May 21

Our first stop in Kota Bharu is Wat Pracacinaram, which is a Siamese temple in Wakaf Bharu. The temple is located in a village with loads of Thai food restaurants and you can see there are plenty of local boys playing basketball at the temple’s court. Here at the temple, we visited their herbal steam bath, which requires a minimal donation of RM5.00 per person (to help the upkeep of the steam facility).

Wat Pracacinaram

There is basically a steamer being heated by wood fire, the boiling water in it is then added with herbs, ginger, onions and garlic by the monk there. The steam is then release into a steam room. Before entering the steam room, there are lockers provided to store your valuables and showers are available. The steam bath is quite cool, firstly, of course you almost sweat like mad instantly, this is to help your body release all the toxic in you, especially us city slickers. I like the herbal and strong ginger scent in the steam and even after coming out and taking a shower, the nice fragrant is stucked with you for a while ;).

After the relaxing sweat out, Ah Fai siew then lead us to Orchard Garden Seafood for dinner in Kampung Brinjal, Cabang Empat, Tumpat (N6 09.642 E102 10.356). We had wanted to visit Cheng Mai Thai food in Wakaf Baru but its fully booked for a wedding, so Orchard Garden seems to be a good choice especially since its being recommended by Ah Fai siew.

We had a big dinner here, I mean big with 10 dishes! Tomyam seafood, curry prawns, thai steam siakap, fried eels, deep fried pork knuckle, fried bees, etc. All together it cost RM352.00 for the whole dinner is not too bad as out of the 10, 3 dishes are fishes. The highlight of the dinner is the fried bees, yes literally bees being fried. Sounds yucky but really, it tasted great and crunchy, so tasty that our kaki Edwin got the Bee King title for finishing up the whole plate of the bees.

My visit so far was quite different than what I perceived of Kelantan, the Islamic State of Malaysia to be, the many temples, pork easily available in Chinese restaurant plus the skimpy dressed lady I saw in the restaurant really changed my perspective. So, really, don’t believe what you read, especially newspapers in Malaysia :P.

That night we checked into Ah Fai siew’s house which is big enough to host all of us and we really appreciate his hospitality, really a nice guy I must say. I was a little sick from the lack of sleep and intense travel. So I had to sleep early with a flu while the rest went out for supper and also, visiting the “forbidden” in Kelantan ;).

Photos compliment of Law Tien Soon & Lim Ken Wei

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

Jun 24

Went back to F4 again lately, just want to update my experience this time since I didn’t manage to much dishes during the last visit. (see previous post)

This time we ordered the fish head curry, deep fried talapia with thai style, fried beancurd, fried vege, pork knuckle and marmite pork ribs. Pork knucles is really good, its different from most which are just deep fried, this one comes with its own sauce. The rest are ok but the beancurd are really salty, do avoid ordering that. But overall, this is really a food for value place to eat, all these plus 12 cans of beers for RM160.00.

To get there, just head to USJ1 and turn right on the traffic light before giant/mydin and turn left (3rd one) into Jalan Subang 4 then look for F4 signboard on your right.

Pixs with SE P990i

GPS: N3 02.805 E101 35.774

Jun 18

No… not the movie… its Bangkok… hehe… that’s what it means in Thai, see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok

Bangkok, where else better to go on a makan trip but here, being the most experienced person in Bangkok and the only light bulb among the 3 couples (the shopping toursts, the lost tourists and the objective shoppers), I am their natural guide here ;). Basically this is a shop, eat, shop, eat trip in this crowded city which have like almost half the population of Malaysia.

If you ask me, I think the best food are street, as we are on the way on Day 1 for our lunch after our check in, I was already checking out the street food on the way to the sky train station. My favourite would simply be deep fried pork with basil leaves (moo pad krapow). Its simply marinated pork deep fried with basil, simply tasting and tender, a pack is 20 baht. Also got some deep fried chicken skin to share with shopping tourists.

Strangely our first stop for lunch is Tony Romas, which is a western restaurant supposed to serve the best pork ribs (the one in Malaysia don’t serve pork). Highlights here are the onion loaf which is huge, just think of it a big onion ring… hehee… and of course the baby back ribs. The ribs are worth trying but the rest are ok. Then its time to shop, walk, shop, walk, shop… just keeps going. Break for tea at MBK’s foodcourt, seems to have everything here but couldn’t compare with the foodcourt in Paragon, that one is something else ;).

Not to be long winded next up is dinner at Chinatown at Yao Wa Raj, here we have curry crab meat, fried squids, tomyam gong, mussels, fried rice (you have to eat fried rice in Bangkok, they are really good everywhere), vege, etc. This place is in the middle of Yao Wa Raj, open air, food is quite good but not exactly cheap. As there is nothing much to see here, we head to Suan Lum Night Bazaar for… more SHOPPING!

Hotel breakfast is surprisingly so so the next day, so after sweating like a pig in Grand Palace we head for aircond lunch at MK, my favourite steamboat place. Its like coca but prices are much cheaper and the suki sauce is good, which in any case I brought 2 bottles from the Carrefour next to the hotel back… muahahaha… that explains why I went there with 1 luggage and came back with 2 :P
In MK, you order plates of meat, vege and anything you want to steamboat. Its clean, air condition and tasty. There also serve very good roast duck in MK which objective shopper have reminded me like more than 10 times since we reached Bangkok to eat that. So we had the duck and a whole bunch of stuff… see pix… lazy to explain (this is what happens when you wait to long to blog… haiya… busy with work mah… sob… )

After the good lunch and aching feet from shopping, me and the lost tourists (since I am their GPS, they have no choice but to follow me, muahahaha) went for some massage in Ratchadapisek. Went to the one in Jusco, cost 200 baht for 1 hour Thai massage, which I regret taking because that guy like trying to twist and break every bone in my body *sweat*. Foot massage here is 130 baht for 1 hour. After the “relaxing” and cracking, we tar pau the loads of street food outside Jusco back to the hotel. On the list includes bbq chicken and pork, these are good comes with slices of cucumber, ginger (what?) and whole chili padi (crazy!), a whole bunch of other bbq stuff and most important of all, some juicy crispy bugs! Yeap, bugs, I ATE bugs in Bangkok… and you know what, they taste nothing like chicken. A palm full of grasshoppers cost 20 baht and I top that with another 20 baht of worms. The hawker top it with lots of pepper and spray these orange looking liquor which I think are oil? onto the bugs. Worms are ok, no juice inside, just dry skin. Grasshopper on the other hand, is ok if you have a strong control over your mind. I had 2 worms and 1 grasshopper and that was my limit. The mind is still more powerful… hahahaha… couldn’t help but remind myself, you eating a bug, its a bug, its a bug… hahaha

After the buggy-licious experience, we need some alcohol to kill the germs in the bugs in case there is any. So we head to the best watering hole in Bangkok, Tawandang http://www.tawandang1999.com/. You get dinner, in house brewed beer and loads of entertainment. Reservation is a must at this place, otherwise expect to sit outside and wait for quite a while. The pork knuckle here is excellent, not forgetting the german sausages and a bunch of usual thai dishes. The beer here, sure best la, reasonable price too, about 750 baht for 3 litres of freshly brewed beer? Mana mau cari… in fact, comparing dining here and at Tony or Yao Wa Raj, this place is definitely worth it!

Next day is Chatuchak day, lots of snacking, walking, sweating and emptying the wallet here. With loads of big plastic bags on our hands, we head to Robinson in Ratchadapisek for lunch at the food court. I love the crispy pork fried with kale here and the other yummy dishes here is their tomyam. After a quick lunch, we decided to walk around and don’t know what curse Thailand put on tourists, few of us started to shop again, hehe… I also mou tin tin bought a pair of shoes :P.

Wanted to makan at Sukhumit near the Westin hotel, which have a local Thai stall selling northern Thai food, but seems to be closed on Sunday, so we just makan at a nearby Thai restaurant, not too costly for a tourist spot and not bad either the food there. Its somewhere back lane near the Asok station. After dinner, I need to show the tourists the infamous Pat Phong. At Silom, we whack more street food before calling the night.

The last day we shoot out to MBK again for last minute shopping, kiasu betul, but for the shopping tourist, they need to finish up their bahts… hehehe. Before coming back, we stopped by for Thai street food at Paragon’s mall. The price difference is ok here, only 2 baht more per street food than those on the street. They have this funny thing where they fried the whole century egg, then the bananas fritters here have lots of sesame seeds and taste different and more.

Before checking out and heading back, we stopped at Swensen, to our surprise, a cup of 3 scoops of ice cream, with cream, with 4 pieces of brownies, bananas top with 1 piece of choc is only 59 baht!!! Why must Swensen here charge like RM25 for the same thing? Don’t make sense!

I may not have mention above, but I think everyday we are at the Carrefour next to our hotel buying stuff, beer, shampoo, tooth paste, instants noodles, batteries, etc. They are still cheaper than Malaysia despite the 7% VAT. So, think… good place to retire? hmm…. :)
Oh ya, late night from work today, all tired, so too lazy to upload the pix, a bit slow… please view the pix are my online album here http://picasaweb.google.com/chinseong/BangkokFood

Apr 3

Meat meat meat, that is what Euro Deli is all about. This is basically a german meat house, selling processes meat (sausages, bacons, hams, etc.) as well as a nice cozy restaurant. The last time I came here it was 4 men sharing 3 dishes… hehehe… well besides saving money… the serving are big too. By far now, this is my favourite german pork restaurant plus I have the discount card, so kiasu a bit la.

Anyway, this visit I wanted to have something different from the common german sausages and pork knuckle. So I got the Pork Medallion which is pork wrapped with bacon fried top with sauce. They look small but half way eating, you can feel this thick and chuncky meat hitting your stomach. The other is Smoked Pork Lion, I just love it with mustards!

Wanted to try the german beer I saw someone drinking the last time but 500ml is RM26!!! So I decided to try their shraps which are german whisky. I saw one that is apple+pear… well naturally I thought its whiskey plus apple and pear juice… sounds good for a hot day. Unfortunately when it arrived, its simply a neat shot of clear whiskey (with apple+pear fragrant only)! Total damage is below RM60… highly recommended :)