Motormouth From Ipoh – Malaysian Food & Travel

Bagan Hailam Seafood Restaurant – A nostalgic throwback to the olden times with dining tables lit by tungsten light bulbs and arranged on a wooden platform hovering over the Klang river and docked ships …

Happy holidays fellow Malaysians. A privilege to be a Malaysian; relishing in the avalanche of public holidays within the first two months of 2013; leading to the most anticipated festive season for the Chinese folks; the Lunar New Year on Feb 10th.

Have you started the preparations yet? Or are you still impervious to the creeping elements of reds or the at-times-annoying tunes blaring over the airwaves and malls? The sea of red lanterns and ornaments (just realized what’s a pussy willow recently … yup, I’m dumb) decked out in plain sight at souvenir shops around PJ had me slightly excited.

I’ll do a post on CNY foodstuff that I like when I’m back in Ipoh. For today? Capitalize on the holiday and here’s a post on Bagan Hailam Seafood restaurant in Port Klang; about half an hour away from PJ. Let’s dine under the stars …..

Unbeknownst to us, there is one ‘floating’ restaurant at the southwest-most tip of Port Klang. Not the easiest place to find though, mind you. Especially in the dark and you’re not familiar with the area. Signboards are there, but can be scarce and slightly misleading. In any case, head for Northport’s direction and look for Bagan Hailam.

Remember I did a post on Medan Muara Ikan Bakar @ Tanjung Harapan? While that ‘Halal’ seafood restaurant is to the western-most tip, Bagan Hailam Seafood is to the east of the same area; facing inwards towards Klang river. A map to come at the end of this post.

Anyway, the restaurant is not viewable from the main road of Lingkaran Sultan Hishamuddin. You have to feel your way in (but there are signboards, no worries) and park on the muddy grounds and walk a short distance towards the restaurant. There can be a healthy crowd here on weekends, thus it’s best to come early (around 6pm will be great, so that you can enjoy the sight of the blue skies turning dark).

We started off with pickled mangoes and salted peanuts to whet the appetite, while I took my stride on the wooden platform circling around the ‘neighbourhood’. Yup, this is part of fishermen village of Northport with residents happily chatting away while watching television under the fluorescent and tungsten lamps hanging from the roof. You can almost feel the aura of their ancestors living their days and surviving through the harder times here.

Anyway, we ordered five dishes to be shared. We skipped the crabs and prawns (for one in the group is allergic to them), but settled for the steamed ‘ma yau’ (threadfin) that was a delicate piece of work; fresh catch with a beautiful firm bite, the ‘ma yau’ that is usually deep-fried was actually good when steamed this way.

The butter mantis prawns dish will go down well with the children; and goes well with a pint of beer. Crunchy, almost hollowed  batter-coated mantis prawns served with a savoury topping of butter, curry leaves & bird’s eye chillies. The Kam Heong bamboo./razor clams (‘chuk tan’) faltered miserably though; the morsels of flesh were not the freshest; reeking of an unpleasant, stale taste.

We capped off the feast with an almost compulsory serving of fried rice vermicelli noodles (bee hoon) with ‘la la’ clams (a Klang’s specialty) and a serving of greens; which was plain stir-fried “choy tham” (brussel sprouts) garnished with fried shallots.

The meal came to about RM20/USD7 or so per person, including rice and Chinese tea. Quite reasonable, I might add, though the razor clams disappointed us somewhat. This will worth your journey here if you enjoy dining under the stars (and somewhat ‘romantic’ light bulbs!); caressed by the gentle breeze.

Their other specialties include crabs cooked in a variety of manners (including grilled crabs) grilled lamb and grilled pork.

BAGAN HAILAM SEAFOOD RESTAURANT (non-Halal)
56, Bagan Hailam
42000 Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia
Dinner only.
Tel No : 019-317 6667
Google Map, GPS : 3.004477,101.38209