scrumptious seafood sunday

we went french and uttered oo la la... as we bit into the lala fried with dried chilli, garlic, onions and bits of ginger.
the spicy clams went amazingly well with the bottle of faustino v rosado rose wine that was brought along to this speck of a seafood restaurant called restoran boontat in pandamaran, port klang, last sunday.
the cherry-red wine with its subtle strawberry flavours did a salsa - the dance - with the spicy lala as we chewed the tender flesh and sipped the fine rose wine. oo la la...
we patiently waited for the next dish as patrons filled up the four tables in the verandah and just about the same number inside the ramshackle hut that passes of as a restaurant in a quiet pandamaran street.
a plate of fresh prawns fried with fine salt landed on our table. the aroma whetted our appetite and the prawns were good enough to eat with the salty crunchy shells providing all the flavours necessary for a good dish. a ricebowl of chilli was on the side to add to the spiciness.
the prawns - the most expensive dish we ordered - was well worth every cent. it tasted like they had practically sashayed their way into the wok and dusted themselves with fine salt for effect. a dab of soya sauce added to the sultry saltiness. mmmm...........
okay, prawns done. and the piece de resistance was on the way. we smelled it before it even appeared.
a great plate of crabs, smeared with thick blood-red chilli sambal.
not the kum heong, not the marmite, not the sweet and sour nor the spicy fatty crab style variety.
it was just crabs smeared with a thick paste of chilli sambal, fried to perfection.
our eyes watered, with anticipation and not from the sheer spiciness. we drooled.
i took the first claw and licked the sambal off until the shell had a mirror finish. then cracked it with my teeth and ate all the tender white flesh. there are no words to describe the ecstasy of eating these crabs.
only a drink to celebrate such simple cooking and such respect for food. out came the small bottle of dalmore 12 year old single malt.
the highland malt, with its golden mahogany hue and citrus elements complemented the spicy crabs, as its elegant but not too strong flavours mingled with the spicy sambal for microbursts of joy and ecstasy in our palate.
some declared dinner was over but two more dishes had yet to make their entrance.
first came the fried fish done in an unexpected way. it was a wolf herring or ikan parang in local parlance. the flesh had been scraped out and made into fish cake and covered with the skin again, then fried and sliced.
as fish cakes go, it was good.
that was it for me. the last dish - an oo chien or fried oysters omelette - was a no-no due to my allergy with oysters. it looked good though slightly oily but all at the table finished it anyway.
so where did all this take place?
well, its restoran boontat and its in pandamaran. and its between the junctions of jalan sekinchan and jalan letchumanan along one main road. well, you'll find it.
and if you don't, all the better for those who know.