Seafood at Bei Hai, Selayang

I apologize but this post is about food again! *gasp* I was simply a glutton when I was in KL during the Merdeka weekend, and I couldn't help but to take pictures of the lovely food I've tried. Anyway, this dinner was held with a meaning... it was my grandfather's birthday! If I'm not mistaken, he's 78 this year and still going strong! *applause* As usual, all members of our immediate family plus my aunt and uncle gathered to celebrate with him.

Following my uncle's suggestion, we went to this place in Selayang called Bei Hai restaurant. Just next door was a seafood place called Jinn Chwan, where they specialized in just selling raw seafood.

Bei Hai and Jinn Chwan at Selayang

This way, customers could take their pick from the fresh seafood in Jinn Chwan and pay for it, and the staff at Jinn Chwan would pass them over to Bei Hai for them to cook. Smart idea eh? Both are totally unrelated and yet, they co-exist to help each other out.

Large variety of live seafood for your pickings

Seafood from Jinn Chwan

Anyway, the ladies (meaning my aunt, mom and grandma) were left to do the tedious task of choosing the freshest seafood possible while the rest of us headed to wait in the restaurant. As we were quite early, the place was rather empty, which was good!

Interior of Bei Hai restaurant

My mom and I chose this watch for grandpa and I think he loved it because he wore it right away. ;)

A little something we got for grandpa

After waiting for 10 minutes and still no sign of the ladies, I knew it was going to be a looong wait before dinner was served. You know how ladies could just procrastinate and haggle. *LOL* So I suggested to my dad to order something to eat first while waiting. Fried rice and fried noodles Malay style were recommended by the restaurant staff. Sounded fine by me. The fried rice was fragrant from afar and it had mini anchovies inside, which was not a common ingredient for most chinese fried rice. But boy, did it taste good! Or maybe I was just hungry. *LOL* The noodles were more well-received, judging by how most of us wanted a second helping.

Fried rice

Fried noodles Malay style

Then, our first main dish arrived. It was a plate of gigantic, humongous, huge, monstrous *inserts any synonym of Large* fresh oysters! I had not eaten oysters as large as this before and the sight of it almost made me wince. Well, after looking at it for a few more minutes, I felt better and attempted what most other people at the table were already busy doing. Squeezing lemon juices onto the oysters. The fishy smell was rather pungent, thank God for the lemons!

Humongous fresh oysters

Look at how huge it was compared to my fingers. Somehow in this case, I have to say 'less is more', because I realized the larger the oyster was, the more smelly it became. I don't remember eating oysters with smell as pungent as these last time. Tell me what you think. Maybe it's just a personal opinion. I did not even chew on the oyster meat properly for fear of the 'explosion' of fishy smell within my mouth. *LOL*

Close up view of oyster

Next dish came and I was saying my blessings to know that it was a cooked dish. Steamed fresh and succulent prawns, right from the seawater. The prawns definitely deserved two thumbs up because of the juicy and sweet meat. The meat was really sweet in itself, I kid you not. No seasoning whatsoever needed. Just perfect on its own.

Steamed prawns

Then came the steamed grouper. I suppose you can't really go wrong with steamed dishes as long as the raw seafood itself is fresh. The grouper was indeed fresh, the meat was flaky and firm.

Steamed grouper

We ordered roasted chicken as well. The presentation was interesting, but the taste was just normal. Nothing special in this dish.

Roasted chicken

Oh, look at those crabs! Can you hear them beckoning you to eat them? Indeed the outlook was very impressive, but the meat within was not as fresh though, somewhat pasty, if you get what I mean. Displeased, my aunt went down to confront the Jinn Chwan seafood staff and got back her refund. Oh yes, my family is picky like that. -.-"

Steamed crabs

Enough about food! More pictures of human. Here is a cute picture of my dear grandpa with my brothers, trying to act cute. *shakes head*

Grandpa with brothers

Picture with beloved grannies.

witch with grannies

With mom and dad.

witch with mom and dad

Another picture of my brothers having fun.

Brothers acting cute again

Picture with drunk Saucer. It must have been an overdose of red wine that night. Look at how red his face was! *LOL*

Drunk Saucer and Witch

And finally, the pretty chocolate brithday cake! I told my grandma that there were chopsticks on the cake (in fact, I meant decorative chopsticks), and she thought they were real chopsticks and took them off the cake! So cute!

Chocolate cake

If you ask me, I wouldn't go back to Bei Hai restaurant again except for the fried rice and fried noodles. Oh and the prawns. Otherwise, the rest were all pretty normal. :) I don't know why so many people made a big fuss on how well-known and great this seafood place is. Maybe they haven't tried the good ones from Penang. :P Anyway, it's always the company that matters most, and I had a wonderful wonderful time in the company of my dearest family.

Bei Hai Restaurant
No.10, Jln Bidara 2/4,
Taman Bidara, 68100 Selayang
Tel: 03 - 6138 3688