2.1.06

Good Year, 2006!

I have no idea how the crazy celebration of new year eve in KL. Did people spraying foam all over the places? Did people watched some nice fire works? Did people prayed for peace and prosperity? Did people had a great dinner to kick start a good 2006?

I was in Kuantan again preparing for a great wedding celebration of my friend, AV, who married on 1st Jan 2006.

I thought I will have a quiet and "peaceful" new year eve the moment I started my car heading back to the East Cost.

Well, I do had a quiet night, with no crazy alcohol and count down party. But I did had a very good dinner. Not romantic type, or very classy type of dinner, but great food, great seafood!


I went to Pak Su, a restaurant situated along Jalan Beserah, about 10 minutes from Kuantan town towards Kuala Terengganu. The shop is always full of patrons but they serve very fast.

For so many years I lived in Kuantan, I hardly recalled any good seafood. I always thought I am having my best seafood in Teluk Gong in Klang, or somewhere in Sandakan (the seafood there really, really nice!)


I ordered a fish, garuda fish, deep fried and showered with asam gravy. As I love sotong, I order fried sotong with dry chili, which I thought it was a normal dish. Then I ordered one plate of "house dish" seafood noodle.

lucky me, which decided to take some picture before the meal (I never thought it will be special). The fish was very fresh. It is monsoon season now, I wonder how they obtain such fresh fish. The meat was tender and springy. I could feel the texture when chew in my mouth. Asam gravy was nice. Not too sour or too spicy.


The sotong (squid) was very springy also. Not tough and easy to chew. Best of all, the meat was very thick. So I could bite and feel the texture nicely.

When my seafood noodle came, I saw few pieces of a large prawn. That should be nice, indeed, it was! The chef cooked it in "kong fu" style, which is deep fried noodle topped with pre-cooked seafood soup. Besides the large prawn, there were sotong and fish fillet in my plate also.


One of the major secrete recipe for cooking great seafood is... using fresh seafood (ofcoz laa!). That's why some of the good restaurants displaying tanks and tanks of live sea creatures to ensure the freshness they serve. However, a chef's "kongfu" also play an important part. The temperature, the timing and the process must be well taken to produce a great seafood dish.

There is one question suddenly pop into my mind. I think beside freshness mentioned above, a person should also know how to pick a healthy, well fed fish, prawn or sotong. Just like our mother choosing a kampung chicken in the pasar, right?

Happy 2006!

6 comments:

boo_licious said...

Happy New Year! I had Pak Su before - we had the stuffed crabs which was pretty good.

Anonymous said...

I just tried Pak Su two weeks ago on my first visit to Kuantan and I have to say that you can get much better seafood at around the same price in KL.

It seemed to me like a tourist trap, sorry to say.

Mark said...

I love seafood, mind to tell me where to get good seafood in KL, anonymous?

I love Kuantan as I was born there. However, I hardly find specialty there (beside the salted fish).

I must be over excited when I found some good things there, especially when I revisited after almost 10 years.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mark

My favorite place for seafood is Unique Seafood in Section 13, PJ. It's along Jalan Kemajuan. The seafood is all live, similar to Pak Su, but with much greater variety, and IMHO the cooking is much better. The prices are not cheap, but not that much more expensive than Pak Su.

If you like freshwater prawn noodles, you can try Greenview in PJ, which is next to the Rothmans roundabout.

Mark said...

Thanks Tommy. I always thought seafood in PJ or Subang area is expensive. So, I used to travel to Teluk Gong or even K. Selangor to have it.

Will take a look on the two recommended by you. Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Hi nice website,
Sorry to say Pak Su is the worst. For tourist may ok coz they all got money, don't care one. For local people 'kedai cekik darah' they call it. Most of the people in beserah hates Pak Su dunno why??