With the closure of Hai Ching, we made a beeline for Jia Siang, another Hakka-run seafood restaurant in Pulau Betong, for lunch yesterday. Jia Siang operates the same way as Hai Ching did - you buy fresh fish & other seafood from the fish market next door, and bring those here to be cooked according to the way you want it.
Our lunch yesterday consisted of:
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Sweet-sour flower crabs - this is a Penang variation upon Singapore chili crabs, sans the chili heat. The version here was perfect - the sweetness and sourness were never too assertive, and balanced each other out very well. The crabs were fresh from the sea that same morning, and were alive minutes before.
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Spicy-sour steamed white pomfret* - this dish delivers the “typical” Penang flavours: sour (from tamarind and tomatoes), spicy (from the addition of small, red chilis/habaneros) and fragrant from the crushed lemongrass stalks.
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Prawns with salted ducks’ egg-yolks - shell-on prawns, blanketed in a rich, salted ducks’ egg-yolk sauce, which is ALL the rage in Singapore and Malaysia this past couple of years. A scattering of curry leaves provided an intoxicating scent to the dish. Unfortunately, the prawns weren’t too fresh this time - thawed frozen ones, as the fishermen haven’t gone out to see since the Chinese New Year festival started 10 days ago.
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The obligatory greens - Stir-fried Romaine lettuce greens, which turned out to be my favourite dish: just a simple quick stir-fry with garlic and perhaps a touch of light soy sauce.
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Umbra and lime juice with salted plums - these are pretty refreshing. We actually asked for chilled nutmeg juice, but were served umbra juice instead, but it was a fortunate error, as we rather liked this over the usual nutmeg.
Overall, it was a pretty satisfying lunch - simple and rustic. We do miss the now-defunct Hai Ching, but Jia Siang fills in that vacuum pretty well.
Address
Jia Siang
No. 321, MK 7, Pulau Betong, 11020, Balik Pulau, Penang.
Tel: +6019 746 8465
Operating hours: 11.30 am-6:30 pm daily. Closed on Thursdays.
