Restoran Bak Kut Teh Gabtron, Batu Caves

It has been ages since I've met Vincent, maybe almost a year?

And when we finally arranged for breakfast and Vincent was to suggest a place, it was immediately Bak Kut Teh..hahaha how can I forget Vince who's a huge fan of it?

Since he's the BKT enthusiast, we got him to suggest..

And that's how we ended up at Restoran Bak Kut Teh Gabtron..

Yeah, funny name huh? When I asked Vincent the name of the BKT place, he says it's simply called "Restoran Bak Kut Teh". But upon a closer look at the signage, "Gabtron" was squeezed at a tiny end of the signboard..hahaha

I was told that this place was opened by the grand daughter of the famed "under the bridge" BKT in Klang, which means expect minimal 'extra' ingredients in the BKT..

So we gave our orders and a few minutes later..

Piping hot, smells excellent..

When we were told it's served with just mainly 'bak' (meat), they were not joking..There's no extra condiments like mushrooms, beancurd, bits of veg..heck, there's only 1 type of innards, ie, intestines. And no, there's no yau zhar kwai (fried crullers) too. We felt a void...

But we recovered quickly..hehe..

So, what's left? It's for us to savour the meat, meat, meat and soup!

The verdict? We were there early (before 9 am) and the soup was already thick and sticky (from the gelatine and fat of the porky pork). It's dark based soup, herbally taste was evident and was satisfying to sip it down. The meat- we had different cuts, mainly was quite tender but still gave a nice bite to it. Overall a tasty experience, and yes, other than Klang, there's still some scrumptious BKT out there....

Restoran Bak Kut Teh Gabtron is located at 15 Jalan Sj 1, Taman Selayang Jaya, 68100 Batu Caves, Selangor.

Jin Chwan Seafood Garden, Selayang

Many years ago, I used to go down to Selayang for seafood as my friend's father was a seafood wholesaler there. Uncle would choose some fresh seafood for us and we'll meet at a local restaurant where they'll whip up delightful seafood dishes.

So when Vincent suggested a trip to Selayang for fresh seafood recently, how could I say no? :p

We managed to get to Selayang in good time, lucky for us, traffic was pretty fabulous that day. After many turnings and driving deeper into Selayang, we finally saw Jin Chwan Seafood Garden.. First welcome I got? Full blast of cold air as the Alaskan Crabs were placed at the entrance..Water's ice cold to keep these babies happy..

I had the impression that we were going to a restaurant, but Vincent explained that Jin Chwan is a wholesaler; we'll buy the fresh seafood here and bring to the restaurant of our choice for the preparation.

And gosh, there were plenty of seafood to choose from! After spending quite some time choosing our seafood, we walked over to Kedai Makanan Chef Tam (just a stone throw away, same row) for our dinner.

We bought some beautiful Pearl Clams (RM76)

Figured the best way to cook it was steaming. The sauce, ginger, shallots, garlic and fresh clams combo was simply stunning! The pearl clams were so fresh; the meat was springy and sweet and the killer sauce; it complemented the clams very well.

Some Japanese snails (RM 23) Slightly rubbery, chewy with a hint of Q in texture, the snails were stir fried with dried shrimps and bird's eye chillies. Very appetising indeed. I rather liked this dish too.

For the large sea grouper we got (RM93), the obvious choice was to steam it.

Our fish died in vain. Over steamed, the fish meat was coarse and unrefined. :(. poor fish.

We had a simple vegetable dish of stir fried celery and lily bulbs. Sweet and refreshing. Love the crunch in the veggies.

Some Philippines meat crab (RM126).. We decided to have it prepared 2 methods..

Steamed..

The sauce was way too sparse that I could no savour much of the sweetness. Could have see traces of steamed egg at the base of the plate too. The crabs were quite sweet; meat texture was just ok. Vincent said they were in the tank for too long. :(

The Chilli Crab fared much better.. The sauce was spicy, and sweet sour. A tad different from those I've tried in PJ area, I find this sauce very tasty. Swirls of egg thickens this sauce wonderfully and goes amazingly well with the sweet flavours of the crab. And of course we mopped it up with some fried mantaus (we had steamed too, but the fried ones are much better).

Total cost is RM309 for fresh seafood.

Cooking cost at Kedai Makan Chef Tam (inclusive of rice, drinks and vegetables) RM120.

Jin Chwan Seafood Garden is located at 9, Jalan 2/4, Taman Bidara, 68100 Selayang, Selangor.

Kedai Makanan Chef Tam is located at 6A, Jalan Bidara 2/4, Taman Bidara, 68100 Selayang, Selangor.