I fish for words...

"At first you hear the sound of the breeze rustling the leaves and you smell the salt. You also hear the fisherman shutting down their motorboats and hauling in their nets. You can hear one fisherman calling to another. The dialect is strange to your ears.

Then you hear an older woman calling to the fishermen in a weathered and haughty voice. Her patience is thin and her enchantment with the sea has taken a battering from many a cruel storm. She wants attention. The fishermen look through her, as if she isn't even there.

Later, you see a man – a trader, weighing the fisherman’s catch, and trying to give him a fair price. You see the fisherman look skeptically at the trader man. Both give each other the “evil-eye”. Surely it’s worth more than that, says one to the other.

You can also hear the chatter of the local people, including children, adolescents, and older women setting up their stores for the day… Soon, the tourists will arrive and we will make good money.. soon..."

"Once ago I loved the sea
And as I did, it loved me
But I found another love for me
And she became my bride to be
We were as happy as can be
Unlike my old love, the sea
She was meant for me
But she did not like it that sea
So she sent a storm for me
But got my bride to be
I must love the sea
Or it will keep coming after me
That evil sea
She is happy that sea
As happy as me
When I had my bride to be
I’ll never be
Happy as can be
When my bride to be
Is with that evil sea"

leo conway

Pasir Penampang! We love this dreamy, little fishing village, still undisturbed by the hurried pace of city life... There are many good seafood restaurants here in Pasir Penampang which serve halal seafood.

Anyways, located within Pasir Penampang, there is a small seafood market where villagers as well as tourists come to buy seafood which is freshly caught by the fishermen who berth at the nearby pier.

We normally come here for the KEROPOK and KEREPEK because no one serves it up like Kuala Selangor – crispy, crunchy and fresh with stinky REAL fish smells! LOVE!

MAP TO THIS PLACE:

Hmmmm after walking around and shopping till we were bogged down by the weight of our purchases, we decided to drop our bags in the car and go explore Kuala Selangor further.

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Fireflies are the biggest attraction in Kuala Selangor. The last time I came 8 years ago, the firefly's light was still burning bright... Apparently now, 8 years later, the poor fireflies are fast waning and slowing becoming extinct, due to the fact that the mangrove swamps are being cut down... Not only that, pollution form heavy industry, sand mining and oil palm plantations are all contributing factors to the fireflies demise... so sad :( What is becoming of our beautiful land ?! Fortunately the Sultan of Selangor is behind a movement to take action , and try to save the colony and green areas of Kuala Selangor. Lets hope our kids, and our kid's kids will still be able to enjoy the flashing lights, one 30th of a second between each other in that groovy mangrove!

Anyway, today we did not see any fireflies (too early) .. but we did go and check out the second biggest attraction in Kuala Selangor.

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CUMI and....

CIKI.... go to visit....

CUMI DAN CIKI!!!

haha:D

Presenting the Silverleaf Monkey!

Those dark haired monkeys have a silvery shine on their fur. The Silverleaf babies have orange fur as compared with the adults. After two months they get the silver colour of the elderly monkeys. The Silverleaf Monkeys are a delight to meet.

They are gentle and seem to always have a thank you for every piece of food given.. (kinda like me and hubby.. hahaha)

The one I fed, just looked at me and gingerly took a bean from my hand.. winked and scurried away! awwww... too cute :D

Welcome to Bukit Melawati.. says the nice Halia(ginger) Man... who sells Air Halia. He has been here for the past 12 years, and loves the monkeys.

The Halia drink he served was HOT and had a real bite.. you will feel your throat inflame with that familiar, comforting gingery goodness, and your stomach start to get warm .. It will definitely chase the GAS away!

Bukit Melawati is so clean! It has been well maintained and looked after.

Huge trees give excellent shade.

From the hill, you can see the Fishing Village we just came from... :)


We love this place... We hope it stays this beautiful for a long, long time...

After the hill.. on to LUNCH..!

LEFT : This is... a CHICKEN COOP (most of you got this one right!)

RIGHT: HEAVY DUTY FRIDGE .. on that same plantation to keep the harvested chicken fresh...

So, why on earth would you drive all the way out HERE...

To eat THIS... ?

BECAUSE... this is one of the few places in Selangor, that serves you Beggars' Chicken that's why:D

A few posts ago, we did the Zoo Negara's Beggar's chicken blog. In the past, we have always only ever eaten at the Bukit Jugra and/or Zoo Negara Beggar's chicken, but have not tried the Ijok one. So since this one is the newer of the two (we read about this place via Masak-masak's blog)... and being die hard BC fans.. we just had to go to Ijok to compare for ourselves, the quality of the BC! Also, since Ijok is really near Kuala Selangor, and we were in the area, this was the perfect chance to try it out.

So, what else did we see..

As usual, the normal paraphernalia...

Everytime I see this, I think of a MUD/CLAY wrestling match...

The idea is to WIN before the clay hardens..

Any contenders?! tee-hee:P

More clay...

" Burn baby burn... Disco Inferno..."

The man smiles for me.. and unwraps our parcel...

Again, masak-masak was right.. aluminium foil replaces the lotus leaf... how sad... (we like it the old-fashion way.. oo-er)

The moment of truth.. the foil is unwrapped.. to reveal.... a .... TINY chicken! We gasp -this chicken is like half the size of the ones we are use to!

Hmmmmm... after sinking out teeth in.. we realise that whilst the chicken might be small, the quality of the flesh is undisputedly better than the type you get from a larger chicken.

This chicken is soft, sweet and succulent! The herbal sauce is also of the clear type, as opposed to dark and murky. The husband prefers it clear as well... so.. Two thumbs up!

Very, very good.

Just call us the Demolition Crew.

What's that .. and why do they need so much of it?!

Oh.. it goes in HERE.. to make the dish even more flavourful. Again, based on Masak-masak's recommendation, we tried the glutinous rice.. and it was amazing.

This rice is insane.

There is more stuff in it , than the actual rice! (It's like how the saying goes - have some rice with your stuffing... ! not vice-versa.. hahahaha)

We are talking at least 2 dozen egg yolks of the 'Ham-Tan' kind and epic proportions of mushrooms, dried shrimp(previous photo) and the 'Hou-See' (oyster) .

Too good for words.

Since most people try the prawn, fish and crab and have blogged about it, we decided to try the 'Fu-Yee Pai-Kuat' (fermented bean pork ribs) instead. Also excellent. Fried to a crisp but not over fried nor burnt. Inside the meat was succulent and oozing with juice. Life is good!

Cute kid helping with the tables... If his size is anything to go by... do not scoff at Beggar's Chicken - it helps you grow up strong, healthy and WISE ;)

THE END

The Chicken :7/10

Service:8/10 (book 24 hours in advance as with most BC joints)

MSG levels: low

Salt levels: high

Add:

New Beggar's Delicious Restaurant, Ijok.

Tel: 03 -3279 1936 (book your "chick" before hand!)

Directions:

Travel on the highway that leads past Ikea (i.e. Damansara Perdana etc )

Drive towards Kuala Selangor on the Sungai Buloh Highway.

You will pass :

An Ikan bakar place... and know that you are on the right track...



You will also see this sign, which means that you are still on Highway 54 and still on the right track...

Be alert - suddenly you will see this sign, to turn off the main road...

Restoran New Beggar's Chicken Delicious -that's the one you want!


Travel down the small road into the plantations... (for around 2 minutes)..

Then you will see it.. TA-DAH! You have arrived!

ENJOY:D