Dengkil Seafood - still awesome!!

Been a bit lax on reporting on the food and wine adventures of late. Fact is I've been on a creative blitz over the last six months in lyric writing and recording. There's this amazing site called Wikiloops which allows musicians from all over the world to upload their music and let other download and "jam" along. As said, it has sparked a tsunami of lyric writing and to date I have completed 20 vocal jams which are pretty complete in song terms. They are all up on the Wikiloops website - log on to www.wikiloops.com and check out my profile gwailoah. Or copy paste/follow this link 

http://www.wikiloops.com/artist/gwailoah.php 

and please feel free to share any of them with friends.

Sorry, shameless self plug while the iron is hot - I also sing a lot of cover versions of songs from my early days of rock, attach them to photo slideshows and post them on Youtube. Again, profile is gwailoah, link is https://www.youtube.com/user/gwailoah

Again, do please feel to share them with friends and if anyone knows anyone keen to throw money at me for any of this, please feel equally free to point me in their direction. Yes. And thank you.

Chinese New Year in Malaysia has come and gone and with it the usual round of lunches and dinners with friends in the two week auspicious period after the date to  cement and maintain contacts and friendships. It's a great way of maintaining contact with people whom otherwise you would rarely see. These mostly take place in Chinese Cuisine restaurants, and often revolve around something called teh "Yee Sang". This is a colourful mix of vegetable bits (turnip, radish, ginger) and fruit (apple, chinese pear) and raw fish to which some oil, plum sauce, pepper and gold in the form of crispy crackers is added and then tossed by all in attendance around the table with chopsticks to the sound of good wishes and auspicious pronouncements by the assembled. It's great fun and, if prepared right, can be tremendously tasty. The trick is getting the balance between crispy vegetables and crackers with wonderfully fresh fish (many use jellyfish though I prefer salmon based) and a crisp acidity provided by something like pomelo to offset the sweet plum sauce. Best we had was at the Pik Wah, though honourable mention goes to the Marco Polo and the Overseas. The ceremony provided by the staff of the Grand Kingdom was charming, though the Yee Sang was a bit meh. So it goes.

Our Dr Gan used to maintain that CNY is probably the worst time to visit a Chinese restaurant. His reasoning was that a) the chefs are on holiday, b) the food delivery people are also on holiday, c) kitchen quality goes down because i) too many patrons demanding food and ii) staff on holiday all of which means the restaurants cannot cope as well as they would at other times of the year. Not entirely wrong, but what to do? He would cook at home and go to his local place where he could whack and ensure he got the good fish and chicken. Remembering this brings a smile to the face. Still missing him.

Which made our first return visit of the year to Dengkil Seafood Restaurant last night that bit more poignant. He was the one who first raved about it and dragged us there to enlighten us as to the delights of the wild Sarawak river fish compared to the farm versions. And we in turn introduced the place to friends and friends and so the viral cycle keeps on going. Life's true meaning is indeed best measured in how many other lives we touch through ours. He certainly scored here - lot of lives got touched by him. He was close to Dengkil Seafood and Manageress of DSF Connie was indeed shocked to hear about Dr Gan's passing. Buddhist tradition holds to set a small place for him at the table and add tidbits of the dishes to the plate. Though we forgot to give him some wine. Next time. 

I have blogged on Dengkil Seafood prevously in March 2013 and raved about it then. It has become my most popular posting at this time. That group was various food and wine types. This time we were a group of Lenglui's Mah Johng kaki who also like their food and wine and some of whom we had previously brought. We had all gathered together at the Grand Kingdom Restaurant in the Tropicana City Mall the previous week and had decided that it was way overdue for a return visit to Dengkil. Lenglui made the phone call and it was fixed. The route is pretty fixed in the brain now, so much so that notwithstanding an easy laid back drive we got there in under forty minutes from Bangsar. MEX Highway, follow signs to Dengkil, though watch out for some sneaky last minute turnings off the big roads. Parking can be a bit distant but Malaysians have a hugely creative way of finding space anywhere. Very good time can be made on a Sunday evening. Slightly early, I broke out the wine glasses I had brought while Lenglui settled back with a whiskey. I was still feeling a bit delicate from the previous night at Osteria Realblue so settled for Chinese Tea. 

Lenglui ordered as the others arrived and we were off and running. Wines for the night were simple and easygoing - a Rose from the South of France (2 for RM50 at the Boardroom) and our standby Hardy's Chardonnay 2012 (now about RM45 in the supermarket). Tuck Onn said he hadn't had a Rose for a while so we started with that. Very light and simple and refreshing with a hint of fruit and good balance of acidity and fresh finish. Just the thing to get in the mood.  The food was as stunning and awesome as ever. We started with something I was told was called "Urinating Prawns" which were deep fried and salted and sprinkled with some kind of salted floss and were totally delightful as a starter. Actually Connie could have just planted a large place of these and we would have been set for the night. 

We then had the Tung Po Yoke which was a little slice of food heaven come to earth - pork broiled to the point where the fat melted in with the meat and steeped in a sweet sour sauce and served with that white bland bread which had been dipped in hot oil to give a bit of texture. Absolute brahma as my old guitar mate Stuart might have said. Om. Indeed. Next up was the clam noodle with the deep fried lard bits which helped the cheapo and then the Two Kilo Sarawak River Soon Hock fish steamed to absolute perfection. Some of the sweetest fish you will ever taste, with its soft soy sauce cilantro bite melding with the fish juice to produce something beyond sublime. Which ended up a bit over the head of the Hardy's which came across as a bit ordinary. Still pleasant, crisply balanced workmanlike Chard and a great food friendly wine, was just that a fish like this would have gained a huge amount from being paired with something more….   sophisticated. Didn't think about this when deciding what to bring. Have to definitely bring a higher calibre white next time. Someone got lucky in getting both the Soon Hock head AND tail AND bone - totally happy bunny for which we happily sucked down one of the four half bottles of Moet she had brought. We are saving the rest for the next gathering of the troops. And the whiskey. And a bottle of red that went undrunk.

Digression - we are noticing of late a movement away from drinking reds at our dinners. At the Grand Kingdom, people had brought reds which went unopened and the same happened tonight. It was also noticeable at the Marco Polo visits we had made over the previous few weeks - less red and more white getting supped by Chinese friends. Looks like the message is getting through that heavy reds and Chinese cuisine are not good matches but anything white and lighter red will work. By the way, the Marco Polo is also still equally the business, and the exception proving the Doc's rule about not going to Chinese Restaurants during CNY. We had some great food there.

We were all pretty full by this time, but we still had to make space for the Kampong Chicken, the potato shoots and the deep fried pork intestine bits. And the fruit cake soused in Brandy that Lenglui had brought for dessert. Phoooooo. Not a chance - all got taken home for finishing off at some future time. 

In all, Dengkil Seafood is still the total business for excellent food and well worth the trip to find the place. It was one of those nights where the food and great company company are so good that you forget to take photos of the food. Some people did, though, so will try to snag a couple and post them at a future time. Ah, what the heck, you don't need photos, just go lah - the food is wonderful, all of it. The assembled who had not been before were well impressed and everyone said we should all do it more often. Works for me. Just kind of wished the Doc had been around to join us, though part of me feels he was. Hope he enjoyed it too. 

Dengkil Seafood Restaurant

20, Jalan Puchong Dengkil, 43800 Dengkil, Selangor

03-8768 7868

Triple Round, Serendah - not blown away

Soft Shell Crab

I generally dislike these food safaris that all my Malaysian Chinese friends seem to like with an intense passion. You know the script - A friend of a friend has somehow determined that this restaurant in this god forsaken out of the way town is the dogs for food and we should all go there one night to eat and why not go this weekend, oh and by the way I have already booked. Annoys me to have to trek across the country, get lost, get angry and turn up at the place in a bad mood and not really ready to enjoy the food. So it was I found myself driving up the North South Highway to Bukit Beruntong to eat at the Triple Round with the lenglui and in no way looking forward to getting lost. Huge control freak - don't like not knowing where I am or where I am going. But this should have been okay - we had a map and it looked straightforward. But then it always does, doesn't it? The food had better be worth it...

Mixed Vegetables

Actually, the web reviews looked very promising and the organising DQ had decided that it was absolutely essential that we all go there to eat as she had already invited her Yeehah friends to go there. So that was that. DQ loves to eat, especially with friends and other people who love to eat. Getting to the turnoff was easy enough though we did indeed get a bit lost by taking the one turning too soon. Got advised to go past the Petron station and take the next right and turn in 180 degrees and the place was at the far end of the shophouse block. Which it was. Next time preprogram the Garmin or the Waze. 

The place was buzzing and this was at 6.30pm. All Chinese. DQ had thoughtfully reserved the aircon part of the restaurant and they were all sat there waiting for me and visibly dehydrating. Seems the restaurant didn't have a corkscrew and they all knew for sure that I would bring one. Of course. I am IWFS. Force of habit makes me stuff a corkscrew in the pocket just on leaving the apartment. Just in case.

The Poon Choy

Not that it did much good in this early part of the evening. We spent our first ten minutes begging the staff to bring plates, glasses and tea before I finally decided to get the things for ourselves. Screw them. The table cheered. The staff didn't seem to notice or care - trying to cater to too many people to try to keep them all satisfied, no need to get worked up over some gwailo doing their work for them. Quite right. Screw him. Er, me. 

The food had been pre-ordered and it all seemed to come at once. There was Crispy Soft Shell Crab and Jellyfish Salad to start, Kampong White Chicken and Ginger Sauce, Prawn Rolls, Mixed Green Vegetables and the stars of the night - the Poon Choy and the Roast Pork Knuckle.

Kampong Chicken

The judgement? Okay, I guess. I am probably not the best judge of prime Cantonese Soul Food, but I found this… just okay. The soft shell crab was nicely crisp and crunchy though not a lot of crab, the prawn rolls firm and sweet, the veggies a bit over salted and the chicken nothing to shout about. The Poon Choy was essentially a mix of various foods in a big round pot which gets covered and steamed together for a while to create a kind of a hotpot. There was roast pork, stewed pork, duck feet, scallop, abalone, prawn, broccoli and black mushroom. It was very hearty, though the sum was probably greater than its parts. And as I am not a great one for duck feet, abalone and mushroom, a lot of the thing went straight past me. Probably too gwailo to understand the thing. It all felt way oversalted, though wholesome and quite tasty. 

Prawn Rolls

The Pork Knuckle got demolished quite fast and was good in a Germanic kind of way. My bit had tiny chunks of meat and gristle and little bony bits and not really enough to get a full taste of it. The bit I did have was okay, somewhat reminiscent of the ones we would get at the Eurodeli in its Ampang incarnation - crunchy, salty skin and juicy succulent meat. One Pork Knuckle we recently had at the Damansara Kim outlet was fairly good, but not the standard of the glory days. Maybe need a return trip to the Triple Round to give the knuckle another try. 

We sucked down five bottles - two of my lovely Hardy's Chardonnay, two bottles of Pinot (one a bold New Zealander, the other a cherry jam gooey Napa creation) and some sweetly vicious looking fizz which I didn't get to try. 

Eat me.

Would I go back? Well….   no, not really. At least not on this showing. A forty five minute drive to get there was not really merited given the taste of the food and the need for the self service. It was… okay. Not bad, just not really spectacular all round. I can see why the DQ and the others like it. Total for thirteen people was RM40 each which is brilliant value. But it didn't quite do it for me. We can get better quality in the city which begs the question why travel to Bukit Beruntong? Not that the place was short of punters scarfing down the food - business was happily booming. Was told that their other dishes are stunners - the pork mince on tofu and the pork ribs in orgasmic sauce - but there was no space left in the belly to try. Now going to Dengkil for the seafood makes sense - brilliant fish, well prepared and superb value which is tough to find in KL. Also the Dengkil is locked into the Garmin. But the Triple Round...   no. Maybe the style is just not the kind of food I would travel for. Didn't blow me away. Sorry.

Photos by Jan Shaw.

Restaurant Triple Round 

1, Jalan Melati 2B 

Bandar Bukit Beruntong

48300 Serendah 

Selangor D E

GPS: 3.4061364 , 101.5562796

Tel: 012 380 1162 ask for Lee Li

Magnificent Fish at Dengkil Seafood Restaurant

Malaysians have a tendency to not think twice to travel large distances when the food is good. They will happily all pile into a couple of cars with no more than an address in a distant town and the promise of a friend that the food at this place is off the map. Though it does often turn out to be nearer the truth that it is the restaurant itself that is off the map, with much frustrating time spent telephoning the restaurant from the car to get directions to the place. But it all ultimately gets smoothed over and tempers calmed when the group is sat sated and full and the instigator of the expedition can bask in the glory when everyone vociferously refutes the original claim that the food is, indeed, off the map. 

Mee Hoon

I find these food safari adventures generally not fun and go along on them with feelings of dread and trepidation. The loss of control of where we are heading is like my comfort blanket being ripped from my clutches. The control freak in me likes to know where we are going and equally how we are going to get back. In this, the Garmin GPS in the car has been a godsend - well, most of the time except when it sends you off into some tropical rainforest wild road with the soft Californian female voice insists on recalculating everytime you take a different turn that you think is better. Switch you off, dear - go and recalculate that. 

Nothwithstanding, normally it is safe to say I do not like to travel too far for my food.  I still prefer a fast drive across town to get from table to bed within fifteen minutes. The prospect of a hot sweaty one hour drive along strange roads to an uncertain destination is not one to be relished. 

But the Dengkil Seafood is an exception. Located about forty minutes south of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur near the airport and easily reachable along the wonderfully straight MEX Highway, Dengkil Seafood is a treasure to be found and delighted in. Indeed, the reason we found it was in order to avoid an expedition to eat fish at some distant outpost of the old Empire recommended by a friend that would have taken two hours to reach. When we explained our predicament, the Good Doctor told us about Dengkil Seafood. This was about a year ago and we have been there about ten times in the interim and introduced it to many friends who have also become regular visitors and introduced THEIR friends. The food is consistenly good and often outstanding.

Kampong Chicken

The most recent excursion had us doing two nights in succession at the restaurant. The first had been booked some time ago to treat overseas friends whilst the second was a replacement for a raincheck we had to call due to the pair of us getting slammed with a nasty chest infection. Getting stuffed twice in two nights at the same restaurant in addition to driving forty minutes plus to do it. This was a serious first. 

The first night saw seven of us having wine and three types of noodles - the Hokkien Mee, the La La Mai Fun and the Ban Mee. We also had the potato leaves, Patin fish and the castrated chicken. This procedure apparently makes the poor deknackered bird grow large and fat, presumably as a consequence of being no longer inclined to perform his roostering duties in the henhouse. Maybe, but what a price to pay and you end up on a plate anyway.  Not sure if the same logic applies to men. Better not to give the darling partner any ideas here. 

The price paid by the chicken equals the price paid for it by the consumer. It is seen as a speciality and one that needs to be paid for. We have had it on previous occasions when it proved to be a firmer bird than your average KFC broiler. Leaner, firmer, but still tender meat that presumably got salted overnight. Our quarter of emasculated chicken got eaten and savoured but somehow didn't inspire gasps of total delight from the assembled. Perhaps we were not sure of what we should be looking for in the dish. It was fine, just not magnificent and perhaps we didn't know why. All enjoyed the food enormously, especially the Patin and the Pan Mee which had the little crunchy bits of deep fried lard, the Siew Jie, which give a delightful fat bite to the noodle. Pan Mee is the Malaysian Chinese equivalent of linguine and various prawn and pork and veggie bits in a rich brown sauce. Scoop it up with a touch of chopped garlic and you have a mouthful for the ages. Soul food, as real as it gets. Got everyone's top vote.  

Potato Leaves

Our second night proved more of a party. Originally there were to be eight of us, but someone added one and someone else added one and suddenly we were up to twelve. Qjuite a mixed bag, but all with one thing in common - a liking for good and tasty food washed down with a decent drop of wine. This could get fun.

The wines that everyone had brought were various, though enough of a range to keep everyone drinking something - two ladies stuck with a sweet Moscato all night while the rest of us started with a racy Chilean SB from Nam Lee Cheong (can't remember the name - something like "Off The Planet") before tucking away two bottles of 2011 Vicar's Choice Sauvignon Blanc from the Saint Clair winery. The Vicar's Choice had smoother balance of fruit and acidity with softer fruits than the grapefruit sharp Chilean. But both were lovely drops that refreshed the mouth and spritzed up the palate. 

First food out was the potato leaves. These are quickly steeped in hot salted water and served with stewed garlic and have a soft green feel. Bit like a spinach, but bigger leaves and stems. Not too chewy but with a little crunch to bite, it's a good way to get some early iron and green vitamins and minerals into the system. 

Pan Mee

Second up was the Kampung Chicken. In contrast to the bird of the previous evening, this one tasted incredibly good. Itt had a firm texture yet was still wonderfully succulent. There is a tendency to oversalt the skin wth the Ajinomoto, and that would be a criticism here. Even so, not a bad chook. Was okay with the SB but a Chard would have done better.

Third up was the Pan Mee, which was as good as the previous evening's serving. The better noodles are made fresh from flour and water and these were excellent - good bite and not powdery.  Supper of champions. 

Some of us were moving to the reds as the Tung Po pork came out. This is more Northern Chinese and is deep braised pig and skin in gravy and traditionally eaten with bread. It is excellent in the Restoran Esquire Ktichen chain where the gravy is more brown and meaty and richly thick. Honorable mention also to the Tung Po at the Pik Wah  - sweet and sour and delicious. Dengkil's Tung Po was a bit disappointing, tasting of cherry pop sauce and mostly fat. Very tasty, in a pig fat kind of way, but more like a gunky pigfat sandwich than a meaty chew. 

YC had opened his Big Red which proved a metallic, gunpowder, smack in the face explosion of alcoholic cassis and black fruit. Can't remember the name. Massively big, but not overly so, the bold yet even tannins cut the sweet sauce to produce a taste that somehow made sense - a cherry pig fat sandwich with a full mouthful of fruit forward wine. 

Tung Po Pork

There was also the remnant  of a Sandalford 1997 Cab Sauv that had been inherited from the Datin at the office which had been opened for a couple of days already. A glass had been passed to our Tai Chi Master who had no complaints and it did indeed taste well. Excellent balance, even tannins with firm blackcurrant and plum producing a full lingering finish. 

We were still sipping the Vicar's Choice when the restaurant brought out the fish. It was a whopping Soon Hock steamed to tender and sweet perfection that melted into salivatory perfection as soon as it hit the tongue. The flesh had that tender firmness that lets you bite and squeeze at the same time to release the juices. The zippy salty soy and electric crunch of the cilantro garnish did amazing things with the sweet fish meat - a complex melange of tastes across the tongue and palate that excited and delighted. It didn't need any wine to match, thought the Vicar helped in washing the salt off the tongue in preparation for the next teasing mouthful of the fish. Totally stellar.

Soon Hock Yee

For info, the Soon Hock is a river fish that is a river bottom crawler, and not a very energetic one at that. Known as the Marbled Sleeper, this South Asian swimmer can reach up to two feet in lengh. It is a hugely popular fish dish thanks to its sweet white meat and fine softly firm texture According to Wikipedia, it may have healing qualities and promote longevity - and fetches high prices due to high demand and variable supply. Well, and maybe on this one. The Doc says that much of the Soon Hock in the restaurants is of the farmed variety. Dengkil seafood prides itself on serving only wild catch rather than farmed fish. And indeed there is a difference. The farmed fish available in Kuala Lumpur have a generally firmer texture whilst the wild ones in Dengkil have a sweeter softness about them. The Patin we had the previous evening was lovely in a fish oily kind of way. But the Soon Hock remains clear fish dish of choice. You pay for it, but absolutely worth what you pay. Possibly some of the best fish you will ever taste.

Turtle Feet

Friend YC had apparently been salivating about the next dish for the previous week leading up to the dinner. He had been texting Lenglui in excited terms about it, so perhaps my expectations had become a bit heightened. As it was, the Turtle Feet came out to a somewhat muted welcome by the table, due possibly in part to the fact that everyone was still pretty ecstatic over the fish. Everyone looked at the dish with a mix of curiousity and apprehension. Most of the table didn't seem to know what to make of it. Turtle is one of those dishes that generate mixed responses. Some refuse to eat on principle because it is endangered and everyone has seen a movie where the animated Turtle talks like a teenager and is too cute to eat. Others would say, hey it shows its back to the sun, therefore it is edible. I'm somewhere in the middle - try most things once for experience but only eat where enjoyable. This presentation was a bit visually strange - it was partly dark and partly light, and distinctly unappealing from a visual perspective. Dirty looking meat is never attractive, and a few people indeed shied away from this one. Served in a rich sweet gravy, the addition of brocolli and garlic did give helpful splashes of colour. But it did still look an edible challenge. 

Close the eyes, chopsticks in and…  hmmm.  The taste was….   okay, I guess. Texturally somewhere between a soft chicken and a firm wagyu and tasting a bit smoky. The beefy fruit and chestbeating alcohol of Big Red went excellently well with the smoky meat. But turtle for me showed itself as not really a taste to be soon repeated. Not quite enough to satisfy for some reason; neither big in the belly nor full in the mouth. Must be an acquired taste, though not an immediate one demanding to be cultivated. YC seemed happy enough, though.

On the home stretch and out came the lightly fried mee hoon. Tossed with spinach, beanshoots and dried prawn, the chef seemed again to be overgenerous with the Ajinomoto seasoning - it dried out the tastebuds. A bottle of Robertson Chenin was opened to rehydrate the tongue, which it did admirably.

Chicken in Rice Wine

The opening of the Chenin turned out to be quite prescient as the kitchen brought the Chicken in Rice Wine to the table. The broth was lovely, tasting of cheek pinching vinegar and sugar cane with hints of spice. The meat was very firm and lean almost to the point of overcooked, and seemed to taste more of Frog Leg rather than chicken. A superb dish, made all the more delightful by getting paired with the Chenin. For the second time, this wine has paired excellently well with a sour soup dish (previously at Onsemiro with the Chicken in Ginseng). The mildly bland texture works nicely with the Rice Wine, cutting and softening the sour alkilinity without diminishing its power to stimulate. At the same time, the broth allowed the charming almond notes and rosepetal in the Chenin to come forward.  An offering of the Chenin to the table got greeted with grunts of refusal - everyone was sticking with their red. So it goes. Must definitely get some more of this wine. Quite versatile.

The kitchen had saved the Suckling Pig for the last for some reason - normally it would be third or fourth out. Whatever, it came out to thunderous applause and flashing cameras getting whipped out to snap the baby porker in all its suckling glory. Tastewise, there is better to be had at other restaurants, most notably at the Marco Polo in Kuala Lumpur. The skin was nicely salted with good firm texture and crunch between skin and fat. Perhaps a bit too much skin adn not enough fat and meat, though it was still well prepared and not overdone. 

A bottle of La Boca 2009 Merlot had got opened by this time which proved to be a mistake - too mild and thin to follow the Big Bad Cab, So another Australian Cab, Johnny Q or something, which had been brought by our friend the Geezer got opened to finish the night. Not bad, full mouth, not too tannic, nice finish and with that boldy acoholic body that marks out a muscular Aussie wine. The Merlot and Chenin got recorked and taken home. 

Suckling Pig

There were a couple of birthdays and Lenglui had brought a chocolate cake to celebrate. We ended up toasting three birthdays and scarfing down all of the chocolate cake. Barely a crumb was left on the plate. Everyone clearly needed some chocolate carbo to end the night. 

In sum, wonderful fish and chicken in rice wine, pan mee and potato leaves. Good kampung chicken and mee hoon, Pork dishes so so. The fish dishes are clearly the stars of the restaurant and they do them extremely well. The rest was okay. Perhaps because it was s full house on a Sunday evening then maybe the kitchen was a bit stretched to get the food out. Certainly the mee hoon has been better on previous visits. The suckling pig was a first time and was acceptable whilst the cherry sweet Tung Po pork was a new experience but unlikely to be repeated. Prefer the richer sauce and more meaty Tung Po in Kuala Lumpur. 

Happy Diners!

So another expedition to Dengkil in search of restaurants that we can happily recommend to friends as a "must go" came to an end, and we basked in the praise of our friends that the restaurant food was indeed wonderful and definitely worth the trip. There was a bonus in all of us paying some 25 to 30% less than one would normally pay for similar banquets in town. Conventional wisdom holds that success eventually goes to a restaurant's head and sooner or later either quality or quantity dips as the prices rise. As a result it is better to enjoy these places now as they may not maintain in the long term. I hope Dengkil holds itself in quality terms and the food remains off the map for a long time to come. The chef clearly cares about the fish he serves and they are prepared conistently well and expertly. I would be happy if Dengkil Seafood could remain off the map completely and save this place for ourselves. But that is unfair. Good food and great places should be shared. Good luck in finding it.

Somehow I inherited the leftovers mee hoon, the turtle and the pig head, and ended up passing them to Alex, our home handyman who had come to repair a leaky aircon unit. He seemed very happy. Free food. Of course he is happy, it is free food and something out of the ordinary. Must find out if he liked the Turtle. He won't be getting any more from me. 

Photos kind courtesy of Jan Shaw.