During my recent trip to Muar, dad was eager to grab a good catch at the Parit Jawa wet market, just about 15km away from this humble town. Not many would know that you can find an abundance of really really fresh fish and seafood in this little town. With the jetty less than a km away from the market, you can find fish jumping on the ground right into your basket. Experience the real deal of fish trading here as fishermen auction off their catch to fishmongers who can bid the highest price, who in turn sells it to fish-fanatics like dad. There were 3 taukehs busy manning their cash registers and pushing buttons on the calculator while shouting numbers and making snotty remarks in Mandarin and Teochew. It was such a blatant and clamorous environment, I was constantly avoiding getting into people's way, whatmore dare to snap a picture of them. I was more afraid of getting slapped by a flying fish.
The second (drier) section of the market was much more my type - the vegetables and dried stuff part.
As dad went from stall to stall discussing prices, i found that fish here were not as cheap as i thought it should be. Must be due to the high demand of those from our neighbouring country. Aaah, our beloved blood sucking neighbours. But, nevertheless, you can never buy fish any fresher than this in the Southern Region!
If you think we ended up buying this giant siakap (which probably costs a couple of hundred bucks!), then you are wrong.
We instead bought all 6
tau tai chong (premium white pomfret) from this one guy for only RM 200! Now, i would never imagine spending RM 33 on a fish, but according to dad (who once caught a fish twice the size of the
siakap above!), it was one helluva good price for the freshest catch ever!
Boy, i felt like i was eating tau foo fah when mum steamed it plain with ginger (only) that night!
(reminds me of the time when i was planning to cook steamed fish and having no idea
tau tai chong was such a 'luxurious' fish, i actually asked my local fish seller for it. She looked at me, stunned and blindly replied,
'woah, i dun sell dat fish here la...too expensive!' apala! Why did my recipe book go and suggest that fish for a simple 'Steam Fish' dish??)
No one goes to Muar and back without buying their Otak Otak, Okay?!
We couldn't find the one mum claimed to be the best, so ended up buying from this obviously very-commercialised outlet. Risky move, but for 60 cents per piece, it was quite good tasting. I like the spiciness of the fish meat but felt it was a bit too soft. Could have been cooked slightly longer over the fire for a better aroma. Gee, now i'm missing the auntie that sells Muar otak otak (authentic wan!) at the SS2 pasar malam.
For lunch, or at least the first part of it, dear suggested this place he found in his GPS through some travel blog. I was just hoping for something wizardry to come out of that place. Off we went to see how trustworthy some bloggers can really be. eh~hem.
The front part of the restaurant is for ordering drinks. We had to go to the back to order our dishes, plus select the fish and/ or other seafood we wanted. A good thing i had dad to poke and sniff out the freshness of the fish before the lady weighs them and quotes us the price before cooking. A bad thing dad and i had difficulty listening to the lady's weird mandarin accent after we asked her the available types of vegetable that day. Yea, you know how typical Chinese people like doing that ....
'got what vege today ah?' 'got what drinks ah?'
After reciting the 'abc's of vegetables a couple more times, we gave up and just blurted out what we know best - kangkung!
Don't worry, this place is not as dimmed as it looks here... .lighting problem :-o
But it does have very few seats and a constant flow of customers.
The dishes came in a jiffy even before i could even warm up my seat.
This was my fave dish - Sotong and Prawn Chilli. You could even ask them to throw in some
petai (stink bean) but i did not coz i hate the stink of it (pinch nose). This was a very reasonable RM 10 dish for 4 of us.I especially enjoyed the freshness of the prawn.
This place is famous for it's Muar Asam Fish. We took a small piece of sting ray which cost us only RM 8.50. Sorry Merlin, i thought your sauce was just sour and lacked the aromatic spices. And why don't they ever throw in some lovely sauce-absorbing vege in them like brinjal, lady fingers or tau pok? Mum certainly does it better! (hint hint).
For some reason, dear went bonkers over this plate of Stir Fried Kangkung in Belacan (RM 6). It wasn't too salty or overpowering with belacan. The best he ever tasted, he claims. I'm pretty sure he'll go nuts over it again when he sees this picture.
Our final stop was Muar's famous Glutton Street.
You can find food here anytime of the day and night. The wan tan mee is famous here but i did not join the queue coz i didn't like the
char siew they used. You know those kind that just looks artificially red and dry? Hmmmm...i like mine a bit fatty and burnt. :p
I personally tried Muar's Chicken and Pork satay.
The meat was little but tasty, and i found the chicken meat more tender. Here, they serve satay with cut cucumbers and pineapple pieces.
This is Fried Oyster Egg from one of the coffeeshops. Not too bad, but not too great either. The best stall that serves HUGE oysters only opens in the afternoon. And i was too early! boohoo.
Mum bought these to be fried back home. Not sure how it works but i can tell you i was immediately turned off by that piece of
char siew.
Not all was heavenly tasting though. I hated this particular fried turnip cake (
loh bak gou) from one of stalls by the roadside (sorry, did not notice the name).
Both corner coffeshops sell really good
siu yok (roast pork). Damn, they were goooooood.
Blardy hell, it's
Ling ngao soup!! ok, that's my mum's home made soup, not some Muar specialty. And the pineapple you see in the background is from Melaka as well. You'd think the satay seller gives you that much of pineapple eh?
After a 3-hour eating frenzy in Muar, we had our own feast back home in Melaka that night.
See how happy my dad looked.
hahahaha..
