Row upon gleaming row of live, fresh seafood! (Bran: Like a death row for fish and shellfish…. )

Jac: Our first night in KK and Bran and I were famished since we only snacked for lunch upon touching down. Bran’s parents brought the family to Garden Seafood restaurant situated near the railway station and my oh my did we have a feast!

Bran: I think this place moved from somewhere else – the name seemed rather familiar. ‘Course, I’m a terribly unreliable source of information about the latest goings on in KK, having not been back in more than a year. Situated at the crossroads of Tanjung Aru and Jalan..err, the highway leading off to Kepayan and Putatan, it can’t be missed.

Jac’s arch nemesis: taugeh (nice fresh and crunchy! – Bran)

I think this is baby kailan…er….as you can see our knowledge of local edible herbaceous plants is sadly lacking. We have had great trouble (and many a bloody battle) distinguishing between sawi, kailan, choy sum etc etc.. :p (This is definitely baby kailan – unlike the teen kailan that passes for baby kailan in KL – Bran) (You see, he thinks if he speaks authoritatively enough it will miraculously transform into the vegetable he imagines it is! – Jac)

Jac: Vegetables first. Now those who know me well or have had the delightful opportunity of watching me meticulously pick out tau geh from my char keuy teow, know that I shun tau geh with a ferocious fervour. So when this dish arrived I quickly poked Bran in the ribs and told him to shut up least his guffaws gave my aversion away. However I can conclusively say that the crispy fried salted fish garnish was superb! :p The kailan was also tastefully and simply done in fried garlic.

Bran: Er, the vegetables were good! Pretty hard to get it wrong, really. And besides, I love kailan. (Or what you think is kailan…. – Jac)

Green mussels in a sweet sour sauce

Bran: The mussels were alright but I wasn’t too sure about the sweet and sour sauce that went with it. I think something less overpowering would’ve better complemented the freshness of the mussels, which were definitely alive when last seen in the tank (they’re always clamped shut when they’re alive).

 

Prawns! In butter! I like!

Jac: One of my two favourite dishes of the night; butter prawns. It was done just right, not too greasy and the prawn flesh was springy and absolutely divine due to it’s freshness and no over-cooking. It was too yum!

Bran: The prawns were like hidden treasure amongst the stringy fried batter that was seasoned just right – and they were cooked to perfection, marvellously so that the flesh was juicy and springy and sweet and yummy and fantabulous and fragalicious and…..

Sea-bass to the Mat Salleh, Sunuk to East Malaysians, Siakap to Peninsular Malaysians and Heaven to me

Jac: The steamed sea-bass was my other favourite dish at dinner. Completely unpretentious, simply steamed in soy sauce and garnished with cilantro. Each fresh tasting, delicately cooked morsel was a delight. All siakap I eat from now on will be measured against this one.

Bran: Ahem, also known locally as coriander. (Oh very funny hun. *rolls eyes* – Jac) This was a special order from my mum who requested for the fish to be steamed in nothing but a light soy sauce sauce. You don’t need much cooking with fresh fish, which doesn’t need to be coaxed to taste sublime. And it was lovely, of course. Siakap is expensive in KK, while it’s much cheaper in West Malaysia. I’ve forgotten which fish was much cheaper in KK and more expensive in KL…

There’s oysters under there somewhere..

Jac: The oysters were steamed and topped with garlic and spring onions. Naturally I scraped off the topping and ate only the oyster which was fresh and sweet. As with the mussels, I feel when food is this fresh (it came live, straight out of the tanks!), you oughtn’t mess too much with it and cook it as simply as possible to bring out it’s natural flavour.

Bran: I was a bit disappointed by the overly flavoured oysters – though I’m really not too sure how they’re best cooked in Chinese cuisine. I suspect that there is no perfect Chinese oyster dish, especially when one’s sampled the delight of raw oyster and lemon before. Or when one has a ken for Japanese sushi.

Sizzling Ostrich meat in a sweet-ish sauce

Jac: By the time the ostrich meat arrived I’d already stopped eating for some time, but I’m glad i tried a slice of meat anyway. The ostrich meat was so tender that I thought they must have made a mistake and served us venison instead! My experience with ostrich meat is that it’s a bland meat somewhat like chicken and pretty tough to boot. I guess I’ve just never had it cooked right, this dish was definitely delicious, wish I hadn’t been full up already

Bran: The ostrich was genius – tender and succulent, in an understated sauce. Like Jac, I’d had tough ostrich meat before but in this case, the chef knew exactly what to do to it. The ostrich meat I remember was meaty and steak-like but this was like having lightly scrambled eggs in butter when all you’d had before was hard-boiled egg.

Jac: I truly enjoyed this meal. It’s right up there as one of the meals I will recall fondly again and again. As I was discussing with Bran later that night, it had 2 main things going for it; the absolutely fresh produce and chefs who have mastered the art of simple Chinese cooking with respect for the flavour of the food. Chinese cooking is not simple after all. If you’ve had ’simple’ Chinese food cooked mediocre-ly, you will know what I mean. I love this restaurant, if only it weren’t a thousand miles away from here. Sigh.

Bran: Being used to KK seafood, it wasn’t really so much of a surprise – I guess I never really appreciated how good seafood in KK was until I’d actually considered the differences between KL and there. The best KK style is usually simple – where Chinese chefs take great pride in maintaining the integrity of fresh seafood, where the prawn is the star and the crab (oh that’s coming later;) is the king.