Have you ever been to a kelong or a fish farm?
Kelong - a Malay word describing a form of offshore platform built predominantly with wood, which can be found in the waters off Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. Only a handful remains in Singapore due to rapid urbanisation. (from Wikipedia.org)
Fish farm - a place where fish are bred for commercial purposes.
We came to know about Ah Hua Kelong last Oct 2014 and have ordered from them a couple of times. When we saw that they are open for commercial visits, I knew we just had to go! Of course, Ah Hua Kelong had to apply visit licenses from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA).
Ah Hua Kelong has 2 farms - one at Sembawang and another at Changi. The one we visited was out in the sea, off Changi area, a 5 minute speedboat ride.
Never having drove on this road before although we often see the road signage, we started our "adventure" on a really hot afternoon...
Lorong Halus Jetty - opened only in July 2014 to support the fish farming industry. Only for authorised users, no trespassers are allowed.
Imagine the giggles, shouts and exclamations from the boys for it was their first time on a speedboat. I was so scared their caps will be blown away...
There you go... one of the remaining 160 or so kelongs / fish farms left in Singapore. A sun-set industry but I am glad we had a chance to visit one. Not smelly because the boys did not go "eeeeekkkkks, so smelly". Haha.
This farm is a floating farm, meaning that the farm relies on airtight barrels to keep it afloat. Will the farm float away? Yes and no. It does float around but within the area of the 9 anchors - they need to anchor down the farm with ropes and heavy objects so that it does not float away. So yes, when there are currents, we can feel ourselves moving slightly...
Bryan Ang, the Creative and Marketing Director of Ah Hua Kelong, very helpfully arranged this visit and brought us around the farm. He explained to us how the farm works, the fishes they have and even demonstrated the gutting of fish.
Our first encounter - Live Moon Sails.
Gamely walked across wooden planks, tripped a few times but picked himself up and continued.
Feeding fishes... Ah Hua Kelong pride themselves on the freshness of their seafood. Some people mention that their fishes costs alittle more than wet markets and to that, Bryan explained that it is due to the high-quality feed they feed to the fishes. They also clean out the barnacles from the nets / sea cages often for ventilation as well as to prevent food from accumulating and rotting at the bottom which in turn will give the fish a muddy taste.
The big fish net that will be lowered into the water overnight to catch small bait fish.
Yes, under these wooden planks is the sea. The boys saw fishes swimming...
I am very surprised that they are not afraid of touching the fishes! Feeding the small fishes harvested to those fishes that do not eat fish feed.
One of the workers showing us the seabass he netted for us.
Despite the many mosquito bites (oh yes, Mummy forgot the mosquito patch), the boys had a good time there. Well, we did not really went there for fun, although we did (contradictory? Haha) because how can it be fun if it is hot and there are mosquitoes (you know I am still scratching my mosquito spots!) and you got to handle fish?!
We went because...
I wanted the boys to know how the fish they eat came about - it could be caught, it could be farmed and it is a lot of hard work doing this "fishy" business. During this visit, the boys also learnt to feed the fish, touched real fishes, know what is a kelong / fish farm and now... they know what's a seabass and kembong.
I always wanted to know how fishes are farmed and how the fish we eat comes about. This visit, we got to know about the seafood we buy from Ah Hua Kelong. Although Ah Hua Kelong does not offer a wide variety of seafood (check out their online shop), I saw for myself how the fishes are farmed. If I were to go to any fishmonger out there, I would not know where the fishes came from or what they were fed either.
There is no doubt on the freshness of the seafood from Ah Hua Kelong based on the reviews it has on its Facebook. This is due to the turnaround time - the seafood is processed on the same day it is delivered, all within 12 hours.
I cannot afford to buy and eat wild caught fishes every other day. Thus, we eat a variety of fishes. The whole family is quite picky on the fishes we eat but all of us really liked the seabass. Just steamed with slices of ginger, soya sauce and sesame oil, there is no muddy taste and it is not fishy (what the locals call chao-cho) at all.
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| Bye Bye Beh Mor! The guard dog at the kelong. |
Ah Hua Kelong has an article on the 7 indicators of freshness, some of which most of us know. Google will also produce results like this or this when one types in "indicators of fish freshness". Armed with this knowledge, we can venture out to the wet markets to buy fish fish fish. Of course if you want fresh fish delivered to your doorstep, then you can consider ordering from Ah Hua Kelong.
I bought 2 seabass back that day and one of them was cooked after being in the chiller for 2 days. One of them is in the freezer right now.
My 2 boys love it and the man says, machiam like those fresh seabass (in fish tanks) dish you order at cze char stores. Indeed, but at half the price maybe. Do not remind me of those times the fishes we ordered not being fresh though.
Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. Bloggers and photographers are welcome to their farm. Check it out here. We requested for a visit to the farm on our own accord and bought fishes out of our own pockets. Bryan did the arrangements for the licenses approvals and showed us around the farm, ending with a complimentary taste of their seabass.
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