Lau Niang Eat Sashimi!

Last Saturday, Lau Niang try Sashimi for the 1st time; thanks to The Housemate’s adventurous taste for food. On the surface, I’m more than willing to try anything new. I’ve laid scorpions on my hands before, I dunked my bare hands into a tub of maggots before, and I watched a Paris Hilton movie before too. Yeah, that was a traumatic one. When it comes to raw food, I still remember my first taste of Salmon Sushi courtesy of Perky.

So yeah, technically speaking, if I can digest raw salmon, why not other raw things right? Mak confident jer……bring it on!! As soon as the little colourful platter arrived, I was greeted by SEVERAL types of raw meat. The were namely…salmon, scott fish, tuna, fish roe, and (get this) SOTONG! RAW SOTONG!! Squid you know??! Here’s how the whole platter looked like….nice kan??

Wah so scary mary you know, I feel like cannibal only; eating uncooked food. I’m not saying that it’s not nice (SOME of it actually taste ok…really…just some though) but it’s the sight of the dish that makes it so daunting. Everything is wet and raw. No signs of it being boiled for at least a while also. You just dip it in soy sauce shove the whole chunk of flesh into your mouth. Classic Resident Evil style. I’m going to put raw meat into my mouth! I know sashimi is a very common dish….but this one lau niang 1st time eating you know, so of course a bit paranoid lah!

The Housemate advised me to start off with the white meat first. Believe me, the only thing I tried on the platter before is Salmon. That’s all. The rest….1st time I see some more got. So I took his word and went for the Scott Fish 1st. My very 1st chunk of sashimi. Scott Fish. I held that white piece of meat firmly with my chopsticks and stared at it for 5 full seconds. Then I shut my eyes, shove it in my mouth and started chewing. Gah!! There’s raw meat in my mouth!! But to my surprise, it wasn’t bad at all. Taste like chicken. Like I mentioned earlier, it was the looks that made it daunting. Scott Fish really tastes ok. At least I dinch gag or vomit.

Next came the Salmon. This one I more confident a bit lah, since I had it before so it wasn’t too bad. Moving on, I tried the tuna next. Now the tuna flesh is blood red in colour (like raw beef you know) and just by squeezing it a little with my chopsticks, I could already tell that it’s the hardest meat compared to salmon and Scott fish. Very solid flesh. This one really made my blood curl a little. My butt hole and nostrils contracted like mad as I went “OMG should I eat this…should I eat this….should I eat this…” What the heck….i just took a bite. And once again, I got fooled by its looks. Didn’t taste too bad actually. Still ok lah. A little chewy…a little wet….VERY red…but it was ok.

But then right, Lau Niang save the best for last lah you know. I tried the fish roe next. They’re fish eggs the size of tahi hidung from both your nostrils rolled into a ball. Gross kan?? Yeah that’s how I felt. The fish roe looked exactly like Nemo’s egg.

“OMG….i’m going to eat Nemo eggs…I’m the ugly bad barracuda!!!”

“Don’t be paranoid ok. Its already dead and you can’t fertilize it anymore….just eat it.”

Ok lor….so i put one into my mouth. So cute…orange ball with red dot in the middle. I imagine it must be orange flavour or at least something sweet. Bad mistake!! On the 1st bite, the roe juice exploded in my mouth; giving me a sudden spasm. I felt like I was drinking swamp water can! My eyeballs tuned white and I couldn’t put my tounge back into my mouth. I didn’t care if I was making a scene but that was N-A-S-T-Y ok!

And finally…..the cream of the crop. SOTONG!!!! All tis while I only eat fried sotong…never raw ones before. This one; not only its raw….they served the tentacles some more. Got the purple round round thing underneath some more ok. So I remind you once again, this sotong is wet, raw, slimy….and purple underneath. And I’m going to eat it. It really took me quite a while to gather my guts to attempt this. I very nearly more chickened out….but I scared wait the chicken chase me. So I kuai kuai eat lor.

The taste?? Really one of a kind I should say. But its definitely not as bad as Nemo. No pungent or funky tastes, but really chewy. REEEEEAAALLY chewy. I gnawed and I gnawed but the stoopid sotong just swim happily around in my mouth; refusing to go down my throat. Ok that didn’t sound right. Took me 5 full minutes to finish chewing and swallow it.

And there you have it. I tried every type of raw meat on the platter and I survived. With 12 gallons of iced green tea that is. Just when I thought the test of faith was over….in came the bill. I took a peek at it and went “WHOA!! That’s a big price tag for a dish that doesn’t even require cooking!” Freaking expensive ok….I kid you not! Only later I was told by The Housemate that everything on the dish is imported. The fishes don’t swim in Malaysian waters so they have to be packaged….and since its served raw, the restaurant has to unsure its freshness….this one just arrived from Japan today! Moreover this is Mont Kiara wor....what you expect...

Big deal.

But of course…that was a truly very interesting dinner.