Ikan bakar or barbecue seafood is incredibly popular in Malaysia, we're in
the north of peninsular Malaysia and you have got to check out the barbecues at
this restaurant where they cook the delicious seafood that we're going to
feast on tonight, I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate we hope
you're hungry, let's eat!
we've come to Restaurant Api Api which is situated right on the Perlis river and we've heard it's a
locals favourite and there's a huge spread of seafood so let's go and choose them
stuff and get eating. There are these huge bins of seafood, there's crab, squid,
blood cockles, clams all sorts and you don't have to buy a huge amount you can just buy as
much as you wish so a couple of prawns here a, a couple of squid there and just create this
entire seafood feast for yourselves
our seafood feast has arrived and it all looks mouth-watering, let me talk you through
what we ordered, we have got some clams otherwise known as a lala and they've
been cooked in ginger there's some chilli, spring onion and white onion in
there as well, we then ordered squid done two ways
so the first done on the barbecue so that's nicely charred and then the
second just lightly floured and then chucked into the deep fryer
we then got some prawns they've also been done on the barbecue and we also
got some crab, that's been cooked in butter and it's also been
deep-fried and we've got some veggies to go along with all the seafood we got
some petai which are stink beans they were chucked on the barbecue as well and
then we've got some salted fish gai lan or Chinese broccoli and that's just been
stir-fried, we've got rice to go with it all, a little bit of salad and then most
importantly the dipping sauce which is sambal belacan which is a fermented
shrimp chilli condiment and that's for dipping that ikan bakar or grilled
seafood into. This is a nuts spread of seafood it looks so good and it's been so
cool watching them make things on the grill up the front just spectacular
and the smell coming off, you've got that thick smoke pouring off the barbecues
unbelievable so spectacular but we've got to eat it, and this dish here this
crumbed deep-fried squid or sotong is being ordered by everyone so I'm gonna
dive in and try this first, it came with this sauce so it's quite a runny sauce I
can see some chilli in there, maybe some shallots I'm not really sure anyway
let's just dunk it, so you can see it's quite runny get that down the hatch
that is amazing, I can see why everyone has it on their table the batter is so
so light and in fact it might just be flour so the squid would obviously have
been wet and so they've just put flour on and deep fried it I think, now we've also
got the two types of squid as Sheena talked about, we have this bakar style
so that has gone on the grill, it was put into a cage and then put on the grill,
they were fanning it so I'm gonna try these back-to-back
I'll grab some gai lan or the Chinese broccoli to go with that, so it looks like
we've got fried shallots on top, there's some nice big chilli pieces, obviously the
the gail lan itself, the green, looks like some onion in there and then just a nice
sauce and I think that has salted fish in there as well, let's grab a piece of
the squid so I've ripped that off you can see it's been cut into little rings
and you can see all that beautiful char on it, I want to try that by itself but this
needs to go into the sambal belacan so this is a sambal made with fermented
shrimp so it's quite a runny like sambal
but then in there you can see there's tomato actually, there's chillies,
there's shallots, all sorts going on, so lets just dunk that in there and now
this could be quite spicy let's see
oh my god, the flavour, the barbecue flavour, wow it's made the squid go sweet almost like it's
wow, it's a little bit chewy but it's still
very tender, of the flavour off that barbecue, I was chatting to the guy up on
the grill and he was saying because they use coconut husk it gives it a real
flavour and wow that is such a strong smoky flavour but I'm gonna rip a bit
more of this squid off because it's got flavours there that I can't actually
quite pick, let's just get a little bit of squid but
I won't put the sambal on this little bite, oh it's been basted with something
definitely turmeric there's a little tiny bit of sort of sweetness in there
that is crazy good, so good, lets try some of these veggies while,
while I'm at it so I've got some some rice got the gai lan,
mmm-hmm that salted fish flavour is really strong, let's just grab a little bit of
the sauce that's in, by itself hmm the sauce has a very strong saltiness
to it, that's really good so that's I mean that's a pretty basic dish but it is
much more bold because of the salted fish then a dish like that normally
would be but that goes super well with the rice of course and then with the
squid oh man there's so much more to try
this is such an exciting meal it's so good. I've got to get into this food my
mouth was watering while I was filming Thomas so I've got this deep fried crab
here and it's been cooked in butter so the crabs literally just been whacked in
half and then coated in this batter then deep-fried then coated in this
butter sauce and it's also got some spring onions, some chilli, some red onions
I'm just gonna get into with my hands because there's just no other way to eat
crab than with your hands let's give this a go
mmm mmm mmmm that butter flavour is so strong and that crab has been cooked to perfection
it's so soft, the meat just flakes off look at that, wow, I'm gonna eat that bit
of meat right there, it's so fresh, so sweet, what's really great about this
restaurant is that you can opt for your seafood to be cooked in different ways,
so different sauces, cooked on the grill or just poached, it's really neat
next up this prawn is calling my name so this one has just been cooked on the
barbecue so over those coconut husks and charcoal and it is just glistening with that
marinade that they've basted it with, so they've split the shell to make it
easier for peeling so I'm just gonna actually whip that off actually what I
might do is just give that prawn shell a bit of a suck to see what the flavour's like
hmm like Thomas said it's really smoky, you can taste that tumeric but it
is quite sweet god that's good alright I'm gonna save that head because
I love sucking the head juices out of prawns and just give that big piece of
meat a bite, mm mmm mmm wow sometimes I find that pawns cooked on a barbeque can be
overdone so they turn out to be really chewy
these have been whisked off at exactly the right moment, they're really tender
still but they really have been infused with that smokiness from the barbecue
and that sweet tumeric marinade is to die for, wow! These here are petai or stink
beans and I've never had them like this before so just cooked over the grill so
let's get into them you've got to rip them open so they're like in little
pods, come out like that and then they have a skin so make sure that you remove
that because otherwise it can be really bitter, so I've peeled that gray skin off that
stink bean and I'm just gonna dip it in the sambal belacan
and pop it in my gob, mmm it's really crunchy, really crisp and the flavour just sort of
envelopes your mouth it's really really unusual in flavour
it's almost bitter but it doesn't actually stink like its
name suggests they say that the stink arrives when you go to the loo in the
morning and you pee, but I've got to get back to this prawn head so I'm gonna
give it a huge crunch, there's all these like head oils of the prawn in there
hopefully so let's go for it,
mmmm mmmm so juicy, that is seriously one of my favourite bits of
the prawn, crunching on that head, so good
time to try these lala or clams so
these are cooked in ginger but there's big bits of onion, there's these big bits
of chilli, so there's all sorts going on there they have a very strong ginger
smell, you can see these beautiful shells of all these lines and then there's the
little clam inside so let's just grab them you know what I'm gonna go with my hand
it's gonna be a lot easier so I grabbed a little bit of clam meat we've got the
onions and let's grab this big bit of chilli as well, mmm the ginger flavour is
actually not that strong, it smells stronger than it tastes
whoa that chilli is much much spicier or hotter than I was expecting I thought
because it's so big I mean, look how big these pieces are, I was expecting it to
just be quite sweet but it's got a real spice going on, let's grab another lala
I'm just going to try them by themselves just to see how, how they
taste
I love these things, absolutely love them and this is a great way to do them, the
onions are very sweet so you've got a lot of sweetness and crunch from the
onions, the lala have that beautiful clammy seafood flavour, that chilli is
still burning so that adds a beautiful spice that's really good
this whole meal is incredible I think we're now sort of eaten everything on
the table and just sitting here, the river which is right behind me the
fishing boats are just there, you can see why and how this is all so fresh and
then there's these dishes like Sheena tried these giant prawns which I can't
wait to rip into, look how big they are, unreal all that beautiful burntness from
the barbecues, it is amazing up the front watching those grills, seeming him
fanning the fire, the flames are just jumping off, the smoke's pouring out across
the road they're putting more and more fish on there, people are starting to
pour into this restaurant now, it's just on dusk, the locals are arriving in their
droves and we can see why, this is amazing, let's just, since I'm holding this
prawn, let's rip this shell up and see what
it's like, wow it's so fleshy, so fleshy, look at that big piece it almost looks like
lobster it's so big, we'll dunk it in the sambal belacan wow that's so
good, it's very sweet that's beautiful meat and that is cooked
like Sheena said to perfection, it's not chewy at all, it's not dry at all
that is such a good prawn I'm gonna go out on a limb straightaway and say
that's the best prawn I've ever eaten
this meal is incredible we're diving in
now with our hands to just really get all the flavours, devouring all of it, it
is so good, Sheena's on the watch out because
there's a cat trying to get up on the table so we're trying to not let that
guy get up to get our food, it's not taking our seafood!
what a meal that was so good and look how
spectacular the cooking is, that's all going on behind us, so good, remember
to hit subscribe because we're traveling all over peninsular Malaysia we're doing
a huge food road trip so there is going to be so much good food coming up
we can't wait to explore more, remember to give the video a huge thumbs up if
you enjoyed it, thank you so much for watching, we'll see you next time
jumpa lagi, jumpa lagi!