Seatown Chinese Restaurant Serving East Asia Cuisines

Boiled Chicken

Heard of this restaurant from one Malaysian friend. So our group of, 'jalan jalan cari makan friends', decided to give the new restaurant a try. We first made arrangements to meet at my place, which is quite central. And then, we went together in a convoy of four cars. The new restaurant is located in Pitt Meadows which is about fifty kilometres from the point where we met to start the journey together. Along the journey, there were not much to see in terms of scenery until we got to the city limits of Pitt Meadows. Seatown Chinese Restaurant is located right in the middle of the town and on the main road going through downtown.

Curry Beef

Parking was very convinient, there were ample parking lots behind and in front of the restaurant. Since we arrived in such a big group, and to accommodate all of us, we were separated into two groups. So, the ladies shared a table and the gentlemen took the other beside them. Our intention was to try the restaurant's Malaysian cuisines and especially the Tai Lok Mean. The news we heard was, the chef that used to own the restaurant in Burnaby serving very good and authentic Tai Lok Mean was involved in this new establishment in Pitt Meadows. So, we made this trip to sample and support his new venture. And of cause an excuse for us to get together and to jalan jalan cari makan.

Fried Beef Noodle

Although new as a venture, the restaurant sits in an older building which premise used to house another Chinese restaurant. The dining hall is huge, I counted fifteen smaller tables (four seats) and four large tables (twelve seats). Pretty good size for a small town restaurant. This establishment may be the only Chinese restaurant in the town because I did not see any other in the vicinity. And on their sign outside the restaurant, it mentioned East Asia Cuisines. So, they are announcing that they are not just serving Chinese cuisines but East Asian cuisines. Which is kind of unique.

Tai Lok Mean

The first thing we did after we were shown to our tables was to screen through their menu. And it has a good range of Cantonese and East Asian cuisines. We took several minutes to deliberate what to order and when we finally decided we just order whatever cuisines that we were familiar with. And of cause that included the main cuisines which we came for, the Tai Lok Mean. We were not impressed with the Tai Lok Mean, we unanimously felt that the taste, flavour and authenticity of the noodle cuisine was lacking. Seems like our previous Tai Lok Mean experience was much better. Given the benefit of doubt, may be because it is their second day of opening, we will have to come back a few weeks later to try again.

Shrimp Fried Rice

We ordered quite a few different cuisines, mixing between rice cuisines and noodle cuisines. We wanted to try out as many variety as possible. And the advantage dining with large group of people, we can have a wider range of cuisines. At the end, we ordered about seven different cuisines but doubled on each cuisine for the two tables. We were also pleasantly awarded with the dessert of the day. A bowl of bubur cha-cha for each of us, compliments from the chef. So, in all we had eight courses for the lunch.

Singapore Fried Bee Hoon

Our overall dining experience at Seatown Chinese Restaurant was not up to our expectations. May be because we expect too much for a newly open restaurant. But having said that we felt that the authenticity could have been better than what we have tasted and flavoured in the cuisines prepared by the experienced chef. The cuisines that we ate actually has good taste and flavour but lacks the authenticity of the real Malaysian cuisines. Close but not there yet. But we have faith in the ability of the Malaysian chef, he has proven to be a good chef preparing Malaysian cuisines before. Given the time, he should do well and improve on the authenticity of the East Asian cuisines.

Stir Fried Shrimp with Salted Egg Yolk

Stir Fried Shrimp with Salted Egg Yolk

Sounds like a traditional cuisine, especially with salted egg yolk. Well, traditional or not, it is a wonderfully delicious cuisine with mouth watering taste and flavour of salted duck egg yolk. Cooking this cuisine was my wife's idea because we have eaten such cuisine bartered with salted egg yolk many times before and we really loved it. We have tried salted egg yolk with crab, lobster, squid and fish fillet. In fact, the salted egg yolk blends really well with seafood, especially the ones with thick and hard skins. But, this is the first time, we are cooking this at home.

Salted Egg Yolk Battered Shrimp

The shrimp can be with or without their skins on. I prefer mine peeled but leaving the tail with a bit of skin. After cleaning, drip the shrimps off as much liquid as possible. May be allow it to sit in a container (or basket) with small little holes at the base to drain the liquid away. Then, in a wok, add one spoon of cooking oil followed with five salted duck egg yolks (boiled and cooked then smashed to crumbs) and add the shrimps (500 grams), stir fried for a few minutes until the yolk is evenly coated on all the shrimps and the shrimps turn golden brown with coated egg yolk. Once done, transfer to a serving plate. Can also add some curry leaves for extra flavour and aroma. 

Home Cooked Steamed Fish

Spicy Sweet and Sour Steam Fish

I like fish, either steam, fried or smoked. And, every opportunity that I get, I would like to have at least one fish cuisine during dinner. I have learned many of this wonderful fish cuisine recipes from my mom which I have enjoyed cooking over the years, from curry fish cuisines to steam fish cuisines. Today, I am going to write about the Spicy Sweet and Sour Steam Fish cuisine that you will enjoy too.

First, we would need a whole fish and for the steam fish cuisine, I would prefer a sea fish than a river fish. I have a wider choice with the types of fish I can use for this particular steam fish cuisine but I will settle for seabass, barramundi or silver pomfret. Their firmer meat makes steaming easier and their meat taste great with this cuisine.

Seabass for Steam Fish Cuisine

Once the fish is selected, cleaned and placed in a plate. Put the fish in a steamer to cook first. While waiting for the fish to cook. I can prepare the gravy. I will start with three bulbs of shallots, a clove of garlic, half spoon of preserved soy bean,  and two spoons of fresh chopped chillies. All three of these items are to be blended and the puree added into the hot wok with one spoon full of cooking oil. Allow the gravy to simmer for a short while. Then,  add two spoons of ketchup, one spoon of fine sugar, a pinch of salt for taste and some slice tomatoes. Remove the cooked steamed fish from the steamer and garnish on the fish the sweet and sour fish gravy. This steam fish cuisine is best serve warm.

Stir Fried Fern Shoots

Another cuisine I have prepared along side this steam fish cuisine that I would like to share is the stir fried fern shoots with shrimp in belacan sauce. I bought these shoots from the vegetable stall in the Granville Island Public Market. The fern shoots are kind of a specialy in Sabah and Sarawak. Not so popular back on Peninsular Malaysia but I have tried it several times before and liked it. So, today, I am going to stir fry this vegetable with some shrimps. In the beginning of Spring, there are lots of fern shoots in the wild which is the same vegetable that I just cooked. In Malaysia, I see people picking them but in our parks here, although grown in abundance, people don't collect them.

Lotus Roots with Pork Ribs and Ground Nuts Soup

The soup for the day, would be the Chinese traditional soup, Lotus root with pork ribs and ground nuts. I like this lotus root soup which brings back memories of dining with my mom in Malaysia. She prepares this type of soup nearly three sometimes four times a week. So, I practically, being enjoying this soup for a long long time. Very easy to cook, just throw about 600 grams of sliced lotus roots, 200 grams of pork ribs (or chicken bones) and ground nuts (handful) into a pot of water and let it boil for about two hours on slow heat. Once the nuts have soften, add salt for taste. And ready to be served.

Deer Garden for Some Great Halibut Cuisines

Halibut in Spicy Chilli Sauce

When my family and I dined at Deer Garden Restaurant, we go there for the best Halibut cuisines in Richmond. They have a really wonderful range of the Halibut cuisines. The fish cuisines are so irresistibly good that we have never gotten the chance to actually try any other cuisines of theirs. There are several halibut cuisines catering to different spicy taste buds. I like them all because I have tried every single one of their Halibut cuisines. One of the must try item not on their menu that every patron must ask for when dining there is their in-house chilli sauce. Really wonderful chilli sauce. Not really that spicy but tasty and flavourful.

Fried Halibut in Soy Sauce

Among their Halibut cuisine, I liked the Halibut in Spicy Chilli Sauce best. All their halibut cuisines are set with a bowl of steam rice and a bowl of fish soup. The Fried halibut with Soy Sauce is another Halibut cuisine worth trying out. It is flavourful but there is no gravy with the cuisine. So, ask for their chilli sauce for added flavour. The fish soup is also very tasty and they guarantee no MSG used in their cooking. I actually believe them because I can taste it in the soup. The soup broth was actually from prepared from pure fish bones and besides that I did not feel thirsty after drinking the soup.

Halibut in Black Bean Sauce

The Halibut in Black Bean Sauce cuisine is also pretty flavourful. This particular cuisine is served in two variety. They have the Spicy Black Bean Sauce and the Plain Black Bean Sauce. Again, I have tried both and like them both. Deer Garden is definitely a place to dine with the family but the kids must be old enough to know how to separate the fish bones from the fish meat because the Halibut served are not deboned. Anyway, they have more cuisines that are children friendly that do not have the need to worry about fish bones.

Feted with Sausages and Mash Potato

Polish Sausage with Stir Fried Onion Toppings

My family was invited over to a friend's place for dinner and we were feted with some great home made sausages. It was really simple how the sausages were cooked. I was actually shown how the meal was prepared and learned a new recipe. All the friend did was chopped up some onions and fry them with cooking oil. Once the onions have soften, throw in the polish sausages whole. Add some salt and butter into the pan, and continue stirring and mixing. The aroma from the fried onions just filled up the kitchen and smelt so good.

Sausage and Potato Soup

Next item for the dinner was the mash potatoes. First, the white potatoes were peeled and then boiled. Once soften, the potatoes were mashed and throw into a hot pan with a spoon of cooking oil and a spoon of butter. The mash potatoes were allowed to fry a bit. That was the browning you see on the mash potatoes. In fact, the burn was actually the add flavour. Taste really different and good. The third item in the plate was chopped cucumber pickles. They taste like cucumber pickle prepared by my mom. I like it because it was not too sourish and tasted slightly sweet.

Home Made Sausages

When it was ready to eat, we started with the sausage and potato soup. Some of the polish sausages were boiled for several hours before we actually arrived. And I did not ask how the soup was prepared and what were the ingredients thrown into the soup but I guess must be lots of pepper, bacon bits and potato cuts. We also came home with some homemade liver sausages which he had earlier smoked. And also homemade bread.

One of The Most Famous Penang Cuisine

Penang Lobak

Although this cuisine is found nearly everywhere in Penang, mostly in the Chinese coffee shops that host among others a food cart selling a mix of fried finger food such as shrimp fritters, fried tofu, fried fish cake, crab meat, the thousand year old egg and so on. Lobak, as it is commonly known in Penang and else where in Malaysia among the Chinese, is a must have item. Lobak is actually a mixed of pork marinated with five spice, stuffed in layers of crispy soy skin. Synonymous to Penang Chinese cuisines, Lobak is a delicious meat wrapped fried in oil that originated with the Teochew clan of Penang.

The Famous Lobak

Today, Lobak cuisine is found in every corner of Malaysia through to Singapore. In Singapore it has evolved to form another name and the preparation method is slightly different from the way Lobak is prepared in Penang. But still, the ingredients and components of the Lobak, still remains the same. There are several recipes found on the internet for this authentic cuisine but like always, I like the simple preparation method used by the food cart cooks that make a living selling this cuisine. In fact, they have perfected their skills in Lobak making over the years and no where else can we find so many of such experts except in Penang.

Teochew Lobak

The soy skin for making Lobak is unique. In Penang, we call them the Teochew soy skin because the Teochew people were the ones who first discovered the process in making these unique soy skin. Now, it is mess produced. Even, that it is manufactured by the Teochew people in China and only found in provinces where the Teochew clan lives. The pork filling is a mixture of pork (cut in strips or minced), carrot cubes, taro cubes, and onions. Then, marinate and leave overnight (in the fridge) with five spices and corn flour. I know of some cooks that add cabbages in the pork fillings to increase the volume and cut costs but I rather not use cabbage.

Lobak

When wrapping the fillings into the soy sheet, make sure the stuffings are tightly wrapped inside the Lobak roll to avoiding any of the liquid and fillings from escaping into the cooking oil use for the frying. To glue the ends of the soy sheet together, I use chicken egg. Its like glueing the envelope lid but instead of water, I use chicken egg.

When frying the Lobak roll, use medium or slow heat. So that the inside fillings are well cooked. We cook the Lobak very often at home and occasionally brings them to potlucks and cook outs.

Most Popular Authentic Malaysian Home Cook Cuisine

Simple Coconut Milk Fragrant Rice Cuisine

Nasi Lemak is the most popular authentic Malaysian home cook cuisine. It is rice cooked with thick coconut milk, screw pine leaves and ginger to fragrant the rice. But the cuisines that is served with the fragrant rice can be as simple as boiled eggs and fried anchovies to as elaborate as curry beef rendang. The best, tastiest and flavourful nasi lemak in Malaysia are not necessarily found in three stars or fine dining restaurants but often at road side food carts. Or at some rundown coffee shops in some secluded villages.

Home Cooke Nasi Lemak

But one thing is definite, is that most Malaysians that knows how to cook, knows how to cook the nasi lemak and the simple type of cuisines that are served with it. I like my nasi lemak simple. Sometimes, even with a piece of fried fish, some fried anchovies, some fried ground nuts and a boiled egg. I sometimes marinate the fish fillet and shrimp in tamarind juice before frying. The tamarind juice will add flavour and taste. But as far as I know, only the Penang Baba Nyonya prepare the nasi lemak fried cuisines this way.

Dried Shrimp Sambal

Another cuisine item that is always served with nasi lemak is the chilli paste which we call the sambal. Then, there is the shrimp paste sambal, sardine sambal, plain sambal and so on. My favorite among the sambals for nasi lemak is undoubtedly the dried shrimp sambal. And for the simplest sambal, the sardine sambal is easiest to prepare and cook. The Nasi Lemak has always been synonymous to Malaysian cuisines and will remain so for a long time. There are plenty of recipes out on the internet on preparing and cooking nasi lemak.