Ayesyah's Birthday Dinner

Hey, Matt and April!  Hello, fellow food fans!

Two days before Chinese New Year, our friends Anis and Ana invited Pat and me to accompany their family and some friends to the Port Village Seafood Restaurant in Port Klang, Malaysia.  Klang is the seaport for Kuala Lumpur, where we live.  The occasion was the 28th birthday of their daughter Ayesyah, and she asked for the restaurant in Klang.  Pat and I were delighted!  We hadn't been there in years (thanks, Covid!), and the food is always excellent!  Ayesyah is in the center of the photo below.  Ayenaa (left) is her younger sister and a newly minted lawyer, and Farah (right) is their younger brother's girlfriend.

L-R: Ayenaa, Ayesyah, and Farah

But this blog is about food, not pretty girls.  On to the dishes we ate!  (You should be able to click on the photos to view an enlargement, especially if you're using a PC to read this blog.)

Butter Prawns

Butter prawns remaining after the initial onslaught

These are deep-fried prawns (so crunchy you can eat most of their shells and legs).  This dish is a Malaysian favorite and is available at most seafood restaurants locally.  Here's a blogger's take on a recipe for the concoction.

Marmite Crab

Malaysian ingenuity has rendered marmite edible and actually delectable in this dish!

I don't care for the British Commonwealth dietary peculiarities like Marmite, Vegemite, and Bovril.  However, Malaysian seafood chefs have neutralized marmite's original taste (thank God) and have concocted a delicious, sweet sauce to cook soft-shelled crabs.  This dish is a little messy to eat (you use your fingers), but it's well worth the effort.  The restaurant provided several small hammers to help crack open the shells.  Care to cook your own?  Here's a recipe.

Fried Calamari

A familiar dish everywhere!

This dish is a global favorite.  We don't have to elaborate on this dish, so I'll just include a photo to show you they all look the same everywhere!

Fried Gailan

Fried Gailan (Chinese broccoli, Chinese kale)

Gailan is one of the family-style dinner favorites in any Malaysian gathering.  The vegetable is commonly translated as "Chinese broccoli" or "Chinese kale," but I believe it's neither broccoli nor kale!  The fried dish usually contains lots of garlic and often uses oyster sauce.  See one of many possible recipes here.

Kangkong Belacan

Kangkong belacan:  you'll have to get used to the belacan flavor first!

Another favorite dish in insular SE Asia, from the Philippines to Indonesia and everywhere in between, is Kangkong Belacan.  (In Malay, you pronounce Belacan as "b'-la-chan.")  Feel free read an overly technical description of kangkong from its entry in Wikipedia.  It's a hollow-stemmed water reed ("water spinach") that can grow in ponds, drains, and other waterways and is a match made in heaven when paired with a wok and belacan!  Belacan is an aromatic (heh, heh) shrimp paste.  Read about the horrified reactions of early European colonialists encountering belacan for the first time (Wikipedia entry).  It's delicious once you get used to the idea and aroma!  You can order it from Amazon.  Matt, give it a try following this recipe and stink up your house (but it's worth it)!

Sambal Razor Clams

Sambal Razor Clams: the razor clams here are the long, tubular type

These tubular clams are sometimes called "bamboo clams," better describing their shape.  In many parts of the world, "razor clam" shells are more oval.  They're clams fried with sambal or Malaysian-Singaporean chili paste (recipe).  You slide the clams out of the shell and eat them with rice.  I looked for a recipe featuring razor clams but couldn't find a good one.  I give you instead a recipe for fried sambal clams.  You can substitute your favorite shellfish or prawns instead.

Sizzling Fried Egg Tofu

The tenderness of tofu provides a nice contrast to the texture of the other items.

This dish uses the soft Japanese "silken" tofu cooked with minced meat of some kind, served over a layer of beaten eggs on a sizzling hot plate.  It's a great veggie dish accompaniment to meat and fish dishes!  I know you're dying to try this, so here's the YouTube video!

Nonya Steamed Fish

There is a splayed and flattened fish underneath all the curry and garnishes!

An eagerly anticipated dish in any Malaysian seafood banquet is steamed fish.  This evening Anis ordered the Nonya variety for us.  This version is spicier and has more uniquely SE Asian flavors built in than the purely Chinese recipes.  Americans may not care as much for steamed fish dishes as Asians because the fish flavor and taste are preserved much better than in typical US fish dishes.  Steamed fish is a spectacular way to share a big fish family-style around any table!  Here's a video on how to prepare Nonya steamed fish.

So that was the dinner at Port Village Seafood Restaurant!  As you may have noticed, I favor the YouTube Cooking Ah Pa channel for recipes and instructions on preparing typical Malaysian dishes.  Matt, you should check out Ah Pa's channel.  If you teach yourself to speak like Ah Pa, you'll have learned Malaysian English and have no trouble finding your way around Kuala Lumpur 😁!