I did mention in my previous post here that I was not able to get hold of any pek hay (seawater prawns) from my favourite fish & seafood stall. I did go over to check regularly but unfortunately, the nice lady did not have any, other than the farmed ones (and even those, not all the time) and I was not keen on buying those.
Finally, at long last, last Sunday, I went over to have a look and much to my delight, she did have some very big ones, as well as some small ones. I would usually buy the latter, chor liao (use as ingredient) for cooking vegetables, for instance but not as a main prawn dish.
She said there were only about 4 kilos of the big ones, RM45.00 a kilo but she would sell them to me at only RM40.00, cost price, and asked me to take all of them. It did not look like a lot but when she weighed all that she had, there were way over 5 kilos…and after a brief “discussion”, I agreed to take them all from her for RM210.00.
Of course, I did not want the small ones anymore. She had all the shell and heads removed and was selling them for RM20 per 500 gm and no, they were not deveined so if I were to buy those, I would have to do that myself. That would work out to RM40 a kilo, more or less the same as the aforementioned big ones and since I was already buying a whole lot of those, I did not want those small ones anymore.
I think there were at least over 200 big ones, maybe 300 and there were some small ones too. We cleaned and deveined all of them, packed them in ziplock bags to store in the freezer. Our intention, of course, was to keep them and cook them slowly and seeing how much there were, there probably would be enough to last till Christmas! We’re already into the 2nd week of October so Christmas isn’t that far away!
In the meantime, my missus took out one of the bags – the smaller ones, over 20 of them and cooked…
…the way she would cook those udang galah (freshwater prawns), with sesame oil and lots of garlic.
These were not so big…
…but I would say they were big enough and I was given a really good price. I saw a pack of such prawns, frozen, at our neighbourhood fruits & vegetable sundry shop that day going for over RM40.00. When I looked at the price tag closely, I saw that they were actually RM60 a kilo. Gosh!!! I changed my mind about buying right away!!!
I did buy some taugeh (bean sprouts) from that shop not too long ago and my missus made some kerabu taugeh with some of those and I did take a handful for my char mee that day. I only bought RM2.00 and there was enough left for my missus to make these lovely vegetable fritters…
to go with the prawns that day.
Looking at how the prices of virtually everything are shooting up and up around here, I guess we should be thankful that generally, things are still quite affordable even for an old pensioner with a measly pension like me, thank God for small mercies.
As always, the nice and generous lady wanted to give me this and that but of course, I simply refused! I feel so shy that everytime I drop by her stall, never mind whether I buy something from her or not, she will always want to give me something to take home.
That day, she wanted to give me three slipper lobsters but I said no and then, she tried to persuade me to take some fish heads, great for cooking curry, she said and again, I told her no, thank you very much. It was good enough that she gave me such a good price for the prawns plus what she sells is always very nice and fresh – that alone would make me want to go back again and again.
The fish & seafood stall is located to the right of CCL FRESH MINI MARKET against the wall at that end of the block to the right of the Grand Wonderful Hotel (2.309601, 111.845163) along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai (formerly Jalan Pedada).
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Wow, 5 kilo of prawns.. 🤦♀️. That was a whole lot of work to clean and devein them. I wonder how long does it takes to do. Those vegetables fritters looks so good and reminds me of my favourite Malay kuih stall at the Stutong market that sells very nice vegetables fritters.
Yes, that took quite a long time but there were three of us, my missus, my girl and I so it was all right. We have not much to do ,anyway, these days #stayingsafe #stayingwell #stayinghome. Good thing it was not sotong – only my missus knows how to clean and prepare those.
I used to see taugeh in cucur/fritters a long long time ago. I have not seen any these days, cutting cost, I guess.
My hubby bought 1 kg of big prawns not long ago. Not much. I liked it stir fried with lots of garlics too.
Yup, nothing is cheap anymore. RM50 barely enough when I go buy meat and vegetable. Sigh.
Yes, 1 kg is not much, maybe enough for a dish for two meals, for the 3 of us. I would buy 2 kg at least.
Yes, I would need to spend 3 figures when I go out to stock up on stuff. Thank goodness we do not go out anymore and we do not spend on anything these days so we get by pretty o.k. I don’t smoke anymore and I don’t buy TOTO – can save around 1K a month!
I would say that was money well spent! I feel like buying prawns too but I’ll have to check the price first.
I wonder what the going prices for these fresh ones are like over there. Probably a lot more expensive.
Man, I miss udang galah so much!
We call those “big head prawns” in my kampung.
Best served in Cantonese black bean (sizap) style 🙂
This stall sells sea fish & seafood, no udang galah here. Will have to go to the central market in town for those, medium ones more or less this same price, but it is a high risk zone, so many cases, best avoided!
You bought the prawns at a good price. Even the smaller ones look quite big. I will be looking out for prawns again.
Been waiting for around a month, finally managed to get these beauties. Good luck in your search for yours.
Good plan. Take them and freeze them.
I bought over 5 kg and after all this time, I still have a lot in the freezer. No worries!