Makantrip.com

We started day 2 of our trip by visiting White House Kopitiam (N6 07.890 E102 14.212) in town, its supposed to be famous for their nasi dagang and toasted bread. This place is packed with almost all the tables occupied. Local of all races eat here and this places is operated by an old chinese uncle with the help of local malay ladies. We tried their nasi dagang, nasi lauk, toasted bread and half boiled eggs.

The nasi dagang is basically rice steamed in coconut milk serve with fish curry but I find the rice a bit hard. Nasi lauk are normal rice serve with fish curry too and I find my liking more to nasi lauk here. The toasted breads are just ok but the kaya is not as good as the one we tried in Tong Kok Hotel in Kuala Lipis. Prices, not that cheap, almost normal KL prices I would say. On the way leaving the place, we also stopped by a famous local stall (N6 07.726 E102 14.931) for some fried keropok lekor losong and fried sweet potato, both are excellent, about 5 pieces for RM1. I would have to say, this the thing I miss most about Kota Bharu!

We then visited Wat Pothivihan (N6 07.815 E102 08.252) which have a big reclining Buddha followed by Wat Machimmaram (N6 11.053 E102 06.577) (thanks to correction by Tien Soon!) which have a big sitting Buddha. We took a short break at Wat Pothivihan to have fresh coconut juice and some somtam (Thai papaya salad) which is served by all the 3 local-Thais stalls found in the temple. At Wat Pilkulyai, I got a pre-blessing (for Wesak Day) from a monk who speak very good English, chatting with him after my blessing sessions. He told me to also visit Golok which is nearby and that the next temple is where they will celebrate Wesak Day. The monk took me by surprised a little as he look nothing like someone who can speak fluent English, so there we go again, don’t judge a book by its cover ;).

For lunch, we headed to U-Lang Corner after packing up our bags from Ah Fai siew’s house. Its located at Jalan Wakaf Mek Zainah in Kota Bharu (N6 08.348 E102 14.476). Their specialty here is basically Nasi Kerabu which is also known as khao jam in Thai. The version here is a bit different, its green and its cooked with the many varieties of herbs planted and found around the forest next to the owner’s house. The rice is green in colour, top with a salad like of veges and herbs. The rice mixture is a salty taken with either fried chicken or fish. Its a very nice and not heavy feeling meal, I really like that. The khao jam and by 1 plus, its already sold out, but they also sells Laksa here if you fancy some. The friendly uncle here also told me that his “fei chai” (chubby son) have opened up a branch in Bandar Puteri, Puchong and told me that I can also get it there.

Before heading off, Ah Fai siew, our valuable local guide recommended that we try the local cendol. So I asked what’s the different, he explained that its cendol as it is but served with pulut (glutinous rice) and tapai (pronounced as tar-peh in Kelantan). I wasn’t too keen with pulut at first but tapai did it and I just had to try it since tapai is my favourite ;). Tapai is basically a type of fermented food which tasted sweet or sour alcoholic liked which is basically made from pulut or tapioca.

The cendol stall (N6 08.221 E102 14.721) here is operated by what looks like a Malay family which sells the yummy cendol with pulut and tapai (made from tapioca type) in it. Sounds weird, but taste fantastic and I really enjoy the cendol. RM1.80 for the normal one and RM2.80 for the special one, not sure what is the special one but the normal one already have pulut and tapai in it ;).

After the nice lunch, we had to say goodbye to Ah Fai siew and continue on our journey to Merang in Terengganu as our next stop. So far, impression of Kota Bharu is quite good to me, not as bad as many have thought and the different kind of other goodies like ayam percik, nasi kerabu, etc. that Ah Fai siew told me about makes me wish I had more time to spend here, so maybe next time, it’s a great idea to spend some time in Kota Bharu itself ;). Thanks again for everything Ah Fai siew, hope to see you in KL soon :).

Photos compliments of Law Tien Soon

Peninsula Makan Trip Part 2 Intro

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip Part 2 - Day 1, Update 1, Kuala Lipis

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip Part 2 - Day 1, Update 2, Gua Musang

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip Part 2 - Day 1, Update 3, Kota Bharu

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip Part 2 - Day 2, Update 1, Kota Bharu

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip Part 2 - Day 2, Update 2, Merang, Terengganu

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip Part 2 - Day 3, Update 1, Kuala Terengganu

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip Part 2 - Day 3, Update 2, Chukai, Terengganu

Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip Part 2 - Day 4, Last Day, Kuantan, Pahang

Rasa Rasa organised a food hunt in Penang and I was fortunate enough to be one of the 96 participating cars. As the food hunt is on Saturday morning, we decided to go early a day earlier. As we hit the NSE after work on Friday, we were caught in a jam and with the on-going highway widening works at the Rawang-Bukit Beringin stretch, it was no help!

We were supposed to head straight up Bukit Tambun for a late dinner but due to the jam, we settled for Tanjung Malim instead. We head to Wun Nam in Tanjung Malim town (GPS:N3 40.910 E101 31.159) which I have visited years ago during the makan trip in the early days. The other car somehow got lost in Tanjung Malim after we split up at the rest stop, brand new Garmin Nuvi playing tricks on Ed I guess :P. Wun Nam is famous for its braised lotus leaf pork knuckle which is soft and tasty with chestnuts in the sides. We also ordered their chiu pai tofu which are homemade white tofu fried and top with minched meat, prawn paste fried chicken, fried roast pork with kau choy far and some vege. Total bill is about RM110 for 8 persons.

We then continue our journey to Penang and arrived very late after midnight and guess what, Penang bridge is closed to 1 lane. We had to crawl behind this slow moving car all the way across the bridge! Finally we are there and managed to settled down at Jess’ place there. As I was about to sleep, Ed’s engine started on my right, and when Ed finally stop, Adrian’s engine pulak started on my left, gosh… hehehe… but I think I had too much chinese tea at Wun Nam, had trouble sleeping :(.

Next day, as blur as most of us are, we got ourselves ready for the hunt and started the day with some good penang char keoy teow at Lasia Cafe in Air Itam (GPS:N5 24.315 E100 17.014). We then walked over to Asia Cafe across the road for some prawn paste chee cheong fun (GPS:N5 24.360 E100 16.964). After breakfast, we head to Paradise Sandy Bay for the hunt’s briefing.

After all the briefing, we were given 5 locations based on the rasa rasa penang book to go and we started with Kim Laksa in Balik Pulau. It was a long drive and very time consuming but I guess we are more on the mood for good food than competing. Kim Laksa is located next to the wet market in Balik Pulau (GPS:N5 21.110 E100 14.154) and serve the usual assam laksa or the siam style assam laksa with coconut milk in it, RM2.20 per bowl and its best to take it with a cup of icey Ambrah Sour Plum! After filling our stomach, we proceeded with our hunt of the other 4 places in the jammed up Georgetown! One of them worth mentioning is the Eu Char Koay at People’s Court at Lebuh Cintra, the oil they use is clean and very crispy eu char koay but 90 sens per piece!

The hunt then took us to Ghee Hiang for some teh tarik stunts then Air Itam to solve all sort of clues and back to Georgetown finishing at HSBC. Overall the fun was great but we wasted a lot of time to Balik Pulau, well, we are newbies anyway, so its alright, plus we are more interested in eating than competing!

We were given RM15 vouchers each so we decided to spend at the New World Food Court at Swatow Lane (GPS:N2 11.972 E102 15.204). The place is new and clean, but of the various local food we have tested here, the oo-chien (oyster omelette), rojak and fried chicken wings are ok, the rest are so so. The famous ice kacang here is alright but I still think the SS2 wai sek kai one is better.

After dinner, we called it a day and head back to the hotel. Next morning, we decided to skip hotel food and head out to Lorong Seratus Tahun (GPS:N5 24.914 E100 19.348) for the yummy Penang Curry Noodles! The best difference is for curry noodles here are the pig’s blood jelly which most of the gang gladly donates to me, yummy! Next, we head to Jalan Perak for the famous hokkien mee at Kedai Kopi Classic (GPS:N5 24.814 E100 18.963). We reached there at about 10am, there are still a mountain of noodles and guess what, the owner told me they have run out!!! Gosh! Must be really good, have to come back! We then settled for some roti babi and chai kueh at Polyland Cafe in Pulau Tikus (GPS:N5 25.927 E100 18.634).

Later, we checked out and heads to my favourite Goreng Pisang at Tanjung Bungah (GPS:N5 27.961 E100 16.784) at the corner of Jalan Chan Seow Teong. They fry the goreng pisang 2 times and its really crispy yet inside is still soft and nice. Everyone who doesn’t want it will want more after I make them have 1 ;). Just check out sky’s pix when he is feasting on the goreng pisang you know how nice it is!
Next, we go to Seng Thor at Lebuh Kimberley(GPS:N5 24.916 E100 20.085) for some really good oo-chien and some penang lobak! The oo-chien is crispy with lots of oysters and I just love the penang style lobak sauce! We then walked to Penang road for the famous cendol (GPS:N5 25.025 E100 19.834) before going over to 1 Corner Restaurant at Jalan Bawasah behind Dorsett Hotel (GPS:N5 25.292 E100 19.540) for some nice assam laksa. This assam laksa is sold by an Indian man who’s wife is a chinese and the other thing nice there is fried popiah which I like to dip it and eat with the assam laksa.

Next, we head back to Air Itam to pick up some of the Him Heang biscuits we have bought and stopping by Ghee Hiang as well, not to mentioned the stop at Cheong Kim Chuan for nutmegs. Before leaving the island, I just had to dragged everyone to New Lane for my must have Chee Cheong Chuk(GPS:N5 24.898 E100 19.583). The porridge is still the best I had so far!

After fulfilling our penang hawker’s food craving, (actually still want to eat more, but just no room left!), the gang was still gungho to stop by Bukit Tambun before heading home. So Bukit Tambun it is that we went. We went to Prawn Village Seafood (GPS:N5 16.295 E100 26.603) in Bukit Tambun and had a steam seabass, sotong kia, etc.

Finally, we are satisfied and it was then a rush to reach home since its a working day tomorrow but the jam in Bukit Tambun and again at the NSE did not help! But overall its was a fun trip and the food is still as heavenly as it was ;).

Credits: Many thanks for the sporting gang from TMS whom participated and also to Sky for some of his nice photos and for being my “volunteer” blog host, hehe

Makan first, think later

Its was a beautiful day and I joined the wildgeeks to do a cross country cycle in Malacca, it was a fantastic place to cycle covering a wide range of terrain and some nice scenery on the hill top.

After the hard morning ride, we rewarded ourselves with some yummy Malacca food. First stop was recommended by our local Melaka guide Johnny, whom directed us to Federal Yong Tau Foo in Bukit Beruang. This place is packed and the yong tau foo get snapped up fast, so if you don’t come early, there will be less choices left! The tau pok is particularly nice and so is the fried sui kau (dumpling) added with noodles of your choice that comes with minced meat.

Next up, we decided to move on to some good Melaka pork satay which then took us to Lung Ann at the corner of Jalan Tukang Besi and Lebuh Hang Jebat. We heard some complaints about the satay stall owner but we still can’t resist the good satay that they serve here with their sauce. Also good are their toasted bread, which have the whole piece of butter inside, a little too rich for me though.

We ended our trip with a last stop of Durian Cendol at Melaka Raya at Jeta Groves. With great food and good trails for off road cycling, we will definately be back!

Makan first, think later