A Stuffed Pig. And The Things They Stuffed Me With
Ahh... steamboat. Just the thing to warm you up on a cold winter's night. But it's not winter here in good ol' Mal-to-da-Aysia. In fact, it's never winter here! Still, a steamboat dinner is nice to have once in a while in the company of family or friends when the rain starts pouring down.
With that in mind, lil' fat monkey and I gathered a few friends and tromped over to Coca, noted steamboat restaurant chain. Curiously enough, we ended having almost everything on the menu (well not almost everything, but still a lot) except steamboat.
Go figure.
As it turned out, Coca isn't just a steamboat restaurant. It's got plenty of either stuff on their menu, mainly Thai-ish style seafood dishes. And we couldn't help but be tempted to try a little of each.
We were a little late for Halloween but not too late to find ourselves face-to-face with a wolf in sheep... erm... I mean, shrimp's clothing. That would be the Stuffed Prawns, where fish paste is literally stuffed into a prawn shell then deep fried. It had a very interesting taste, more meaty than any self-respecting fish would be but then I suppose fish that disguise themselves as prawns may not be very self-respecting. It was a bit on the salty side, though. A case of taking the food out of the sea, but not the sea out of the food, perhaps?
We also had the Curry Crab. It looked just like sweet and sour crab, but the flavour was definitely... different. We had a side of fried man tou to go with it, which made a really good companion to the dish (not much of a bread person myself, but I'd eat fried anything).
Since McCutie has an aversion to crustaceans, we ordered the Pattaya BBQ Chicken for him. I must confess, I stole some of it. Hehe. A good move it was, as the chicken turned out quite nicely, in a honey-teriyaki grill kind of way.
Back to the seafood - Thai-style steamed fish. Yummy yummy. As "Thai-style" would suggest, it was sour and a little spicy (but just a little), and sorta tomyam-y, probably due to lemongrass. Steaming fish like this can only work with fresh fish, and this fish was assuredly fresh. I think I might have even walked past it on my way in, but I'd rather not think of that, thank you.
Speaking of tomyam, the Seafood Tomyam Soup was dee-licious! Thick the way I like it, strong sour taste without being overpowering, spicy but not stomach-churning spicy, and even a little sweet, which I believe is thanks to the loads of prawns that were swimming in the soup. I like...
Honestly, I was too stuffed by then to properly enjoy the desserts. This coming from the guy who frequently tells anyone who cares to listen that he has a separate stomach for desserts. The Thai-style desserts were pretty run-of-the-mill though whoever came up with the idea of serving durian paste with the Mango with Glutinous Rice should be commended (or shot, depending on whether or not you're a fan of the king of fruits). Maybe I'd try the Cendol with Durian the next time I pop by, but right now I'm still too stuffed to think about it.
Yes, even though it's been two days since I had that dinner.
Damn, there goes my hopes of slimming down for the year-end.
With that in mind, lil' fat monkey and I gathered a few friends and tromped over to Coca, noted steamboat restaurant chain. Curiously enough, we ended having almost everything on the menu (well not almost everything, but still a lot) except steamboat.
Go figure.
As it turned out, Coca isn't just a steamboat restaurant. It's got plenty of either stuff on their menu, mainly Thai-ish style seafood dishes. And we couldn't help but be tempted to try a little of each.
We were a little late for Halloween but not too late to find ourselves face-to-face with a wolf in sheep... erm... I mean, shrimp's clothing. That would be the Stuffed Prawns, where fish paste is literally stuffed into a prawn shell then deep fried. It had a very interesting taste, more meaty than any self-respecting fish would be but then I suppose fish that disguise themselves as prawns may not be very self-respecting. It was a bit on the salty side, though. A case of taking the food out of the sea, but not the sea out of the food, perhaps?
We also had the Curry Crab. It looked just like sweet and sour crab, but the flavour was definitely... different. We had a side of fried man tou to go with it, which made a really good companion to the dish (not much of a bread person myself, but I'd eat fried anything).
Since McCutie has an aversion to crustaceans, we ordered the Pattaya BBQ Chicken for him. I must confess, I stole some of it. Hehe. A good move it was, as the chicken turned out quite nicely, in a honey-teriyaki grill kind of way.
Back to the seafood - Thai-style steamed fish. Yummy yummy. As "Thai-style" would suggest, it was sour and a little spicy (but just a little), and sorta tomyam-y, probably due to lemongrass. Steaming fish like this can only work with fresh fish, and this fish was assuredly fresh. I think I might have even walked past it on my way in, but I'd rather not think of that, thank you.
Speaking of tomyam, the Seafood Tomyam Soup was dee-licious! Thick the way I like it, strong sour taste without being overpowering, spicy but not stomach-churning spicy, and even a little sweet, which I believe is thanks to the loads of prawns that were swimming in the soup. I like...
Honestly, I was too stuffed by then to properly enjoy the desserts. This coming from the guy who frequently tells anyone who cares to listen that he has a separate stomach for desserts. The Thai-style desserts were pretty run-of-the-mill though whoever came up with the idea of serving durian paste with the Mango with Glutinous Rice should be commended (or shot, depending on whether or not you're a fan of the king of fruits). Maybe I'd try the Cendol with Durian the next time I pop by, but right now I'm still too stuffed to think about it.
Yes, even though it's been two days since I had that dinner.
Damn, there goes my hopes of slimming down for the year-end.
2 Comments:
eat first and worry later.. if you don't eat, you won't have the energy to slim down right?? hehehe :p
Wow, that's the first time I've seen their ala carte menu on display. Usually go for their steamboat only.
Post a Comment