Kuala Gula; a Village for the Seafood?!!

I've always heard about 'Kuala Gula, Seafood; Seafood, Kuala Gula...'; anything is special? This small village is famous for the cheap seafood because of its strategic location that is near to the sea, somewhere the fishermen grow. We've traveled so far to reach our destination; I guess around 2hours from Penang.

Sitting in the small hut, on the soiled land for our lunch; here is the Ai Tee Seafood Restaurant that is recommended by my colleague. The restaurant seems to be very old, I think this should be one of the oldest restaurant here?!! The first impression to my boyfriend is DIRTY. It's no doubt that the environment is uncomfortable and the smell is unease but I've to say that 'this is how a village life is, especially a fisherman village'.

'Different colors of life, this is how I describe the colorful drinks that all of us have ordered. Now, let's go to the food that we've ordered...

First dish is the Thorn Lo or what is familiarly known as 'Helicopter' to the locals in M'sia. This type of creatures are having a lot of sharp thorns on their hard shells, that has gained them the name. Basically, the meat is tasteless and all you need is the sauce to spice up the flavour. Luckily, the 'Helicopter' is fresh as it's nothing so special about the Thai sauce that is available in any shopping mall. Our next 'shell' is the Steamed Kepah in the sauce that is tasted alike Chinese herbs, garnished with some Chili Padi to add on a little spiciness. The Kepah is fresh and big; I mean it's really bigger than any that you can find in wet market. But, I personally dislike the sticky sauce that has been thickened with corn flour whereby it's destroying the freshness and sweetness of the Kepah.

Frying food for my boyfriend; here comes the Fried Squid. The squid is not very crispy and in fact it's a little bit hard as its small size is hardly to have more meat for you to chew. But these small bite-sized squid is just nice to pop into the mouth. The next dishes are our main courses of Fried rice vermicelli or Bee Hoon with Crab and the Steamed Prawn with Pork. Basically, this is just a normal fried Bee Hoon in dark soy sauce with the Crab. The specialty that has added the deliciousness to the dish is the canned pork meat! The saltiness and the sweetness of the pork is enhancing the taste of the crab and giving a nice aroma to this simple Bee Hoon dish. The Steamed Prawn with Pork is indeed a surprise; at the moment I hear its name. It's actually kind of similar cooking method with the Crab. Instead of frying, the prawn is indeed steamed with the egg and canned pork. The dish is oily but somehow I do enjoy the steamed egg that has absorbed sufficient taste of the pork. Just a little disappointment, I think that the prawn is too small and it's not so fresh whereby the meat is a bit too soft.

Our last dish is the Teow Chew Style Steamed Fish. The dish is really appetizing from the garnishing and in reality, the tender meat of the fresh fish goes well with the soup that tastes sour and yet with a little spiciness; just-to-taste for my appetite.

To me, it's a little bit too faraway to travel to Kuala Gula for such a seafood meal. I'll not deny that the seafood is indeed cheaper there but the dishes are not really very special; to motivate me for a re-visit. It's somehow an unforgettable memory to be there with a big gang of friends.