[Travelogue] Kuala Lumpur- Gettin’ Fresh with Keong Kee!

Dining at Keong Kee begins with a shopping spree at their live seafood shop. As you can imagine, I have stepped into candy land! Countless species of crab, fish, clams, prawns, mussels, turtles, lobsters! C’mon.. of course we got carried away! And what a scrumptious Saturday lunch! Things can’t get any fresher around here!Highlight for me, hands-down, would be the Soon Hock Fish (Marble Goby), simply steamed Hong Kong style with superior soy sauce. You’d expect a fish this size to be tough but it was 1.7 kilos of firm, tender, sweet flesh that comes apart effortlessly with the scrap of a spoon. Not a second overcooked, so vital with fish, whether they’re steamed, fried or braised. Heavenly! I was rewarded the majestic fish head which I devoured in slow motion! In the old days, the prized collagen-filled fish head is always offered to the head of the family! How honored I was, considering I was the youngest at our table😜! Making sure I was deserving of my prize, I carefully peel apart every flap, gill and lip to get to every sliver of succulent flesh, glutinous membrane, soft cheek and gelatinous throat… leaving clean shiny pieces of a deconstructed carcass! Mom would be proud! So next time you pick out a Soon Hock, be brave and pick out a big one! You won’t regret it!The Lobster and Geoduck were served 2 ways; choose between sashimi or poached in hot pot. The freshly slaughtered sashimi lobster meat was undoubtedly delicious, with a nice soft bite to it. The hot pot was a fantastic herbal broth which had us slurping away, and asking for refills! It was subtly herbal, nothing too overwhelming yet it flavored the lobster meat lightly and nicely. I am not the biggest fan of Geoduck. In this case, I did prefer it raw to poached since the meat toughens up after cooking. As sashimi, Geoduck is crunchy and not the most flavorful; thus the wasabi soy sauce dip is pretty much a must.The Bamboo clams were unlike most I’ve had; the chef had chosen a Thai sauce to go with these freshly caught shellfish. The garlicky, tangy, savory, spicy, sour dressing was very appetizing. Despite the multitude of flavors, the sweetness of the fresh clams wasn’t shadowed. Quite a refreshing change from the usual garlic/ soy sauce combo. A change I could probably get used to!Can’t go wrong with simple poached prawns when they are fresh. I grew up on these! Every visit to a seafood restaurant would guarantee freshly poached live prawns! Keong Kee’s prawns were large, firm and sweet! Just look at that color! No filter required!This wasn’t swimming prior to landing on our table but it certainly wasn’t outshone! Stir Fried Ostrich meat with Peppers turned out pretty fantastic! We don’t commonly get ostrich meat back home, so this was quite a treat…especially when they were super tender and juicy! The onions and peppers cut the barely-there gamey taste. I’m trying to recall if I’ve had a better ostrich and the answer’s “no”…. Maybe if they had all been this good, I would have looked out for it more! I’m gonna remember this great meat option since it is low in cholesterol, fat and kilojoules; yet rich in and iron.Running back to the lobster… no, we are not quite done with that baby! Our final dish, Braised Lobster Noodles! It looked seemingly plain… a pile of chopped up lobster remnants nonchalantly sits amidst a tower of messy yellow noodles! Not the first time I’ve said “Never judge a book by its cover” and I’ll say it again here! The lobster remnants unsuspectingly hid a good amount of meat, the messy noodles sponged up every bit of the umami sweetness culled from the giant crustacean! We were stuffed! But still, there was no excuse! Everyone took a big mouthful of this delicious mess! And it was worth moving that notch to the very end on that belt!

Clockwise from top left: Squid… grilled just right! Tender and soft albeit a tad ordinary. The mandatory vegetables, stir fried young Shanghai Greens topped with crispy silver fish. Soft tofu, fried then braised in brown sauce with shimeji mushrooms.