: : Seng Kee Seafood ~ Miri : :

About 2 weekends ago, I made a trip back to Miri for Dad’s 55th birthday. On the night I arrived, Dad and Sina’ brought me out to eat some seafood at a place I’ve not been before. As always, I’m game to try out new stuff.

We made our order and I went around looking for things to take a snapshot. This is the famous Betutu Fish which is really expensive. I think it goes for something like RM30-RM50 (USD7.90 – USD13.10) per kilogram. Not sure about the English name though. It’s a type of coral fish which is very fleshy and the flesh itself is tender and juicy. It’s a sea fish. Famous in Asia and is known to be more expensive than what it actually costs in Miri. Sina’ and Dad usually goes down to a nearby town called Berkenu to eat this fish fresh and also, it’s definitely cheaper.

One of my favourite dishes : Drunken Prawn. The prawn used is the freshwater version, hence it’s big claws. Live prawns are dark grey with long blue claws. The size of the prawn can reach as big as one’s hand. The dish is cooked in ginger and chilli as well as a huge dose of Chinese Wine added in. Why drunken prawn? Well, from what I heard, the live prawn is cook in Chinese Wine, making it drunk. Hee hee… for us, we tend to use the frozen prawn as it’s cheaper and frankly speaking, we couldn’t tell the different between the cooked frozen prawn and the cooked live prawn. Anyway, we had to get this dish changed because the prawn was off. Yeah, it happens, even to us. That’s the thing about seafood – every once in a while, you’ll get something that is not fresh.

There are steam fish and there are STEAM FISH. We’ve always enjoyed eating fish and I’ve grown up eating them a lot. This is Steamed Garupa with soy sauce. Fried chopped garlic was added on later. Notice the plate is on a rack. Underneath the rack is a little candle to keep the meal nice and warm. It’s common in Chinese Restaurants in Asia to have this kind of plate and rack together to keep the fish moist and warm. Note that certain garupas has sweet and tender flesh that is suitable for this type of steaming method. There are some types whose flesh is kind of hard and more suitable for deep frying.

We also ordered a small veggie this. We had cangkuk manis stir-fried with egg. Definitely something good for folks with high blood pressure.

This was the replacement dish suggested by the cook after we sent back the Drunken Prawn. It’s steam prawn with egg white, ginger and (again) a dash of Chinese wine. Why egg white? Well, Sina’ and Dad are eating healthily these days so I just go with the flow. It’s actually not too bad and the flavours just come out.

Where is Seng Kee Seafood? It’s located at Jade Green Garden, a group of shoplots in the middle of the older part of Miri town. It’s behind the MAS office. If you know where to find the ais kacang @ iced peanut shop, it’s in front of this shop. It’s also in front of Apollo Seafood Restaurant. Nice place to eat seafood.

Cheerio all!

5 thoughts on “”

  1. That is a marbled goby or soon hock as we call it in chinese. They are not coral fish. Yes they are expensive and can live in fresh and salt water (need gradual adjustments) but hardly a sea faring species. Estuaries are as close to the sea as you will find them. Caught a few at a local fresh water pond in Kuching. Check out the photos at http://flancer.homeip.net

  2. Hi Wena,

    That betutu fish looks a bit scary. Have you tried eating it yet? The prawns in the bottom picture and the steamed fish look delish. =)

  3. hiya wena
    The pics are making me nolstagic! I especially miss cangkuk manis with fried egg. Actually I never quite work out the name of this dish. So this is called cangkuk manis?

  4. Great looking seafood (I see the inner beauty of the Betutu) and I’m of to scrounge around the Asian supermarkets here to find a fish warming rack.

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