fan of venison so gave the Stir-fried Venison with Ginger a miss. Probably a shade paler than the seafood stars here but the others had no problem wiping this clean whatsoever.

The meal fed seven of us too well, and bill total came to about RM350. A right steal, we felt!

And for those slippery lil' crustaceans, we must be back. To the crabs!

Seri Petaling Seafood Village Restaurant

Lot 24221, Jalan Merah Silu

Bandar Baru Seri Petaling

57000 KL

Birthday Treats, Courtesy of Joshua's First!

Baby Joshua turned the grand old age of one recently and we were lucky to snag an invite to the chowdown, as part of the 70-odd party guests. I can't think of gathering any more than 10 people I would want around me at ANY age; Joshua is set for a life of immense popularity. We had heard so much about the cooking prowess of my Boss' mom or Joshua's grandmother, so we weren't about to let up on this opportunity to sample.

I arrived that evening after a rather eventful Saturday afternoon, quite, quite famished. Nevertheless, I managed to contain myself and idled with workmates, recapping our respective Friday evenings while waiting to eat. There were plenty, including a lovely fresh mushroom salad, pasta, fried spring rolls & money bags but I got barely decent shots of those.

To start, we queued eagerly like school kids at the school canteen for Boss' mom' to dish up individual portions of her uber-spicy, uber-lemak Thai laksa. Practically frothing with fish! I especially liked the sturdier version of Thai rice noodles used.

My workmates had shamelessly grabbed the table strategically located nearest to the roast leg of lamb station outside. Now I understand this not because I don't do lamb, but they assured me I was losing out big, BIG time.

They ooh'ed and aah'ed over how excellent and flavoursome it was while I sniffed and pretended not to care. They helped themselves to seconds, thirds, fourths with little inhibition. Not exactly a shy lot, this bunch.

I was bowled over by the crazy good satay, the product of one rather reputable stall in Bangsar. It was a touch sweeter than I was used to but there was no denying this was applause-worthy.

Encik Zul usually works his grilling magic behind TMC. He can be contacted for catering at +6016 204 1566.

Boss' mom also whipped up a very gorgeous Nyonya curry chicken, served with nasi kunyit. I couldn't shove this down then but meekly requested to take home the curry when it became apparent that there were plenty of leftovers as the evening wore on. It provided me with some three solid, tasty meals for the following week.

Thank you for having us over and feeding us, ML! Hope it was a wonderful first of many birthdays to come for the very loved Joshua!

The Secret Ingredients

There's no doubt that the best things in life (to eat or otherwise) are those offered to you with love, kindness or plain generosity, where the term of barter is merely an unspoken understanding, or at most, a sincere word of thanks. Along with these wonderful gifts come the revelation of their secret ingredients that make the offerings exclusively and unmistakably theirs.

Mama Chow's Curry Chicken, a very special treat, yet predictable in its ability to uplift the soggiest homesick spirits. Her secret ingredient: A dollop of belacan! This was prepared and consumed at the tail end of my extremely short but gratifying weekend home in Penang.

Riz's Vegetarian Chilli. I was presented with this, thoughtfully packed by Riz and Hui when we met up at Sid's after a long day at work gone horribly wrong. I was swooning in gratitude, even more so when after downing 3 pints of cider, I had this to heat up and devour when I got home! His secret ingredient: Peanut butter! This provided the tomato-based stew with a lot more heart and body, coating each morsel of fresh diced vegetables, beans and mushroom. Ambrosia at midnight.

Beatrice brought to work on her last day an Apple Pie she'd baked. Her secret ingredient: Custard! The buttery, crumbly short crust pastry she made from scratch was the perfect accompaniment to the cinnamon explosion of the apple filling. Her baking prowess, along with her presence as part of the team, will be sorely missed.

In observation of Dumpling Festival today, Lee came to work armed with a truckload of his Mom's dumplings for everyone. He'd painstakingly taken pre-orders to make sure everyone got exactly the dumpling they wanted, from a list Mrs. Lee's choice ingredients: Belly pork, Chinese mushroom, Mung beans, Chestnut, Onions, dried shrimps and Preserved egg yolk. I had two, and they packed a mighty homemade punch! My Inner Dumpling is appeased for the year.

A thoughtful (albeit non-edible) gift from Mei Shean - my very own Breadou, looks like a bun, smells like a bun, feels like a bun, but a bun it ain't! It's a computer wrist-rest and stress-reliever made from foam, designed to be ergonomic and to whet the carbo appetites of those committed to spending pretty much every waking hour in front of the laptop. Mei Shean got this from Action City in Singapore; also comes in the shape of other baked confectionaries.

The best gift of all is to be let in on the secrets that lie embalmed at the heart of these offerings. I can only say thanks in so many ways and someday, I hope to be able to return all these wonderful favours.