Anno Ayam II: Braving Bagan Sungai Burong

The second day of CNY was reserved for our day trip to Bagan Sungai Burong, a fishing village located in Sungai Besar district. Right after English mass at St. Ignatius Church, we drove out via LATAR Expressway. Google Maps gave me an estimate of 2 hours, but we took an extra 45 minutes to arrive. Upon arrival, we were welcomed by the two naughtiest of my nephews. The rest were busy gambling. The young ones raided my mum's handbag for red packets! They even demanded some from me:

Wild Nephew 1: Give me an ang pao!

Moi: I'm not married, I have none to give.

Wild Nephew 2: But you're wearing a ring! Give me! Give me!

That's just two of them. There were a total of 14 nephews and nieces. Yikes. I didn't pay too much attention to the kids as they were obviously starved for attention! I left them to roughhouse with my brother. Hehe.



My mum wanted to see the boats, so the kids brought us to the riverside to take a look. Ecstatic that they were given the honour of being our guides, they did all sorts of antics to catch our attention. The kids just scurried down the wooden ladders (from a height of one and half floors) to the boats like it was a walk in the playground.



When it was time for lunch, my uncle took us to Restoran Yao Kee with a bunch of kids. We had spicy claypot catfish, stir-fried mantis prawn with eggs, kam heong crabs and prawns, and stir-fried vegetables. A yummy affair as usual. A very peculiar thing happened during lunch. Mum drank a bit of Wild Nephew 1's Coca-Cola and he was very upset. He clammed up and sulked at the table. Amazing that such an action can subdue such a rambunctious kid.



Back at the house, we only sat for half an hour before my uncle started firing up the steamboat! Their soup base is very simple-- canned braised pork and water. The body of flavour is contributed by the wondrously fresh seafood that they use. At the end of each session, they leave the thick broth in the pot. When they get hungry again, they just add water. Although we just had lunch, my mouth was watering at the chunks of fish, crab, and squid. The kids weren't very interested with the seafood (makan sampai muak), but more attracted to the tofu, vegetables, and enoki mushrooms that my mother brought.



At about 6:00 PM, we got ready to leave. Since we didn't visit very often, my cousins gave us a whole lot of seafood to bring back to KL. Hopefully the next we visit, Wild Nephew 1 and 2 would have mellowed down a bit. Keeping my fingers crossed.