Hello My Friends, It's TACO TUESDAYS time!
As usual I make my Taco-Tuesdays post on Tuesdays as a part of commuity routine themed post in FreeCompliments Community. Today topic is about live seafood, Live Seafood means that those fishes are kept alive and they catch and cook it as per order or fresh to order.
Of course not all the fishes are fresh alive, only some fishes are kept it alive and they put a high price tag on them. For some people who like seafood, they can differ the taste. The freshness and the taste are absolutely a lot better.
Unfortunately all of my family members are like these... We know and feel the difference... So a few days ago, we decided to get some live seafood to celebrate my father's 77th birthday.
The Preparation
We came to some unknown restaurant because my brother said that the vote was awesome.. I was quite surprised when I was entering the outlet, because usually live seafood restaurant has many aquarium to showcase the live fishes and shrimps and crabs... This one was not like that, their selection was very limited.
So usually my mother told me to get the fishes... why me? because my family thought that I could pick a good fish. In past I had plenty of aquariums and I kept various fishes from freshwater, brackish and salt water one. So they believed I knew fishes more than them so they asked me to pick one...
Well, I love seeing fishes but not to point my fingers and see their live end right away... but That was my job that time, become the Grim Reaper
and my choice was this dude:
This dude was a 800gram Brown-marbled grouper, or people called it as KERAPU MACAN (Tiger Grouper) because of its marbling color.
As I have picked the victim, I went to my family table and realized something...
We were the only customer they had that time, it was on the peak of lunch hours and nobody came beside us... I told my brother directly...
WE GOT SCAMMED!!!
THE FOOD
Well finally the food was coming. Because my father is a grumpy old grandpa who dislike foodies... he always get mad when people taking picture of the food, so I could not take all the food pic and most pics I have taken aren't the good ones... but atleast they aren't awful..
This was the lucky dude... or unlucky dude... well its the same he would die anyway. The presentation was not so great, but the smell was... GREAT!!
So we divided the fish into for small portion. It was a hongkong steam style dish, so the soup was a soy sauce based with strong smell of ginger and spring onion. I had to admit the taste was great, and kept me wondering why people did not come to this outlet...
There were several side dishes we ordered, but its hard to get some good picture of them due to my grumpy old man. On the top left corner we had boiled blood clam, the taste was so so, not quite fond of it. On the center there were two plate...
The left one is deep fried calamary. The taste was outstanding, the squid was fresh although its not the live one. the right one is Medanese style of Fuyunghai. Fuyunghai or Egg Foo Young is an omelette dish, however Medanese people make this as a scrambled egg dish. The taste was great too, above my expectation.
The last one was my favorite. It was a grilled Giant Freshwater Prawn, if you want to google this, try its latin name: Macrobrachium rosenbergii. This is one of my all time favorite, and it's getting harder to get this dishes nowadays. So I ordered this one despite its not a seafood.
Because I liked this prawn a lot, no matter how bad it is I still taste it great... I do not like the sauce, but the meat, the seasoning was great too.
The Bill and Feedback
Well I spend more than 1 million rupiah for 4 of us and this is how it looks in USD:
Seafood is never being a cheap or budget meals and will never be like that too. However I still believe the price was a good one, although some were not cheap, the live fish was actually a steal.
860 gram of grouper for a less than 15 USD. Definitely that's a steal. Other place around here, Jakarta - Indonesia, will set a price of $25-40 for that size of fish.... can double of the price.
The most expensive one was the Giant River Prawn, almost $7 each of them. Well as I said before, its getting harder to get this one, and of course the price keeps rising too. In the past people could get them on big rivers, however nowadays they had to cultivate on prawn embankment... unless they want to venture to some wild crocodile haven, because these prawns usually live near crocs.
Now the big questions is why they don't get have many visitors...
This is their outlet, Seafood Center. As I am saying this, I hope I do not harm them but help them instead... So here is my opinions why I think they are not thriving despite selling their live seafood in very affordable price with great taste..
- The naming is awkward... When you said Seafood Center, what gets into your mind is a big vast place with many fishes, crabs, prawns, and many other seafoods frozen or alive... But the fact is that their place is not that big, and their fish selection is very limited.
- Too many competitors... Near them there are two strong brands, Bandar Djakarta and Sentosa... and many medium to small sized restaurants who have the same target market as them... Even you are great, if the market was divided into many... you won't get enough for yourself.
Honestly, if I want to get some seafood again, I won't come to this outlet because there are many seafood outlets there that I want to try. However I feel bad for them because their live steam fish tastes very great. So if you are by occasion is near on Pantai Indah Kapuk - Jakarta, and want to try some cheap live grouper, try this place
https://maps.app.goo.gl/r7Qt5BSivheeeVzm8
Well atleast this is what I can do, promoting their live grouper. I hope they can survive there, because the competition for restaurant there is hellish.
Anyway thanks for reading my Taco Tuesdays Post... Have a good day and of course... I hope you have a great meal too
Posted Using InLeo Alpha