Redondo Beach International Boardwalk - Fearless Fun Day

I grew up eating (and loving) raw seafood, and was fed animals/parts most people wouldn't even know of or think of as food (delicacies, my parents and grandparents called them - they're good for you).  But I'd never eaten food while it was still alive - until this weekend. 

After seeing a YouTube video of live sea urchin (uni) complete with moving spines, which the poster let me know was from Quality Seafood in Redondo Beach - I'd decided I needed to go try it at some point.  Even if the visual was a little disturbing a la Hannibal Lecter meets Detective Krendler at the dinner table (sorry, not very appetizing - but at least uni is just shellfish gonads...).  Sea urchin is already one of my favorites at sushi restaurants - and curiosity as to how it would taste coming from the freshest source - live, straight from the ocean - made me overcome any hesitation.

So I was super excited when fellow blogger Nomlog said she would be interested in making the trek for the experience as well!

Our adventure began with a quest for a seemingly 'secret' passageway to the boardwalk - Mapquest / GPS directions asked us to turn from Catalina Ave onto Village Dr - which did not seem to exist (at least there were no signs to indicate where it was).



A sea urchin in hand is better than two in the sea?

Knowing the ocean was to our right, we took a chance and tried cutting through a condo complex. Following winding paths, we finally emerged at a small park above the marina - beyond which was Quality Seafood!  Where you can pick out your own, live, seafood from the many tanks - pay by the pound - and have them prepared/cooked to order for free.

My friend "Designer", also a seafood fan, decided to join us - and we flitted around the marketplace like a trio of starving seagulls ready to dive for choice marine life. Past tanks of crab and shellfish, we found what we came for: Live Sea Urchin!!!!

Live from the ocean - it's delicious sea urchin!

We chatted with the guy behind the tanks (who is from Boston, so he knows his shellfish!) and he let us hold a live one.  As expected, it was a little like trying to hold a porcupine without the soft underbelly.  We couldn't wait to eat it (cost by the pound, the one pictured was about $11).  Prepping live sea urchin involved bashing the bottom with a flat metal tool til he could lift a circular piece like a lid, draining liquids out the center - then literally poking any debris out with his finger. 

And voila!  We have our live uni, ready to eat, spines still moving reflexively on the plate.  It was a novelty vs. being creepy - we had a great time capturing lots of shots and a few videos.  The sea urchin was of course incredibly fresh - plump with defined texture - and I loved being able to really taste the ocean with each bite.  The only unexpected thing was that the innards were surrounded by a bit of a milky substance, which we didn't even really want to think about what that could be.

Treasure Troves of Tomalley

At another part of the market, Nomlog ingeniously scored a bag of Lobster heads (4 for $2.30 - an awesome deal!).  Most people would pass this up as there isn't really any meat - but we knew all kinds of deliciousness was hiding inside (tomalley, the liver of a lobster that doesn't look appetizing but is rich with flavor - that Asians especially view as a delicacy)!  Nomlog asked for it to be steamed, and within 20-30 minutes, we had a tray of heads to dig into for 'blue' gold!

Shellfish + white wine sauce:  Can anyone think of a better combination?

To round out our epic feast - a tray of clams live steamed in white wine sauce.  As Nomlog isn't a fan of clams, Designer and I had the giant tray to ourselves.  The cool thing about Quality Seafood is that you can try out the many varieties of shellfish by pretty much getting as much or little as you want - they will throw into a tray and steam it for you on the spot.  Just pay by the pound. So at our friend from Boston's recommendation, we tried a handful each of Tua Tua Clams ($9.99/lb) from New Zealand, with sleek whitish shells, which according to Quality Seafood is only available through them, and Savory Clams ($8.65/lb) with purplish / black/white shell patterns,  Softshell Clams ($14.29/lb) from Boston, and Manila Clams which unfortunately didn't cook right, and we couldn't eat as the shells did not open.  All the clams we tasted were delicious, especially in the light white wine broth - but the Tua Tua was our favorite, sweet and succulent without any tough bits, and relatively large in size.   

Got crabs?

Designer hit up the Live Crab station ($5.99/lb), for fresh steamed crab.  Though it was a bit of a pain for her to have to drop a $3 deposit for a mallet for cracking the shell (then have to wait in line after to get the deposit back), and $1 per cup of drawn butter - I could tell Designer enjoyed her crab by the fact that every time I turned to her, all I could hear were sounds alternating between frenzied mallet pounding and ravenous gorging. 

This echoed the sounds emanating from Nomlog's and my side of the table, where we were elbow-deep in lobster, uni and bass - tomalley smeared faces (plus crab fat that Designer kindly pushed over to me) only emerging from the plates occasionally when coming up for air.

Very attractive, yes I know.  But that's the beauty of it - it's not a fine dining restaurant, everyone sits at communal tables outside and expects to get down and dirty with their seafood.  And we were having our 'fun, fearless females' day - so the heck with what other people think, as long as we are enjoying ourselves.

Beyond the tasty crustaceans, there were also all sorts of fresh fish on ice, that you could choose to either have broiled or fried.  Some of which I've never heard of, like "Bangus Milk Fish", "Golden Pomfre" and "Thresher Shark". 

Nomlog got a lovely cut of sea bass, broiled - you can read about it (and her take on the day) here.

This guy was not happy with us.

Did we feel any guilt for feasting on innocent creatures? Maybe - but it's an honest, heads to tails approach - for those who eat meat, is the 'guilt' in fact any less, just because they have been processed beyond all recognition, making it easier to forget what they were before they were just food on your plate?

For those looking for other items to round out their meal, Quality Seafood also offered sandwiches, corn on the cob, paella and more.  We had skipped these to save stomach space for the fresher preparations of  seafood.

Pelicans in wait for scraps from local fishermen

After lunch, we had a fun time exploring the rest of the boardwalk, and the beach beyond. 

At a 'fish cleaning station', right by where recreational fishermen cast their rods, we 'met' two beautiful pelicans who were happy to take any scraps the fishermen were willing to offer.

They seemed familiar with tourists and even seemed to pose for a few photos.
True to the 'international' part of their name, the boardwalk offered a bunch of eateries of different cuisines that I'd love to go back and try, one of which is Pacific Fish, a Korean-owned casual spot that serves abalone and other seafood plates, along with Korean beers and soju. 

Another is Gambrinus, a Russian bar/restaurant with marina views (just past the water cycles) offering blini, vareniki and belashi (meat pie). 

While strolling the boardwalk we also noticed imprints of sea lions, otters, whales, fish in the cement.  This one, a fish with wings, stood out to me - is it supposed to be a tribute to all the creatures who have gone on to a better place?  Or a play on 'angel fish'?

A friend's mom used to steam live crab at home, and she would always, adorably, apologize to the crabs and thank them for the food they provide before sticking them in the pot.  Taking her cue, I did give silent thanks to the creatures that gave their lives to feed our bodies and souls that day.

With the sometimes isolating, "A-B" destination driven car culture in LA, I really love places where you can not just go to grab a meal, but can make a day of.  Redondo International Boardwalk really was great for that - after our seafood feast, had a great time strolling the boardwalk checking out other restaurants and bars, and enjoying the sun and sand (such a beautiful day, 86 degrees in *October* - this is why I love SoCal).  Many others seemed had the same idea. Those inclined to further activity - there are also water cycles you can rent by the marina, and a 'nostalgic' arcade for families.

Our last stop of the day was for a Churro (1 for $2, 3 for $5) - made fresh daily at at least 2 storefronts on the boardwalk.  The simple stick of warm, fried, cinnamony, sugary dough - enjoyed over gorgeous views of the open Pacific - was a great way to close out the day.

All in all, a fabulous time with fab friends - hope to see  you again very soon, Redondo!

[For 60 photos from the seaside adventure, check out the album on my Facebook page!]
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Redondo Beach International Boardwalk 
Quality Seafood
130 South International Boardwalk, Redondo Beach, CA

Parking: $5 maximum all day in structure directly behind Quality Seafood, $0.25/15 mins at meters on Catalina (time limit: 4 hours max, old school coin-op, bring quarters)

Website: qualityseafood.net
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1MB Travels: Sabah, Malaysia: Ocean Seafood Village - "No Menu" Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Live Seafood Dining Experience at Fab Prices!

Just returned to a very, very cold L.A. (what happened to warming back up while I was gone...!)  A few hours in and our vacation in sunny Borneo and warmer-than-LA HK seems a distant memory from a different world.

At least I have my memories of the amazing culinary adventures from both places that I can relive as I post about them!

So here goes with the first one...

While on vacation with the fam in Sabah, Malaysia, we managed to venture off the compound of the resort to check out local flavors.  We started off with a self-guided excursion through the city center of Kota Kinabalu - through all the ocean front produce and craft markets (details in separate Sabah adventures post), to a local shopping center - then rewarded ourselves with what we had truly ventured out to the city center for lunch at a place highly recommended by the travel agency guide as well as foodie bloggers: Ocean Seafood Village.

At first, our cab driver got confused and took us to an open market food court style place - so the first tip would be - let your driver know you want to go to the location next to the Jalan Hotel, close to Api Api Center.  When we arrived at the second stop, we knew we were at the right place when we saw a relatively upscale restaurant, where we were greeted by two giant lobster sculptures.

The first thing we saw when we stepped inside, was row upon row of tanks containing all manner of live sea creatures as far as the eye could see.  Nothing excites my family (ok, at least my mom and I) like live seafood that are still swimming before we eat.

But apparently we were not supposed to enter through this entrance first, and were immediately led to the main dining room to be seated.

The dining room was moderate size, with round tables set up banquet style (the larger ones set up with lazy susans, the better for efficient dining in big groups).

As with my policy with movies, with food I just like to get the general gist of reviews (good/so-so/bad) without reading details, so that I could get my thoughts together first without any bias / noise.  So, I was quite surprised when our server informed us that the restaurant did not have a menu!

At Ocean Seafood Village (and other similar seafood restaurants in KK and HK), you make your dining experience the way you want it - choose your own adventure. 

Basically, this means you pick the seafood you want from the tanks (literally pointing to the exact lobster

etc. or simply instruct your server on the type and weight you want and let them make the selection for you), tell them how you want it cooked, and then the dishes of incredibly fresh seafood magically appear at your table.
So the designated seafood selectors from our table (my mom and I) were led back to the tanks to 'shop' for our meal.  We had an amazing time just peering into all the tanks, checking out some creatures we'd never seen before, like this giant King Lobster with tarantula-like legs - so huge it looked like it could go head-to-head with us if we tried to grab it from the tank (luckily, we would have experts there to handle that), Mantis Prawn (equivalent of Chinese Lai Liu Har, but we've still never seen the live creature before) as well as various local types of fish.
 

I know the burning question would be - how do you know how much your meal's going to cost, if there's no menu?  There are prices by the pound posted in front of each tank, and if you like you can ask for exact weight and costs before going back to your table.  There's also a negligible fee for tea and hand towels, as well as the small plates of pre-meal snacks which consisted of shrimp chips, seasoned peanuts and pickled papaya.

Looking to get the full local experience, for beverages we ordered a round of Pandan Coconuts in the shell.  Like all the other fruit juices we've had in Sabah, it could be served a little colder, but it still tasted great - untouched by human hands except for the cracking of the shell to reach the liquids inside.  Perhaps it's just challenging to fit all those huge shells in the fridge (and they did run out when we tried to order seconds).

On to the seafood!  We started with Sabah specialties: Tiger Prawns in Butter Sauce, and Sabah Vege.  My mom was at first concerned that the butter sauce would be too rich, but had reluctantly agreed to try it since it was only to be found in Sabah.  The dish turned out to be amazing and one of our favorites for the meal - the prawns were incredibly fresh, juicy, sweet and the sauce was creamy and as light as a sauce made of butter and cream could be.

Sabah Vege is another Sabah specialty - as there are a lot of Chinese immigrants in Malaysia, a lot of the people speak Chinese, so my parents were delighted to find that our server could explain the dish in Chinese to us.  The veggie is basically "Shue Jai Choy" or potato vegetable - they simply harvest the green stems that grow with spuds, above ground.  It can be cooked a number of ways, but Sabah Vege proper is with a sauce reminiscent of Cantonese "XO sauce" made with dried shrimp and chilis.  I don't usually like veggies, but loved this flavorful dish and wish I could find a place that serves it back home!

Next up was the Lobster - we asked for it to be halved, boiled and served in "top broth" - this format made it easier to get at the meat in a larger chunk, gave access to the tasty tomalley and any caviar inside / around the head area, while the clear soup gave the lobster just the right amount of flavor while still letting the natural sweetness of the lobster meat shine through.

We wanted to try the Coconut Crab (so named because its claws are so strong it could crack a coconut shell with its bare...claws).  But unfortunately they were not in season - the only crab available during our visit was Flower Crab.  We also asked for this to be cooked in top broth.  Our only note about this dish was that we wished we had ordered larger crabs - even my parents who normally don't order crab because it's too much 'work' to get at the flesh, loved the taste - so sweet, structured but super tender - and wished we could have had more. 

Our bill with all that seafood?  In Ringit Malaysian currency: 280 TOTAL, which translates to just a little over $700 Hong Kong or about $92 US!!!!!  For three people!

At that point we only had one day left in our stay in Sabah - and decided we needed to come back to Ocean Seafood Village one more time before leaving.  There were some other recommended local spots that we wanted to check out for a greater sampling in the area, but Ocean Seafood Village was so amazing that we decided to go back for our last meal, literally before our ride to the airport.

On the second visit, we had Lime Juice with Salted Plums (the preserved fruit seems to be as popular here for beverages - as it is to Singaporeans for food).  With the sourness of the lime juice, adding 5-6 salted plums ended up being overkill - this drink would have been nice with maybe 1 salted plum to add just a touch of salty and tart.

As for seafood, we wanted to try a local fish - and went with our server's recommendation of Steamed Marbled Gobby Fish with Soy Sauce and Sesame Oil.  Chinese people like to eat the flesh in the 'cheeks' of fish because it's the smoothest and tenderest (and bone-free) - well the entire Marbled Gobby Fish had the texture of fish cheekbone meat.  There were a bunch of thin bones to work around / eject - which turned my dad off (he usually avoids fish for this reason) - but the taste and texture overall was worth the work.  Like the crab, we just wished we ordered a bigger fish so that the meat to bones (shell) ratio would be to our favor.

Next we tried the Mantis Prawn, which looked like small lobsters with longer tails and shorter heads, and black and beige/grey striped shells when we saw them in the tank - and are supposedly named for their resemblance to praying mantis.

But when they arrived cooked, they looked more like a hybrid of lobster (spiny and hard shell) and shrimp (long and skinny).  We had this one steamed with egg whites, so that all the juices would flow into the egg, which could then be worked into a bowl of rice for extra flavor.

This dish was good, but again took a lot of work to get at the 'meat' - there is supposed to be a specific way to snap the flesh off the spine, but we weren't sure how at the time.  In terms of taste, the Mantis Prawns were sweeter than the lobsters, but this dish definitely did not have as big a payoff (not much meat for all that work, and not as big of a bargain). Worth trying as a local item, but if you have limited numbers of people and can only stick to a few dishes, would recommend getting the butter tiger prawn or a lobster dish instead.

Speaking of lobsters, we couldn't bear to leave without having this again, especially since it was so cheap!  So we ordered lobsters boiled in "top broth" again, bigger ones this time, but chopped up versus split sideways.  We decided we liked split sideways better - the meat came off in clean, versus us trying to scrape small pieces out of the chopped up segments.  It was just felt more rewarding when we were able to spear and rip the entire tail out of the shell in one fell forkful - it also has a better 'mouth feel' (popular Cantonese term) in each bite, and allows bigger pieces for the natural flavors of the lobster to come through along with the flavors in the broth.

Last dish we repeated of course was Sabah Vege.  The tally for this second meal?  A grand total of RM400 or $130 US.  (*And oh, I forgot to mention:  after our first meal, we were given a coupon for 20% off our next meal - but unfortunately we completely forgot to use it, even though we brought it with us to our second meal - d'oh!!!!!! So it could have been even cheaper than that!!!)

Forget Shangri-La - after those two meals, paradise for me would be to live in Sabah...or specifically, next to Ocean Seafood Village.

On a 7 point scale:
Flavor - 6.5 bites
Presentation - 5.5 bites
Originality - 6 bites
Ambience - 5.5 stars
Service - 6 stars
Overall experience - 6 bites
Price - $$ (2 bite marks)
Probability of return visit - 100%

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Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Ocean Seafood Village Restaurant
No.4, Lorong Api-api Center 3, Api-api Center,
88000 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Ph: 088-264701,  088-269701
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