BBQ fish anyone? and other Kampung Tanjung Karang, Malaysia General Tips

Favorite Thing: Getting there
I guess I am rather given to impulse, but to drive 60 km out of town just for fish? Are you sure? asked my husband. Anyway, I won him over & so we set off at around noon on Saturday.

We knew the way but had not anticipated the traffic jam at around Sg Buloh. That was rather bad (we promised ourselves that if we go back, we'll try a different route the next time). By the time we reached K. Selangor, it was already 2pm! Stopped for a quick bite of roti chanai at a coffee shop, then continued on our way.
Found the turn off to Bagan Pasir just outside the town of Tanjung Karang. Upon entering the fishing village, we did not know where to go. Had we arrived too late to catch the boats? Urghs, the kids were getting restless too!

Ermmm, What's that smell?
Then we noticed a covered pier where some vehicles were parked. We decided to stop there & hopped out of the car. The kids said "Phee Yew, what IS that smell".

Indeed, not much was happening, and we did wonder whether we had indeed gotten there too late (around 3pm). But for a few cuttlefish and tiny prawns, most of the containers were empty, leaving behind only some melted icy fishy water. But, there were customers standing around, obviously waiting for something... But what? Within minutes, all was revealed, when a fishing boat arrived on the pier, and suddenly, there was a sense of bustle and excitement in the air.

In the end, we managed to *catch* two fishing boats (hehe, like the little humour?).

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To cut a long story short, basically the fishermen sell their entire catch to the wholesaler. The wholesaler then sorts and weighs the fish and pays the fisherman, before putting aside those fish that are meant for special customers and pre-orders, and only then do the retail customers who are present have a chance to quickly grab (and I do mean *grab*) whatever they want to buy.

Fondest Memory: All's well that ends ...with a Barbeque:

We spent about RM85 on 2 kg of medium and large prawns (You can not choose, you just grab whatever is left, haha), and RM45 on fish, (3 small white pomfret at RM15, RM5/kilo for a large yellow "eel" looking fish (my dad says it was an eel but who knows for sure?), the whole fish was only RM20 and we made 5 meals out of it!, balance on small sized selar, cuttlefish and catfish (patin) look alike.)

If we had a freezer, we would have stocked up and purchased even more!

The next day, we had a Barbeque, with lamb, beef, cuttlefish, prawns (marinated with ginger juice and dark soy sauce, wrapped with pandan leaf), and delicious fresh fish (marinated with chopped tomato, basil and other herbs, and rock salt, wrapped in banana leaf, and covered with foil).

Scrumptious & yummy!

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Favorite Thing: The dragon fruit was newly introduced to Malaysia and can be found here at Kuala Selangor and also in and around Negeri Sembilan. There are two main types of dragon fruit - white flesh with tiny black seeds and pink flesh with tiny black seeds, both are mildly sweetish or bland, depending on your luck. The type commonly found in Malaysia is the first type, although it is said that the pink type (that is grown in places such as Taiwan) is sweeter. Both types are very quite succulent and juicy, and with a pleasant and mild fragrance, and tastes good with ice-cream or jellies. Besides being tasty, they're also good for you as they contain a lot of Vitamin C.



I managed to get a picture of the tree and the flower but the trees were not mature enough to have any fruits yet. Don't you think the tree looks really interesting? It has the appearance of a cactus, in dark green, with longish branches right at the top but no leaves. Usually, the tree is supported by another long stick so that it can grow higher above the ground.


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