Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Sekinchan


DSC00386

Sekinchan is the rice-bowl area of Selangor. It is located in the Sabak Bernam district and is one of two major rice producing districts in Malaysia.
For you fish lovers, just a short drive further along from the paddy fields, will bring you to the fishing village of Sekinchan.

DSC00394
Driving around, we noticed that this area is a predominantly Chinese village.
DSC00395
The main town area can be covered by car in 10 minutes. Lots of ice-factories(for fish) can be seen along the main road.
DSC00400
As this is a predominantly Chinese area, the restaurants are predominantly Chinese seafood restaurants... I guess that pretty much made up our minds for us, what we were going to have for lunch.
DSC00403
There is one modern strip of shops in this rural town, and later we will see that Guan Seng Loong is actually a franchise of seafood restaurants. (high end and low end.. i.e. aircond with tiled floor or no aircond with wooden planked floor!)
DSC00405
Obviously being in a kampung-ish place and all, we wanted to eat at the non-aircond with planked floor version, so we went a hunting...

This house was really cute - modern brick with kampung-like attachment and outdoor loo! From this angle it looks like a brick house on stilts huh?

DSC00404
Further down that road, we see a few signs of seafood restaurants. As the rain started to pick up again, we ran for shelter into the nearest one.
DSC00406
Well what do you know... ? Another Guan Seng Loong!
DSC00409 DSC00408
The place was pretty packed, and since it looked authentic enough for us, we decided to order our lunch.

Cumi: Grumpy lady waitress.
Ciki: She pretended not to speak Cantonese, just Mandarin. Finally, she changed her mind and spoke to us in fluent Cantonese. Attitude!

DSC00419
As you eat, enjoy the Scenic view along the river!

DSC00420
On the way to the loo, the massive kitchen comes into sight. It is HUGE! This place could cook for like the FIVE thousand..

DSC00424
One thing about authentic wooden planked floors, everytime a guy walks by, it shakes my bones to the CORE... Talk about unsteady floor..

DSC00428
Our first dish arrives.
"Tarn(Tahn?)" /Razor/Bamboo Clams. Disappointingly unfresh and not cleaned well. Very bad servings from a restaurant next to the sea! The sauce wasn't much to compliment either.

Tahn - RM11.00

DSC00430
Enter second dish.
Oyster Omelette (Orchien? Orchen?). Looks good but tasted bland. We prefer ours with a bit of crisp and chewiness. This had too much corn flour and the oysters weren't very tasty. Ciki had sand and MUCK in one mouthful!

Orchien - RM11.50


DSC00434
Fried Onion Siakap. We only received one side of the fish hence it wasn't a big serving. This was the best dish since it was fresh. A bit heavy handed on the salt and garnished with too much onion. It might have tasted just as good if they only grilled it and served it with just the lime.

Fish - RM22.00
.
.
.

With lunch in our stomachs , we decided to explore the town some more.
DSC00444
Being a fishing Village and all, the fishermen come in throughout the day to unload their catch to the middlemen.
DSC00443
Lots of activity - fishermen, middle men, tourists... and US!
DSC00445
Not exactly Tsukiji Market... but good enough by my humble standards.. lol, Fresh Eels for Japanese restaurants... 'Slithery Fresh!'

DSC00455
A close up of that evil looking eel...

DSC00447
Baby, baby shrimp...
DSC00448
Fish with FEET! So weird.. if you look closely at shark looking fish had feet!

DSC00449
The hardworking fishermen.
DSC00450
Weighing their catch and getting their pay.
DSC00451
The hard working aunties and their children... cleaning and sorting the fish.
DSC00454
baby squid?
DSC00463 DSC00464
We learnt some new techniques in boat maneuvering. Instead of reversing, a crewman just jumps into the dirty polluted river to anchor the boat around the tree trunk. Well, it looked like he was enjoying it though.

DSC00462
Note the top layer of oil.

DSC00465

DSC00466
The Fishermen's earnings for the day displayed proudly for all to see.

DSC00468
Sekinchan was cool. We may not have picked the best restaurant to have lunch at, but I am sure we will be back to try the many other places that offer Seafood.

THE END.

Add:
Restoran Guan Seng Loong,
No. 73, Lrg 3, Bagan Sekinchan,
45400 Sekinchan,
Selangor
Tel: 03-3241 0494

Food:3/10
Service:4/10
MSG levels: high
Salt levels: high


28 comments:

Anonymous said...

my flatmate's hometown! she told me that everyone knows everyone in sekinchan..how cute! haha anyway love the spicy shark porridge in sekinchan..will ask her to bring me there again

Anonymous said...

High MSG and salt levels? Then it's a no no already. It only displays the lack of skill by the chef, who only relied on MSG to make the food taste good. But I bet you took a lot of wonderful memories with you? The paddy fields are a good place to take some nice photos :)

btw, lol at "THE END", why so formal lah

Ciki said...

kbcg:
really - is that the one outside on the main road (corner shop)?

vkeong:
msg sucks! i get really sick when i eat it. it has no effect on some ppl.. so lucky

choi yen said...

I had unfresh bamboo clams @ my previous Sarawak trip too, got sand inside :(

Selba said...

Very interesting to see all the pictures... especially those hardworking women and children.

fatboybakes said...

ANOTHER road trip!!!! wow!!!!
ya i heard its a well kept secret that sekinchan produces 90% of the country's rice, ....because they want to maintain the romantic idyllic notion of sleepy paddy fields and kedah being the rice bowl of msia......

Precious Pea said...

I was told seafood is sekinchan much cheaper than kuala selangor. Have not been there but would love to, especially after drooling over the claypot fish maw that J2kfm had. I will sure buy those eels home too. Slurps!!!!

Ciki said...

mimi:
yar, it's disgusting right? not just the sand, but that horrible mud taste.. yarks!

selba:
it's true. all the children of the sea.. they are really skilled at what they do too

fbb:
why that is.. i don't know.. but the place is really laidback and life looks so good!

pea:
yea, next time we'll go to j2kfm's fish maw!

J2Kfm said...

eh.. Tahn (funny spelling, but i geddit) is one of the nicest yet not widely available clamshells. steam them plain with ginger, or cook kam heong style, very tasty lah ...

love how you go round snapping pics of ppl doing their bizness ... not paiseh ah? :)

Ciki said...

j2kfm:
nah! not paiseh.. damn thick skinned huh.. haha (of course sometimes we ask.. nicely.. :P)

Anonymous said...

j2kfm taught u well to go around snapping photos all over, the seefu and kung fu one; u seemed to join this guy in going around the outskirts of town, very nice indeed, u dont happen to be a pharmasist like him are u?

Julian Si said...

Ah hah... Chuk Than, and Hor Chien :-)

Nice write up as always, so adventurous!!

Ciki said...

Jen:
I guess many food bloggers like 2explore the great outdoors! Isn't that all part n parcel of food bloggin fun?

Jules:
aw thx jules!

HairyBerry said...

yalor, the food looks "rough". better luck next time ya!

a post like this is really inspiring and makes me think of the efforts fishermen put in to bring seafood to our table back in the city. we must appreciate our fishes and prawns and crabs more! ;)

Anonymous said...

i didn't enjoy dining at the GSL (the first one you saw) either... not worth blogging about even :P

but there are many hidden gems as shown by my friend (who's from there) later... and dirt cheap too!

minchow said...

Grumpy dialect-confused waitress and unfresh, filthy shellfish? The M'sian small town series has hit a snag! Guess you can't win every trip! :-S

Ciki said...

nic:
yea, its true. They work hard for a living... and sometimes don't even get paid. Helps us appreciate our food more huh

jasmine:
tell us where, oh do! we also want to know what's good to eat!

faith:
that's right! can't win em all!

backStreetGluttons said...

In the early days of Mahathir during the stock market Boom when KLCC/KLIA was about to complete , there was Pandamaran , Tg Harapan, Klang , K Selangor , and Subang. Other seafront kampungs as you have mentioned eg Sekinchan ,Tg Sepat, Carey Island even Muar/JB has only the advantage of the freshness of the produce , being near the sea tho are at best disappointing in their rough same same cooking styles of braised this kam heong that, ginger steamed fry this that and the common repeating menu of sweet and sour of which we were never impressed. To tell you the truth we were then more impressed with the army of China Dragons as the signature main side dishes and YES ! you got it ! The buxomy Carlsberg/Tiger ladies the must haves in these kind of places who always liked us ( we think ).Unlike many of these faked Mandarin pretty wannabes called waitresses...LOL !

Sekinchan is another of those cheap seafood joints if our memory din fail us. But if you have a noisy group , then such places as is ( Tg Sepat ) is great ! Our best vote for great cheap and good kampung seaville Chinese seafood is Butterworth / Bk Tambun area.

Ciki said...

bsg:
wa, so long ar your comment.. must be talking about (tiger)GIRLS again! lol.

you guys sure know your seafood kampungs.. will look up those other gems on our next trip 4sure! cheers

Tummythoz said...

Yalor bsg, panjangnya.

It's very depressing to get bad seafood at a fishing village.
=,(

Anonymous said...

"The buxomy Carlsberg/Tiger ladies the must haves in these kind of places who always liked us ( we think ).Unlike many of these faked Mandarin pretty wannabes called waitresses."

Hehe, that BSG har. But I bet they do have those @ Sekinchan too, albeit later in the malam... :P

worldwindows said...

Sekinchan enjoyed their boom and bust cycle through their rice. Fickle commodities market. Seafood may be the best commodity. Nice feel about this place. But even aquaculture products have gone southwards due the global slump.

Ciki said...

tummythoz:
yea, but sometimes we blame ourselves. we wanted to eat at the other smaller, corner coffee shop outside, but because Guan Seng Loong looked so huge and inviting we changed our location. Sigh.. should hv stuck with gut feel!

LFB:
and how would YOU know, LFB, care to elaborate ah.. haha.. :P

WW:
agree

PureGlutton said...

Didn't u buy any fish after going all the way there?! Even tho the food didnt measure up, it sure looked like an interesting trip. I like going to out-of-town places like this too.

Big Boys Oven said...

wow, what a great exploration,something not in the city!

Anonymous said...

miss the jagung in this place, use to go back to sitiawan passing this road, but now all use highway already, seldom passby unless using coastal way!

Vivien said...

Hey, you should try Hai Kang, see my post on their Spicy Shark Porridge, http://ho-jiak.blogspot.com/2008/12/restoran-hai-kang-sekinchan.html, i think only 2 restaurant serve them, hai kang, and their next door(which is recommended by 8TV show - Ho Jiak, but i heard less ingredients) so maybe your best bet of good shark porridge is hai Kang

mingsuan said...

I used to wonder about the people who travel damn far just to eat food.. now I know 2 of them!!! LOL Woman very hard working - I loved the photos. If I had the energy to cope with a 21 month yr old grizzling in the backseat i would attempt these road trips when we are back..