Parameswara Grill Fish, Umbai Jetty Malacca

Finally, the last instalment of my short downsouth trip on a Saturday afternoon.

As mentioned in my previous post, we went to Umbai Jetty, a place known for seafood. Since we were unfamiliar with the way, a local told us to just follow the road sign to Muar. We heed his advice until we saw a signboard indicating a right turn to reach the jetty. Though the roads were quite dark with badly lit roadsigns, it took only about 15 minutes drive from Malacca town.

Wow. I did not expect the number of stalls manned by solely Malay proprietors and the crowd there. Or the parking fee of RM3.00 per car. We walked the length of the stalls and decided to dine at the last one since it was the biggest and attracted the most patrons. Most appeared to be tucking into the food hungrily. On every table, there was a basketful of prepacked nasi lemak. Since we saw each and everyone at other tables had at least one, we followed suite. Phitoy even speculated that it could be complimentary. Huh? Those small plates in the picture contained 2 types of chilli mixture to go with the seafood. Now those are complimentary. =P At first I was disappointed. It held no ingredient other than a big patch of sambal. Then realised it was to be eaten with the seafood. The coconut milk infused rice was in a generous portion and the sambal spicy, though I found it a tad too sweet. Like all stalls there, the fresh seafood was laid upfront to be chosen and weighed. Then, it will be cooked according to one's order. Look at all these. Drools.

This is the whiteboard listing the prices of the seafood on display and methods of cooking available. Our order of seafood took quite sometime to arrive but I did not complain. On the contrary, it allowed me the excuse to order these. Yay! Then, our main orders arrived:-

Boiled cockles. We intended to get these grilled but the staff said these were too big so only to be done this way. Those grilled-size ones 'sudah habis' (finished). Actually these were good too. Sweet & juicy. Given a choice I would have preferred it more raw with blood spattering my plate when attempting to open the shells. Too gory for you?

Grilled fish (Ikan Jenak). Seems like it was just cut, gutted and grilled on its skin with a hint of salt and pepper. Good to go with the chili mixtures given (shown in earlier picture).

Sweet Sour Fish (Ikan Kerapu). This we felt was a mistake. The sauce was more peppery than sweet sour and the fish overfried making the texture a bit on the 'hardy' side.

We were quite glad that we did not order a wide variety of seafood as the size of both fish was more than a foot each and at least 3 inches thick.

Our bill:-

The prices are not cheap (Err.. we did expect dirt cheap since it's away from the city) but still worth a visit. It's quite a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the Nyonya Restaurants in Malacca. Though situated right next to the mouth of the river flowing to the Straits, there was no unpleasant fishy smells.

The address:-

This is a picture of the fishing boats parked there (it was very dark with minimal lighting). Colours are product of my itchy fingers having a go at the microsoft office picture editor.