Hai Boey Seafood

Tucked deep into the southern corner of Penang Island; facing a beautiful natural bay protected by pristine hills on its side where leaves of coconut trees sway ever so elegantly in the evening breeze and gentle waves wash ashore creating the soothing sound; one can easily find peace upon arriving at this place. If you are unlike the majority of Penangites who are so particularly worried about getting sand into their car; try walk along the beach bare-footed as the fine sand massages your feet to give you natural relaxation. Among the stars that are scattered across the night sky, you will occasionally see blinking lights at the distant sky among the stars amplifying as it approaches you; no it is not UFO; it is the aeroplane that fly towards or away from the nearby Penang International Airport. With less crowd compared to the famous tourist belt of Batu Ferringhi, the beach here is perfect for someone who wish to calm his/her soul and escape from the hectic fast paced city life. Hai Boey Seafood located in a place that reminds one of paradise lost.

The scenery is the perfect appetizer to get your stomach ready for some great seafood that Hai Boey has to offer! Some of the recommended dishes include, salted egg crabs, Thai style steamed fish, deep fried brinjal, stir fried kapar clams, dark soya sauce steamed fish, Nyonya coconut prawn (娘惹椰盅虾), claypot steamed Grouper fish (生煲海班) and stir fried mantis prawn.

Drive towards the Penang International Airport from the city, once you passed the airport; keep going straight until you hit a road sign that points left to Gertak Sanggul. Turn left into Gertak Sanggul and you should be able to see the Hai Boey signboard after about 5-10 minutes.

 

Some prefers the luxury of classy fine dining restaurants with piped in Jazz music and all those artificial settings; but what makes a magical dining experience is to be able to spend quality time with your family in a simple, modest natural settings where you can find a peace of mind and recharge.

Stir Fried Crab With Salted Egg @ Sembawang

There are many different ways to cook a crab and the most common three are either baked, steamed or stir fried (炒螃蟹). For the stir fried way, there are many varieties as well, you can choose to stir fried the crab with cheese, black pepper, chilly and many other spices depending on where you go. But my all time favorite is to stir fried the crab with salted egg (咸蛋)!

I first came to know this when I stumbled upon a very modest food court in Singapore. I like the smaller scale of this food court as it is not very crowded compare to other food courts located in shopping malls all across Singapore. And this wonderful dish was sold at a crazily affordable price at the Broadway Food Centre, Sembawang, Singapore. It is surrounded by HDB flats and within walking distance from the Sembawang MRT Station and Sun Plaza, this place is easily accessible. If you stay in one of the HDB blocks around the vicinity, you can just take a relax stroll to this place and order two crabs for just S$25! 

The flesh of crab itself already has great taste, but when its natural sweetness combines with the saltiness of salty egg, it is simply magical! This is the wonderful thing about cuisine, it is all about the combination of tastes to take the fabulous dish to the next level so that people simply can't get enough ot it and desire for more! Cooking is much like composing music; when different notes are put together, a new melody is created. Cuisine is indeed an art!

Besides the melting pot of tastes, the end result of a dish is also very much depends upon the way it is cooked. Sometimes inexperienced chef who overcooked the crabs would make the flesh sticks to the shells and taste dryer at the same time. To make someone completely satisfies with his dining experience, first the environment of the place has to be comfortable, the food is well presented, delicious and finally it must not be a hassle while eating it. If you were to spend half of the time struggling to get the flesh out of the shell, do you think you will enjoy it? This does happen to some other places I have been to but not for this stall in Sembawang. Although stir fried, the flesh can still be easily separated from the shell while the juiciness of it was retained at the same time. When you have finish devoured all the flesh within the shell, you will find yourself licking the gravy around every single shell that has it, it was much more 'finger licking good' than KFC. It was that good!