Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels: YummY! - Udang Galah @ Tanjung Tualang

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YummY! Jotaro's Food Review

UDANG GALAH @ TANJUNG TUALANG
Sun Swee Kiong Restaurant, Tanjung Tualang, Perak, Malaysia - August 2014

My cycling adventures have taken me to many nice places to eat very good food. This time it took me to one of the best food to eat in Malaysia! While on a cyclo-adventure from Kampar to Ipoh we stopped at Tanjung Tualang to savour it's specialty - Udang Galah (Giant Freshwater Prawns); and came away with well satisfied palates and a happy smile.

Tanjung Tualang is so well renown for these giant freshwater prawns that it has become a sort of tourist destination and has even been named as Pekan Udang Galah. They are many restaurant selling the prawns here, my Ipoh and Kamparr friends who are more familiar with the area took us to Sun Swee Kiong Restuarant, a place not so hyped by food bloggers. So is the Udang Galah from this place good, are they better than the those from other places? Let's find out.

Udang Galah In Aquariums

We arrived at Tanjung Tualang earlier than expected; with an hour plus to spare we thought we might as well explore the place a bit and rode up to the hills near the restaurant that we will be eating in. But then the town is a small place and our ride was over even before it started. Might as well go over to the restaurant and see what's there before they open at 11:30 am. It was a good thing too that we went early as by noon the place was almost full.

They have large containers containing live fish and aquariums with live Udang Galah. Yes, we now can expect real serving of fresh food unlike other places that serves frozen seafood.

Our first dish was a teaser; a simple dish to whet our appetite and get it ready for the big one. This dish was Tofu In Creamy Butter Sauce. Tofu cut into inch long cubes were deep-fried and laid onto a butter-based creamy sauce. Over these tofu were deep-fried vermicelli.

The tofu was good, crispy skin on the outside and nice yellowish soft on the inside. The sauce was another thing, a butter-based one with a tinge of plum flavour, it went very well with the simplistic taste of the tofu. Adding the deep-fried vermicelli was a great idea, it soaked up the sauce well giving another half crispy deliciousness.

A teaser this maybe, but it can definitely stand on its own.

Now comes what we had been anxiously waiting for - Steamed Udang Galah! The presentation itself had our mouths watering - laid out in a fan pattern with strips of green spring onion and yellow ginger, it was like a siren calling out to us. Mesmerizing!

I peeled of the head shell and slowly savoured the head; it is juicily good, sweet and creamy.

It's best to eat these prawns with your hands, peeling off the shell slowly so that none of the flesh is wasted stuck to the shell. The flesh is slightly harder than sea prawns but softer than lobsters. Is was sweet with a slight "green" taste. Steamed in a simple seasoning of a little soy sauce and Chinese white wine, it was perfect.

What came next was a simple dish Paku (Fiddlehead Fern) stir-fried with crush garlic. It was an in-between dish to cleanse our palate to prepare us for the next prawn dish.

When the Spicy Udang Galah came, it brought out the "oohs" and "aahs" from all of us. Cooked in a thick curry sauce and garnished with green spring onions, it was another case of "if looks could kill". And another round of salivating even before eating the dish.

The spicy thick curry coated and clung on to the prawns, it was slightly sweet and not too overly chilli hot. This big-headed fresh water giant prawns are huge, suddenly the prawns at Sinki Restaurant in Dengkil pales in comparison. After peeling of the shell, I could not help but swipe the flesh with the sauce.

Mmmmmmm...Mm.... Wonderful!

The last dish was a 2 kg. grouper, steamed with a simple soy-oil sauce. The meat was firm coming out in nice layers as one scoops into the fish. The simple sauce went very well with the freshness, adding to it without overwhelming it.

It was a excellent meal; a well sequenced meal that brought out the merits of each individual dish. I will have good dreams of the lunch for months to come and will definitely return for more.