Sea View Restaurant: Shark Head

We paid another visit to Sea View Restaurant, this time for a free lunch from the management in appreciation for a friend who recommended several wedded couples to hold their receptions there. I thought I was in for some normal restaurant fare, but the management obviously felt that we were very special to him.

Special promotion of scallop-dried oyster-abalone dish. It wasn't offered to us though.

This herbal soup of black chicken, strands of shark fin, dried fish maw, and something else wrapped in, I think thick rice paper. There was a portion of a root in the soup. The Chinese are suckers for roots; anything that resembles a phallus is good for health: ginseng root, lotus root, rhubarb, salvia, tang-kuei. Black chicken is also much sought after by Chinese for its "health" properties. The soup was really fragrant.

Meat balls (probably, a combination of shrimp and pork and chopped water chestnuts topped with fish eggs) with vege and egg white gravy. If you prefer all things steamed, this would be a healthy delicious dish.

Shark head steamed in light soy sauce and shredded ginger. This the most costly dish. We had a much, much smaller head two years ago for RM 150.00. I don't know whether it is blubber we were eating or the elastic cartilage of the shark head.

This is what it looks like in a close-up shot. What did it taste like? It was like chewing on a piece of soft fat, gummy and slightly rubbery. I gave another portion to my friend who obviously snapped it up with relish. I heard him commenting that it would strengthen our joints.

The shark head was stripped down to its eyeballs.

This is deep-fried cray fish meat coated with cheese. Very crunchy. It was topped with pork floss.

Sea cucumber with dried fish maw, scallops, black mushrooms and broccoli.

Brinjals stuffed with minced fish and pork.

Oni and wife.

Alston and friend.

It was a delicious lunch packed with all that the Chinese consider to be expensive: the unknown root (probably tang-kuei), the sea cucumber, dried fish maw, and a shark head. Only two traditional items were missing: the abalone and bird's nest.