Seafood Bak Kut Teh At Tanjung Sepat

Our two-day-one-night trip in Tanjung Sepat entered its second day as we continued to explore this little fishing village. But first, it was time to grab something to fill our stomach in the morning. I am not sure about you guys, but ask me to have bak kut teh for breakfast and I would feel that it is quite an unusual meal to have early in the morning.

However, the bak kut teh we went to eat that morning was something quite rare - seafood bak kut teh.

One of the main streets in this small town.

A very typical sight where traders set up their stalls along the street in the morning.



A packet of chee cheong fun we ta pao-ed from one of the stalls on our way to the restaurant.

Bak kut teh literally translates as "meat bone tea". However, as the main ingredients used for the seafood bak kut teh is seafood, I guess it would be more accurate to call the dish as "hai xian teh", or "seafood tea". But I guess it will be kinda weird to call the dish with such name haha! Still, the main base for the soup consists meaty pork ribs simmered in a complex broth of herbs and spices.

The only difference is that seafood, such as large shrimps and fish meat are added into the soup as extra ingredients for this version of bak kut teh.

The restaurant where we had our breakfast.



The variety of seafood that customers get to choose to put into their bak kut teh.

 

You char kway (deep fried strips of dough), often served together with bak kut teh for dipping into the soup.



Chopped chilli padi that is taken together with chopped garlic and soy sauce as condiments.



The first pot of bak kut teh hasn't even been served yet but the you char kway was half finished already haha!



Chinese tea to quench our thirst before the main dish is served.



Three pots of seafood bak kut teh - shrimp, fish meat and the third one is the normal bak kut teh.



The shrimp pot. Well, they tasted and smelt like shrimp soup haha!



Time to catch our own shrimps lol!



The fish meat bak kut teh.

My verdict? I guess I will still stick to the original bak kut teh, as I find it quite weird to add seafood into the soup which changed its taste. However, I think it is still okay to people out there who feel like giving it a try.

Our next destination was to visit a factory that makes fishball. On our way there, we were talking and laughing so loudly that our level of noise can be heard from few streets away. That attracted the attention of people to the crazy gang of ours haha! Unfortunately, due to some wrong GPS-ing skills by our unqualified tour guide-cum-trip member, we failed to locate the place haha! So, we camwhored at the rocks by the sea to make up for that.

On our way to the fishball factory, while having non-stop sampat-ness session haha!

The tour guide (also known as Miss Mei You Li Mao (没有礼貌小姐) haha!) merajuk after being teased by the whole gang lol!

These two grown-up kids just couldn't resist hopping onto the swings.

Instead of getting to see the process of fishball-making, we saw these containers used to store fish haha!

Men In White lol!

The local Chinese in this wonderful town of Tanjung Sepat are predominantly Taoist and Buddhist.  There are so many temples in this small town, that you can easily spot a few temples along a road. Our trip to Tanjung Sepat was completed with a visit to one of the many temples there, located just beside the Ganofarm.

Our next destination was Bagan Lalang beach and Sepang Gold Coast, another ten-minute drive south of Tanjung Sepat. Sepang Gold Coast is actually the name of a resort which shape takes the idea from the Palm Islands in Dubai. This resort has water villas, arranged in a gigantic palm tree shape, which opened since the middle of last year.

The Taoist temple that our crazy gang paid a visit before leaving Tanjung Sepat.

It has been some time since I prayed and burn the incense and paper offerings at temples.

It was such a coincidence that each of the four car owners wore the t-shirt that matched the colour of their cars.



This town is full of mango trees. Almost every house has at least a mango tree in front of their home compound.

On our way to Bagan Lalang, we spotted some cows who were on their way to school.

It was a great way to wrap up our wonderful trip to Tanjung Sepat by playing at the beach in Bagan Lalang. Well, the beach is not like those beaches in Redang, with fine, powdery white sands and crystal clear water. It was quite muddy and the water looks almost like the water in Klang river. Nevertheless, it was still better than nothing.

We spend a good hour at the beach doing more crazy stuff, like catching small crabs, flying kite, doing jumping shots on the water, having a hurdle race and splashing muddy water on other people haha!

Everyone say "Peace!"

The water was quite shallow and we managed to walk further into the sea for about two hundred meters from the beach.

Qing Huang getting excited some moving creature in the muddy beach.

Proudly showing his new pet.

Yvonne lend me her kite she bought and only after a few minutes, that kite made an emergency landing, thanks to my amateur kite-flying skill haha!

Where is the string?

Some yellow half-naked paedophilee attracted the attention of the girls there lol!

Chee Tieng, the part-time photographer as Wesley (camera owner) and his partner has gone dating at another end of the beach.

A gigantic jump at the sea with the Sepang Gold Coast villas in the background.

Part of the siao gang doing a jumping shot. Even the kite didn't wanna miss out haha!

I think this is the first time I see people running a race at a beach lol!

Ice-cream fair under the tree.

After having great fun at the beach, it was time to head back the car park. But the blazing hot weather made us couldn't resist us from having something cold and refreshing. The ice-cream seller under a pine tree was our main target. However, there were only ten ice-creams left and Kar Boon was so kind to treat all of us to the ice-cream. As we had twenty-one people in our gang, we just shared ice-creams among ourselves.

Right after the ice-cream party, it was time to head back to Kuala Lumpur. In all, the trip was simply awesome and I guess I gotta thank Qing Huang for inviting and the rest of the gang for letting me to crash into their trip.  I didn't know any one of them before the beginning to the trip except for Qing Huang but now, I have made good friends with them.

Time to head home after two days of fun.

Hopefully, there will be another chance for me to join this crazy gang for another exciting trip.

Romantic Walk At Lover's Bridge Of Tanjung Sepat

Lingzhi, Reishi (霊芝), cendawan ganoderma, cendawan merah, 灵芝, ganoderma lucidum; however you call it, it still refers to the same thing.

After the visit to the coffee factory, we headed to see some mushrooms - lingzhi mushroom, to be precise. Ganofarm Sdn. Bhd. is a Malaysian based mushroom research company that cultivates, develops, manufactures and markets ganoderma mushrooms, edible and herbal mushrooms together with a full range of ganoderma products to promote a healthy lifestyle. Compared to other kinds of mushrooms for consumption, lingzhi mushroom is much more expensive for its several medical properties that include preventing and treatment of cancer, hypertension, migraine and headache.

Initially, I thought we gonna have the chance to see how the mushrooms are cultivated in the farms, but was slightly disappointed when we were told that the farms are located elsewhere. There was just a shop selling mushroom products, which ranges from mushroom essences, gano supplements, gano drinks and beverage, mushroom crisps and pickled mushrooms.

The rich medical properties of the lingzhi mushroom.

Yellow oyster mushroom, which looks kinda poisonous, but it is perfectly fine for consumption.

White oyster mushroom, which is among the most popular variety of mushroom in Malaysia.

Black jelly mushroom that can be used to make leng chee kang.

Some students from UKM (an inside joke) tried to steal a bag of the lingzhi mushroom.

Not only the mushroom, Qing Huang attempted to kidnap the giraffe inside the shop too haha!

There are just too many products made of mushrooms in the shop, things that you didn't ever imagine possible to make from mushroom. Have you ever heard of mushroom coffee? Or even mushroom bak kut teh? Kinda weird, I would say.  

Homestay is available at this mushroom farm as well, for those who are interested.

We were given the chance to sample the gano drinks, but the cup used for Zhong Han was so small, like those little cups used by Chinese people when they pray lol!

Some pickles made from mushroom, the left one can be eaten as side dishes, while the tom yam flavoured mushroom pickle was not bad too.

A comparison of the lingzhi mushroom size with a standard size palm. That isn't my palm, by the way.



After drinking the sample gano drinks, it's time to broommm broommm. But cannot-lah. Where can simply drink and drive.

A group photo taken outside the mushroom shop.

Before heading to our next destination, we took a short walk to a jetty, overlooking the Straits of Malacca. It was still low tide in the late afternoon, nevertheless the scenery there was still quite something worth seeing. It looks like any other fishing villages, minus the fishing boats. Good thing there was a small hut at the end of the jetty, as the scorching sun almost turned us into roasted pork haha!

Some leafless trees at the beach.

That's the famous lover's bridge of Tanjung Sepat, where we visited later that evening. More on that later.

I suppose the jetty was supposed to go further down the beach, but it was broken and taken off.

The couple with a bodyguard (or should I say lamppost) tagging behind them haha!

The small hut at the end of the jetty and we had a short rest there.

The combination of our shirt colours is similar to the Italian flag, just that it is terbalik haha!

Part of the crazy gang on the jetty.

We returned home to take a short break (I know, we seemed to be taking breaks every half-an-hour lol!) as everyone had almost turned roasted pork. Some went to take short naps, some ate cookies and snacks, some had a shower, while some just sat there doing nothing haha!

After everyone had (more than) enough rest, we headed to one of the landmarks in Tanjung Sepat. As the name of the bridge implies, Lover's Bridge is a main spot for the local couples to go on date. This bridge is made of cement in the first half, and it continues with old-skool wooden platform further down. It actually reaches out the sea and serves as a jetty for this fishery village. The water bank is not too deep, with few coconut tree trunks and beautiful sunset to look forward to.

Some Chinese New Year decorations were spotted near a restaurant at the Lover's Bridge.

An attempt to be a sticky candy seller haha!

By evening, there are no more beaches to walk during the high-tide.

The Lover's Bridge (情人桥) in Tanjung Sepat.



One of my favourite shot. Coconut tree trunks along the bridge.



Someone's flipper on the jetty.

Some of the local at the bridge for fishing.

This bridge is not only popular among couples, as families and senior citizens love to hang out at this place too. It is also one of the spots where the locals who love fishing will come to try their luck in the evening. Apparently, the types of fish at either side of the bridge are different.

We were curious why some puffer fish were left dead on the jetty and we decided to ask the people who were fishing there. As puffer fishes are known to be poisonous, we wondered why did they keep the fishes and not let loose into the sea. They told us that if they release the puffer fishes back into the sea, they will feed on the fish bait again.

Poor puffer fish that was caught and left to die on the jetty.

Some of the catch of the day. I am not good in recognising types of fish, so I have no idea what fish are these.

As the dawn dusk comes, the sky slowly turned yellowish and later bright orange. It was the perfect moment for couples to spend time on the bridge enjoying the romantic sunset. The sky turns its colour very quickly in matter of minutes and soon enough, it was already dark.

It is during this time that we can spot people walking slowly under the moon light, watching their favourite show with the public television under the big tree beside the bridge, and enjoy family dinner at some of the famous seafood restaurant nearby.

Sunset on the Lover's Bridge.

It was a bit cloudy on that evening, but the scenery was still breathtaking.

We had our dinner at one of the restaurant around the bridge.



Jie Hui, who speaks good Japanese, and she only learned them from watching anime, which I find it quite amazing.

We had twenty-one of us on the trip, so we usually eat on two separate tables.

On my honest and personal verdict of the food in Tanjung Sepat, I would say the price doesn't live up to the quality and taste. The food was just average, nothing extraordinary and I find that overall, they are quite pricey, considering that we were dining in just a small fishing village. One of our gang members whose hometown is in Tanjung Sepat insisted that the food used to taste nicer, but the quality dropped when we went there. Quite a good way to defend your hometown, eh? Haha!

Anyway, to make up for the food, here are a couple of shots of the Lover's Bridge taken at dawn dusk.

Sunset at Lover's Bridge at 7.29 p.m.

Six minutes later, you see a different view.

Certainly a recommended place if you are planning for a romantic date with your loved one.