Sambal prawns without the sambal

It was a special occasion yesterday and we ate out. We've been in Byron Bay for almost 6 months and have given up eating out everywhere except for 1 place which never fails to disappoint. Ignoring our gut feeling, we decided to try somewhere new and we ended up at a restaurant with a beautiful setting and ambience. With the sun setting in the background, we perused the menu with renewed confidence. I was surprised to see that the menu was all asian-fusion-modern. I am not a big fan of this sort of menu due to past experiences but placed my orders and crossed my fingers. By this time, i was starving after all.

I started with a Bloody Mary which needed more tabasco ( it needed more alcohol too). The raw kingfish with papaya salad was mediocre. The fish was fresh but at room temperature and drowned with a mix of very strong asian flavours including kecap manis. Coincidentally P's entree had the same overpowering sauce. My main was a very well cooked snapper fillet on a bed of wilted vegetables and heavily sauced again. But the final straw was the dessert, coconut cake, which was rather indescribable and we had barely made a dent in it. Overall, we were lamenting over the dinner and wondering if we were the 2 most picky eaters. The produce was undoubtedly fresh but it was a waste as everything was drowned in a rather generic tasting sauce. 

Ironically for dinner today, i decided to cook up some prawns and after browsing through some recipes on the net, i choose this one. Sambal Udang.

I added some kecap manis, soy sauce and lime juice. And served with rice and a salad with our current favorite salad dressing. But that's for another time.