Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock Seafood @ Sitiawan
April 15, 2010 | 43,110 views## This article was also featured on the May 2nd, 2010 edition of The Star’s Sunday Metro section. Here’s the LINK to the article, “Feast From The Sea” ##
It’s a double whammy for today. Sitiawan food posts back to back. For the sake of it, yeah! After all, weekends don’t always come in a mega-luscious, enticing and enviable THREE days. 🙂
We Perakians have them good, for the next Monday’s a holiday. Long live the Sultan of Perak …. for this translates to another weekend marathon of rejuvenation, and FOOD!
Sa Jui Yee is seemingly known as Garfish. Or so I was told. Garfield-Fish? Nah …..
So we had seafood for lunch on consecutive weeks. Sometimes, we really really do LURVE our job. Last week’s Kampung Cina’s Villa Seafood feast was good enough (and do take note that they’re relocating soon, to a brand new outlet on the same road as Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock’s), we returned to Kampung Cina again today for lunch.
This time around, the chosen restaurant was Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock Seafood Restaurant; a restaurant which popularity has since been elevated a few folds after being featured in Taste of Jason – A famous local TV show highlighting food finds all over Malaysia, hosted by Axian.
We started the feast by ordering 4 dishes to be devoured among the 3 of us. Then the fickle-minded nature took over, and we added another prawn dish. Then another serving of scallops. Ended up with more than we could chew/suck/lick/bite ….
Arriving rather early for lunch, we were taken aback by the serene (read : empty) surroundings, for we half-expected the place to be packed, no thanks to the publicity in various media. (This restaurant was also featured in The Star’s Metro section once).
But as time went by, the people started waltzing in. Before we knew it, the air-conditioned portion of the restaurant was packed! Hint : Arrive early, preferably before 1pm, as the table next to us waited for more than half an hour for their food to arrive!
The crispy deep-fried “Sar Jui Yee” or Garfish was a perfect starter to the meal. Crunchy on the outside from the deep-frying, yet not overly greasy, the insides of the fish was succulent and sweet. We had no qualms on walloping the fish, with bones and all. But do be cautious with the prickly, sturdier ones. RM10/USD2.80 for a platter of 6 pieces.
The “Siong Tong La La” was unlike the conventional steamed clams with ginger, but instead arrived in a soup-like manner, with soft, boiled cucumber slices, chopped ginger and scallions, as well as Chinese parsley. A little sting from the ginger added into the soup, with a peppery finish, this could possibly be the highlight of the meal. And they did not skimp on the clams either. (RM14/USD4 for the large bowl)
The ones that went wrong ….. memory blockage?
The “Nai Yau” (Butter Cream) Prawns we ordered ended up as Assam Prawns instead. Aiks, but we did not send them back. Not after 15-20 minutes of wait.
The prawns paled in comparison to the fresher, meatier ones at Villa Seafood. Some with roes, some without, the Assam gravy did not work for us in the end. More curry paste than piquant/tangy assam, we wished we had them steamed instead. Or gave us the Nai Yau Har we wanted. (RM14/USD4 for about 7-8 pieces of medium sized prawns)
Fried Sotong with Curry Powder (RM10/USD2.80)
The deep-fried battered squids were a little soggy, probably from the batter they used. But the robust flavour from the curry powder used was a welcoming change from the average fried sotong with plain, tasteless flour. For added kick, dip these springy, chewy creations in the famous local produce; Kampung Koh’s garlic chili sauce. You’d be licking your lips like us.
And for RM5/USD1.40 each, you do get what you pay for …..
Last but not least, the most memorable part of our lunch had to be the steamed scallops with generous servings of minced fresh and fried garlic, as well as bits of chopped cili padi (bird’s eye chillies). The scallops came in gigantic proportions, you’d be awed at the sheer sizes of some. Imagine a PALM-SIZED scallop, almost rivalling the size of an oyster’s! And they’re really fresh (they’re alive and erm …. hibernating? in the tanks at the front porch of the restaurant), juicy and sweet.
Ample parking spaces, yet not enough space in the air-conditioned area for the lunch crowd
En route to Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock, we stumbled upon many seafood restaurants along the way in Kampung Cina. Yes, at least about 10 of them! You know you’re in seafood haven once driving past these eatery, one after another.
Address & Contact Number :
AH PEK LEE KOU HOCK SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
135, Kampung Cina, 32000 Sitiawan, Perak.
Telephone : 6012-540 9478, 6019-505 5348.
Business hours : 11.00am until 10.00pm.
Closed on Tuesdays.
** Here’s a MAP I have gotten from Parentwonder.com’s review of the place. **
Directions : This restaurant is about 1-2 km away from Villa Seafood Restaurant in Kampung Cina, which I wrote about in the previous post. Once you passed by Villa Seafood on your right, go straight until you reach an intersection. Turn LEFT, and go straight for about 1km. You will see Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock on your RIGHT, after passing by a church, and many restaurants along the way.
Contact me at ipohmotormouth@gmail.com (click on it for a contact form) if you need further assistance, or you feel like treating this Motormouth to a meal. 🙂
Other reviews on Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock Seafood : Places And Foods and Makantrip had opposing views.
For more of my food journeys around Perak, hop over to my PERAK FOOD HUNT page, and enjoy !!!
i think the scallop alone is worth the journey to this village…
the last time i missed the LaLa though…blame nicky for not ordering it for us…haha
thx for sharing…
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J2Kfm Reply:
April 15th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Nicky was here before ah? Hmm, never heard from him one.
Let’s go for seafood again someday?! Eh go find some nice eateries where you’re working. I am coming soon!!! Muahaha ….
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Eh those sar jui yee looks like shishamo fish in jap restaurant, where we could eat the whole thing, bones and all too! LOL!
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J2Kfm Reply:
April 16th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Haha, yeah. But Sar Jui Yee does not have those roes stuffed inside their bellies, unlike shisamo.
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Butter fried sotong…Droooollll
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whao, the steamed fresh scallop really do looks nice!
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J2Kfm Reply:
April 16th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
And yes, they tasted sweet and juicy as well. Initially we did not order that, for we thought the scallops would be the usual 20 cents-size ones. WHen we saw the table next to us slurping their scallops from those HUGE shells, we were hooked.
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is it the shell of the scallop , very HUGE!!!!!! Shocked when I saw it, I thought was some leaf or something =.=”
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Yeah, the HUGE shells got us enticed. And then we ordered the scallops. Nothing like the usual rounded, oyster shell-like appearance huh?
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By the way, is the scallop really like scallop or another type of clam. In Penang, they call this “hai jiao” or sea bird in Hokkien. I am confused because real scallops has a completely looking shell.
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J2Kfm Reply:
April 21st, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I am not sure, Bee. But the lady did introduce them as ‘tai chi’, or scallops in Cantonese. Plus, the chunk (I dunno how else to describe them!) of whitish flesh resembled and tasted uncannily like scallop’s.
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Eh those sar jui yee looks like shishamo fish in jap restaurant, where we could eat the whole thing, bones and all too! LOL!
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Been there last week, tasted it and fainted… The price for two crab ? (small crab) …….RM30 !!!! Thats day light robbery !1 And he owner has the guts to show other restaurant that you can go …. Thats plain arrogant and I’ll not go there anymore (not to mention recommend it to others)… I lived in Kampung Koh and this is my first experience of such in this area.. Disgracing to our Sitiawan community.
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J2Kfm Reply:
January 4th, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Two flower crabs you mean? Aiks … we never tried the meat crabs, hence we did not know the price. But the steamed flower crabs and other seafood were okay, quite reasonable.
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This restaurant is as good as said. My family and I really enjoyed the butter fried squid and siong tong lala and the steam fish. Marvellous and very reasonably priced. Keep it up Ah Pek. You made our day and our trip from KL a worthy trip.
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J2Kfm Reply:
May 18th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Hi Simon. That’s great. I have been back a second time, and was surprisedd that they cut out my article and posted that on the wall.
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Is this place far from Damai Laut ya? Tot wanna pay a visit there during my Damai Laut Swiss Garden trip 🙂 Pls advice, tq!
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J2Kfm Reply:
May 30th, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Not very far! But of course, it’s still a distance away. If you’;re going Damai Laut, consider having seafood at Pantai Remis, since that’s nearer by a little.
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The food in this place was not as good as last year. Maybe they are too good in business. We just came back yesterday.
The food that we ate :
1. Rice – too hard (like yesterday leftover & recook)
2. Salted Egg Crab – Different from previous year menu. look more like chop salted egg fried crab.
3. Deep-fried “Sar Jui Yee” or Garfish – was not as crispy as last time.
4. The “Nai Yau” (Butter Cream) Prawns – look more like honey prawn with honey taste without butter cream only & too sweet.
5. Steamed Fresh Scallop – This one still maintained standard.
6. Fried Sotong – This one can eat.
7. Garlic Fried Yau Mak – This fry vege taste can be eaten every where in Malaysia.
Thats the conclusion of what we get yesterday.
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Bad service ever!They changed my orders.Very disappointed!
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Service very very bad. We arrived at 6pm on Sunday evening and requested one of the lady at cash counter to clean up our table. She did not do that but went to take order for another 2 tables who arrived later than us. Waited for the food for 1 hour and 30mins, food taste so so only and not worth it for our time to wait for so long. Will not recommend to friends and will not come back again. Really disappointed.
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Sitiawan Food – Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock Seafood @ Kampung Cina | Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog
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Sitiawan Food – Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock Seafood @ Kampung Cina | Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog