While we can…

I was in the vicinity of the Dewan Suarah (Civic Centre) here that day to check out the yew char koi stall there. I never liked going to that area because it was and still is always crowded in the morning with people going there to do their marketing and shopping and to have their breakfast and at the height of the pandemic, I avoided it like a plague!

Now that the situation seemed a whole lot better, that morning, I decided to walk around to see if there was anything I would want to buy. That was how we ended up having a feast of crabs…

…for our dinner that evening.

We just had crabs that day on my sister’s birthday after such a long time since the previous time we had it on my girl’s birthday in 2020 but that morning, I spotted a basket full of those lovely crustaceans at one of the shops there selling for RM65.00 a kilo.

I asked the guy for three of the biggest ones – it was a little bit more actually but he rounded it up to RM96.00 and I quickly took them home for my missus to prepare and cook…

I asked my sister to join us that evening but she had something on with her friends. In the end, we had all of it…

…ourselves and of course, we enjoyed it to the max.

What we had on those two aforementioned occasions were both way over RM100.00 so this was very much cheaper and there was a whole lot more too.

While I was there, I also saw some fairly large sotong (squid) going for RM35.00 a kilo. They were bigger than the medium-sized ones that I usually buy from my favourite fish & seafood stall in my neighbourhood (RM30.00 a kilo) but the other day, the ones there were way too small so I did not want to buy those. I took all that they had and paid RM60.00 for them – I suppose there were less than 2 kilos altogether. My missus spent most of the morning cleaning and scouring them before putting them away in the freezer, ready for Chinese New Year. For some reason, my girl loves these sotong a lot more than prawns.

I was delighted to see that they had midin (wild jungle fern)…

…too, selling at RM13.00 a kilo. They do not seem to have this at our neighbourhood shops anymore. It has been so very long since the last time they had crabs for sale there as well, not since July 2020! Of course, I asked for half a kilo of the midin and took it home.

My girl helped the mum to pluck only the nice and tender top part of each fern and the latter cooked it with sambal hay bee (udang kering/dried prawns) and belacan (dried prawn paste) to go with the crabs…

…for our dinner that evening.

I paid RM7.00 for the midin – it was a bit more than half a kilo but still, it was so very cheap. There was a lot of it, more than double of what we got for our RM10.00 a plate of the ferns here (or at any other place for that matter) that day.

Yes, there were still a lot of people that morning but at least, everyone had their masks on even though they did not seem too worried about keeping their distance but with the situation seemingly very much under control at this point in time, I sure would not mind going to this part of the woods again and again to see what other goodies I may stumble upon there…while I can.

e-Like Mart (2.310257, 111.831069)…

…is located at No. 6, Taman Damai, Jalan Tun Abg Hj Openg at the far end of the block of shops facing the back of the Civic Centre wet market.