I love wandering around fish markets and my favourites in Johor are in Pontian and the Orang Asli fish market in Permas Jaya. Recently, since the Covid pandemic, Facebook Live has become a popular way to browse and buy fresh seafood.
I got the chance to observe how Facebook Live seafood auctions at GM Seafood Wholesale in Johor Bahru hosted by Terence Cao are conducted. It was an interesting, new experience for me - I had a lot of fun watching first hand the collaboration between GM Seafood Wholesale and 西北Shiok on Facebook Live.
Facebook Live shopping is fun as Terence has surprise guests joining him at his daily sessions / shows (except Sunday). Today, it was Jeffrey Shao Tang 谢少唐.
Jeffrey is a Johor singing talent who appeared in the prestigious Sing!China show 中国新歌声 in 2017.
Alamak, I thought I was just there to take pictures and share a post afterwards but Terence pulled me into my first ever Facebook Live. I casted the opening bid for this uber fresh 3kg threadfin fish. I was holding the huge fish without any worries as it does not have any smell whatsoever.
The Facebook Live sale starts at 10am but I was already here at 8am to watch the action behind the scene. Everyday at least 3 tonnes of seafood are delivered to the centre.
Behind the scene of entertaining auctions hosted by Terence, there's a lot of heavy lifting backend work, hours before the session goes live everyday.
The action is frenetic once the lorry of fish pulls into the centre's unloading bay. The seafood are sorted for restaurants, walk-in retail customers, and the daily Facebook Live auctions hosted by Terence.
Owner of GM Seafood Wholesale, Dr Gary Ko busy taking stock of the seafood that arrived today. Dr Ko runs a private practice in Bangkok. Returned to Johor Bahru in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic and is now running his family's seafood wholesale business. Dr Ko is known for his charity work, gifting fish regularly to needy families. (Source credit: New Straits Times.)
The seafood come from various Malaysian fishing ports.
Follow me for a look, see 😬
All of GM Seafood Wholesale's seafood are wild caught.
Once you have tasted wild caught sea bass like this, it is hard to go back to farmed fish because wild fish have so much better texture and much more flavour.
The fish are carefully sort according to weight as wild caught fish come in all sorts of different sizes.
1.5 - 1.6kg, such meticulous sorting.
Good fish fillet actually come from fish (duh) and good fishballs are from fresh yellowtail fish 😬
Flying saucers or my favourite fish for ikan bakar i.e. stingrays.
Big sotong (squid).
Kuruma prawns 九節蝦, the top choice in Malaysia for making super umami prawn noodle soup.
First time seeing such prawns and I forgot the name they told me 😬
Live bamboo clams.
The fish are gutted and cleaned before packing in ice and delivered to you in Johor or Singapore. In Johor, you can also self collect at the centre.
So much ice to keep the seafood in tip top freshness. I didn't smell any chemicals or fishiness at all even though there were literally tonnes of seafood all around me. It doesn't smell like a fish market at all despite the volume of seafood processed everyday.
Initially, I regretted wearing sneakers here but turned out I need not have worried. My sneakers didn't bring home any of that fish market smell at all.
Parrot fish.
Walk-in retail customers were grabbing these bags of lala clams at RM6 per kilo.
Terence must be thinking 💭 "Tony, can faster a bit or not. This baby is heavy". This is a 3kg threadfin fish known as 顺风 in Chinese.
☝ Click to go to GM Seafood Wholesale & 西北Shiok Facebook Live 10am Mon - Sat
If clicking on the photo doesn't work, click here 👈
If you like to browse seafood and buy them fresh, get the same deal as Johor Bahru locals, delivered to your door with money back guarantee, log into 西北Shiok Facebook. Live streams starts 10am Monday to Saturday. Delivery charge to Singapore is SGD25 per 15kg carton (inclusive of packing ice). For local (Johor Bahru) addresses, delivery is RM10 with no weight limit.
If you are walking in, here's the address.
GM Seafood Wholesale Supply
Address: 1, Jalan Mutiara Emas 5/22, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru
Tel: +6019 779 6777
Hours: 9:00am - 8:00pm
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHi, I think the prawns you said you forgot the name is called "sua lor". They taste nicer than ang kah prawns IMO but are not as big.
ReplyDeleteHow to order..i stay tebrau jb
ReplyDelete