Roaring Forties

Tomorrow is the weekend again and we have another invite to check out some eating joint but I still have not recovered from the previous expedition to a place called “Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa” in Selayang Segar.

This place was made famous by a local talk show called 1 Day 5 meals hosted by Angel Wong Chui Ling. 

The journey itself was a torture. We started out from Mentakab and were supposed to pick up the Flams but heavy rains and a massive traffic jam along Jalan Ulu Kelang forced us to seek refuge at my in law’s place in Ampang Jaya. After a rest, we tried again but leaving the Ampang area  alone took us 45 minutes.

We had to surrender and ask the Flams to proceed directly to the rendezvous point..  We had a slight breather at the elevated highway because no one wanted to pay the toll but the minute we exit in Jalan Tun Razak, we rejoined the traffic as it slowly wormed its way out of the city.

It was bumper to bumper all the way to Jalan Kuching. We did some illegal overtaking from the left lane and managed to overtake quite a sizeable number of utterly frustrated motorists including the Flams. who were 2 km ahead of us when we called them to check their whereabouts.

Finally, we arrived at the Selayang round-out (from KL) and we took a 3 o’clock turn and proceed and took a 12 o’clock at the next round about. Immediately, after this round about there were warungs on the left side of the road. We took a left turn immediately after the warungs and took the first left after that. 100 meters down the road towards the end, we found our restaurant “Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa”. 

The timing was perfect as both the Flams and the Winds also arrived at the same time.

Great I thought. It was only 6.45 p.m. We should be able to wrap it up by 8.30 p.m. latest.

We found empty tables but we were told that we had to wait. We were puzzled? Why do we have to wait when there is an empty table?  Anyway, we were allowed to sit while the owner went about their ways.

There were probably 5 tables outside and perhaps another 4 tables inside. More people arrived and we felt so fortunate since we got the table first. Those left without tables were told to come back in two hours.  

Finally at 7.30 p.m. after a 45 minutes wait, the lady owner came to take our orders. Okay! Things are finally moving, I thought. We went to choose our fish where their specialty was to cook it in three different ways. LK got us a red Lapu Lapu and Kurau.  

8.30 p.m. Food should be here soon, we thought. After all we have ordered an hour ago. 

9.00 p.m. The kids were literallyfainting. I decided to pack some barbequed chicken wings from the Malay warung.  

9.15 p.m. I was back with the wings and everyone cheered. Never seen such enthusiasm for chicken wings in my life before. Even the neighbouring tables were looking over their shoulders enviously. 

9.30 p.m. Wings are now bones. Conversations has turned dried. Everyone were looking at each other.  

9.45 p.m. Food appeared like magic.

The first fish dish was actually fish cooked in porridge -

For porridge or chinese congee lovers, this dish absolutely topped the scale.  Very tasty and unique as it came with a stove underneath. So the porridge was still piping hot to the last spoon.

The 2nd fish dish was a steamed fish -

It was about average, not too bad and I have taken much better steamed fish elsewhere. 

The 3rd fish dish was a Tom Yam fish

The Tom Yam fish wasn’t exactly Tom Yam a la Thai! It was more like an assam Tom Yam fish soup. It wasn’t too spicy, more sourish and sweet than hot. For a person who loves seafood and chili, I found it to be pretty good. I would have been happy having this dish alone  with white rice. However, the reviews from the rest were pretty mixed. Guess if spicy is not your cup of tea, then this dish wouldn’t rate too high on your list.

We also had prawns, eggs and some vegetable but the other dishes weren’t so great. I don’t want to waste my time mentioning them.

Overall, the food at “Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa” definitely ranks above your regular fare. It is unique as the style is very home cooked like but yet more elaborate than your home dining. The taste is good and I would recommend that place for die hards who want to try something different. But for us, the food was not worth the three hours wait. 

LK summed up the experience perfectly, “Satu Ikan Tiga Jam”.

Anyway, anyone who still want to check out this place, good luck to you. The contact details are:-

Restaurant Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa

Lot 59-61, Jalan Besar Segar 1,

Taman Selayang Segar,

68100 Batu Caves, Selangor 

Tel : 012 367 2163

24 June

2.00 p.m. – We visited Wiwy at the hospital and she was fine but the hospital needed her to go through a psychiatric evaluation to confirm that she was not suicidal or depressed. If the report is positive, then I would be probably charged with maid abuse. At the hospital during the day when Wiwy was admitted, May was interrogated in detail about Wiwy’s overdosed condition. It was even suggested at the hospital to May that Wiwy could have poisoned my Mother and then she panicked and tried to commit suicide.

For someone who is paranoid, such a suggestion would have brought the house down. Anyway life is too complicated to be caught up with far fetched theories. My mother’s been buried and though out Wiwy’s stay with us, I have not detected any abuse or any problems with them. So why ponder over the absurd.

Nevertheless, we did ask Wiwy why she took so much Panadol. She said that she was scared and had a headache. She took the Panadol pills to get rid of the headache and when it continued, she continued taking more Panadol.

My friend Moses who owned a factory in Indonesia and confirmed that most of his workers popped aspirin like candies. The reason for this trend is that the aspirin dosage in Indonesia is much lower than ours which means that they had to take two or three pills to get the same potency equivalent to one of ours.

Second, the Indonesian workers could not afford to see the doctor so the aspirin pills are like their ‘cure for all’ medicine. This explained why Wiwy took the pills continuously. This situation was made worse by her panicking and her empty stomach as she did not take any food for hours before my mother’s demise.

God has been kind. Timing’s been perfect.

I must comment that I was extremely lucky that the timing was perfect. It was as though a guardian angel was watching over me. Imagine if Wiwy had collapsed without calling me and I had returned on Monday morning to find two dead bodies in the house. Or if she had died in the hospital?! The thoughts of what ifs made me appreciate my blessings.

3.30 p.m.- There was nothing we could for Wiwy except to wait for the psychiatric evaluation. So we bid our farewells and went to clean up the house in Mentakab.

4.30 p.m. – We returned to KL with my “mother’s soul” in the umbrella.