Looking for your ‘ikan bakar’ fix? Head to Restoran Shin Lin Kee in PJ New Town

PETALING JAYA, July 9 — As a kid, my parents often encouraged me – in their own heavy-handed way – to try a wide variety of food.

Some things were love at first sight: sambal belacan, roti bom, foie gras. Others, like abalone, baked beans, and durian... not so much.

I remember slurping down my first snail with real joy. I also remember my first oyster slinking its way down my throat. I dreaded the oyster forever after.

Naturally, I held a grudge.

But my parents had a rule they practically beat into me: your palate changes as you get older.

So keep trying, and you’ll be surprised what you end up liking.

It’s not meant to be taken literally. Physically, our taste buds change every two weeks. But changing a preference is dependent on other factors like age, lifestyle and repeated exposure to the food in question.

It can take months, sometimes even years, to get over the hump.

I grew up detesting fish, particularly whole fish — anytime bones were involved, I hated it.

Partly because I once ended up at the hospital with a bone fragment lodged in my throat, and partly because I just didn’t find fish all that interesting.

At age eight, the only things I cared about were chicken nuggets and Megan Fox in Transformers.

But because I grew up in a household that mostly ate Cantonese food, I could not escape fish, steamed or fried.

Dread it. Run from it. The whole fish arrived all the same. Eventually, I came to begrudgingly accept it and even enjoy it, the way I do today.

But ikan bakar had somehow slipped past me all those years. Had I tried it sooner, I don’t think whole fish would’ve taken me nearly as long to love.

These days, I don’t have to look far to test that theory. In the heart of Petaling Jaya’s new town, there’s a restaurant that does nothing else.

For decades, regulars have returned to Restoran Shin Lin Kee for ikan bakar and buckets of ice-cold beer.

Still grilled whole in a banana leaf, Shin Lin Kee does a Chinese-style ikan bakar, where the amount of sambal rubbed onto the fish before grilling is dialled back.

Most of the flavour comes after, from a thick sambal belacan finished with lime and diced raw red onion.

Offerings span 11 different types of fish, from ikan jenahak (snapper) to ikan nyok-nyok (trevally).

I opted for ikan pari (stingray, RM38), ikan bawal emas (golden pomfret, RM48) and ikan ayam (RM58).

The latter gets its funny name from its taste and texture, which — you guessed it — is remarkably reminiscent of chicken.

The firmness of its meat means it pulls off the bone in solid chunks. Eight-year-old me would’ve loved this.

The exterior char was minimal, but the meat itself is a solid vessel for the sambal belacan to ride in on.

Those who enjoy flakier flesh and a slightly sweeter flavour will prefer the golden pomfret, which has a fine, buttery mouthfeel.

But my favourite, and what I think is the ideal fish for ikan bakar, is the stingray. The unique structure of its flesh, threading into long, firm strands, takes to grilling extremely well — it holds its shape rather than falling apart.

The best part is scraping those strands off the cartilage and dousing them in sambal belacan.

Like any dai chow, there are other dishes to round out your meal, in case grilled fish and cold beer isn’t the absolute picture of a nutritious dinner to you.

The table next to us — a large group of older gentlemen — had as many bottles of whisky open as fish ordered, and capped it all off with some basic stir-fry dishes. Hokkien mee was also a popular choice.

Change, as it turns out, was never really about time. It was about proximity.

I didn’t age out of my fear of whole fish, bones and all. It stopped scaring me because my parents didn’t give me a choice.

The palate doesn’t age into acceptance — it gets braver, plate after plate, until one day the fear just isn’t there anymore.

Somewhere, an eight-year-old is still holding out for chicken nuggets. He doesn’t know yet that the gnarly-looking fish eventually wins.

Restoran PJ Shin Lin Kee

1, Jalan 52/10,

 Bandar Baru Petaling Jaya,

 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Open daily, 6pm–2am

Tel: 03-7955 2249

*This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.