A brief escapade – part 3 – The Food

Essentially, the purpose of the trip was to eat, eat and eat! And a bit of sight seeing of course. We reached Tanjung Sepat in a hungry state, and firstly, by 10:00am had Bak Kut Teh at an outlet along the street which appeared quite popular. Now personally, I am not a BKT fan, but this one tasted ok. Perhaps it may be because we tried the dry version as opposed to the usual wet soupy type. Also had some other fish and veggie dishes to go with it.

Not bad, not bad at all. Good start. And immediately after our breakfast, we walked to a nearby shop (which didn’t seem that nearby in the heat), for coffee and roti bakar. Before we even reached the shop, we could smell the roasting of the coffee beans already, providing an aromatic lure to passers-by to linger and follow the noses to the source of scent. I had the ice-coffee to counter the heat, but think it was so so only. Was later told that the normal coffee is better, served in authentic looking cups for aesthetic appeal. The roti bakar was good though. Freshly “bakar’-ed, with a well spread slab or two of kaya. Yum!

After that, we took a little breather from food, and only had lunch at one of the seafood outlet near the Lovers Bridge area sometime around 3:00pm. Food was ok, but thought that the fish fillet thingy was very good, dipped in some chilly sauce of course (no, they didn’t have ketchup!). The fish thingy gave a sensation of like melting in the mouth and was simply divine. Also had some fried calamari, rice noodles fried with crabs (a first time dish for me too), and some "O-cian" (oysters with egg).

After that, we adjourned immediately for some paus (see Part 2 of a brief escapade for the story on “handsome”). They advertised tau sa pau (red bean pau), which is my favourite, but alas, they didn’t have. Incidentally, Chicken Wing likened me to being boring just because I like to eat tau sa pau, but really! What's wrong with tau sa pau? Nice what! Simple food for simple folks like me! :P Instead got some type of meat pau which tasted ok. Oh yes, had another cup of coffee, this time of the hot variety. Two of the members packed some to bring home. I didn’t ta pau because they needed to be steamed, which I was told is the easiest thing to do, but hassle’lah! Have to jaga fire and make sure enough water, and …

Later, we made appointment for dinner in Port Klang with another Port Klang kaki. Surprisingly, teluk gong does not appear to be that familiar to this Port Klang kaki, and neither was it familiar to Marine Engineer who is also from Klang. They had to like call their other Klang friends for directions. (Hmm… orang Klang sesat in Klang? Double hmmm…!) Anyway, we had two extra doses of crabs cooked differently (one with egg yolk, and another “kum heong” – or at least that’s what I think it is called). I stayed away from the egg yolk crab dish, have never really fancied eating egg yolk anyway, and tried it before at another seafood outlet, but not one of my favourite dishes. Also had some mantis prawns and veggie, as well as a mixed seafood hotplate.

You know what, it is interesting to see how some “pampered’ folks eat crabs. Usually we would be given the nut cracker kind of thingy to crack the claws and stuff, but some seafood outlets provide hammers. Quite a lot of people I know find it a lot of hassle to eat crabs because they have to peel the shell, and yes, the Port Klang kaki muttered something to that extent, but gamely had some crabs, by banging (quite loudly I might add) away at the claws, until other people from the next table turned around and looked at us a couple of times.

However, after the initial few heartful pounding of the hammer (no, the crabs were not crushed though – and sometimes I do wonder how hard the shells really are), we subsequently heard loud poundings from other tables as well. I guess the other people from other tables were “shy” and needed my friend to show how crabs should really be eaten! :P Just remembered something I asked my friends when we saw mini crabs along the lovers bridge, “Why do crabs move sideways”?, but my friends ignored me. SAD! Have you ever wondered why?

Not bad, not bad. And even after all that food, some wanted to go eat nasi lemak at the mamak nearby, but I was like “Oh no! Cannot eat liao! Simply too full”!, so we didn’t go but vaguely promised to make arrangements for another day. Chicken Wing later told us that on her other eating trips, we guys lost out to her female friends eating trip in terms of volume and variety of consumption. Cannot be I reckon, but you never know, some females can really eat!