Few words: Iphone 4s is literally useless in the hand of Asians. Don’t believe me, try talk to one by not faking your accent.
In my previous post, I say I need a vacation and guess what; I really got myself one last week! Not a luxurious one nonetheless, in fact just a mini getaway from work. It all began as a tipsy conversation between me and my colleagues – a theoretical safari of Perak good foods. How it ended up as an actual road trip I don’t really recall, but somehow I found myself enjoying the country life and good eats for 60 hours session of local foods.
Let’s keep story short, I have decided to take a few days off to travel around Perak – basically to every rural area reachable by road without using the express way. With no exact plan, we started our journey from Ipoh and stop whenever we want. Travel, eat, sleep and repeat. Now where can you find road trip like that?
Before I proceed, I’d need to clarify, I’m neither a food blogger nor a food photographer, and I’ve been spoilt by Ipoh good foods for almost two decades so it’s normal if I don’t feel the local foods. Anyhow, I try not to compare and just blog my humble experience based on my already indulged taste bud.
My first stop was Sitiawan, a famous little Fu Zhou town. Coming to such a town, I have to admit, it was way better than my expectation. In fact, it shouldn’t be classified as a rural area in the first place, my mistake! One thing I do realize in Sitiawan is U-turning signboard is everywhere. Come to think about it, we rarely see one in big cities nowadays. Anyhow, our first stop was to Kampung Koh Wet Market’s famous Loh Mee – a blend of thick dark chili stew served with yellow noodle. Unfortunately that day, the lady mixed it with laksa soup because she doesn’t have enough portions for us. After the first bite, we were speechless – taking a second bite just to make sure it taste differently but no, it remain the same. Total disappointment! I mean it’s just like every other Loh Mee and with the mixed stew, it tasted awfully off. Famous Loh Mee? Baloney! Good lord, wrong publicity guys!
After a grave disappointment, we somehow move on and venture to our next stop, the legendary onion biscuit or precisely Gong Pian - known by the Fu Zhou. We arrived at noon, somewhere passed lunch hour but the queue was darn long. Yes darn long. We finally felt like we were back on track for more good food. My mum told me that they used to sell onion and char siew gong pian but I only saw the onion flavor. The lady then told us that they’re not selling the char siew flavor anymore. A little drawback because it was rumored that the char siew one taste much better. Anyhow we bought 6 of it and by the way, you can’t eat them on the spot, theoretically, since they don’t provide any seat.
Hence, I take it back to my car and have a bite. It was superb! The texture was chewy-crunchy hybrid and the onions goes sinfully well with the gong pian. One bite and the onion scent filled my whole car. I alone had 5 pieces of it, go figure how good it is.
We went for the famous nine layer cake in Yee Si Kopitiam too but the owner told us that the nine layer cake only available after 3.30 pm. If we were to wait, we need to kill another hour waiting. Hence, we decided to skip this and go for James Cendol which is located somewhere near The Store Sitiawan. Honestly, it was an okay okay cendol; nothing to shout about. In fact, it was too sweet for my liking.
As the sun setting down, we travelled to Teluk Batik, a beach for sunset shooting recommended by John, a photographer I know from Photomalaysia. “Teluk Batik has the best sunset in Perak, I can give you a tour” offered John and of course, I won’t want to trouble him. I trusted him nevertheless. I went there with a big hope but no offense John, Teluk Batik is just a piled of rubbish shore; polystyrene floating in the middle of sea, plastic bag along the shoreline, leftover food and basically everything else you can find in a rubbish dump. That is not a good setting for sunset shot! If John were with me that day, I will quietly take out my tripod and beat him to dead. Instead, I went over to Lumut harbor to salvage some shots within the available time left.
At night, we have to pick either Fu Zhou cuisine or Kampung Cina’s seafood for dinner. Since Sitiawan is a Fu Zhou town, logically, it would make better sense to go for their local specialty. So we moved from something that supposedly to be like mantis prawn, flower crab and Aussie oyster to economy rice; I’m not sure we made the correct move. Anyhow the decision had been made, so I ask Lord Google for some recommendation. The bloggers suggest Bei King Restaurant – a local restaurant serving traditional Fu Zhou dishes. For your information, Bei King Restaurant had moved to a new place, somewhere not far behind their old shop lot; we only realized that when we saw the note at their old shop lot. By the way, they have upgraded their status to Bei King Hotel Restaurant. Don’t expect cheap bill anymore. FML!
We ordered three dishes – sweet and sour fish maw soup, stir-fried potato leaves and dry braised red wine chicken. Every single of it is their signature dish but they look exactly the same like the one we ordered for economy rice.
Our first dish is a heavy tomato scent fish maw. I did googled ‘fish maw’ and the result might be fearsome; jaw, throat or stomach of a fish. Gulp. Sweet and sour fish maw soup is a fish jaw (or maybe throat or stomach) with tomato soup that has first-time tasters half suspecting they might be munching on sponge soaked in tomato sauce. The flavor was perfectly inoffensive but the organ part did make me startled – where the heck did they find such a big fish jaw; I doubt it was a pig intestine instead. I had to choke down my first bite with tea but soon my mind stop rebelling and despite the texture – a weird spongy feel exactly like biting on a pig skin but to my surprise, I actually liked it. Mercifully, the strong tomato soup totally covers the soil smell of the fish maw. It was actually the best Fu Zhou dishes I ever had – period. Five stars!
Our next dishes is dry braised red wine chicken, don’t be fooled by their bloodlike colour, according to the waitress, no colouring used. It was all due to the reddish colour of Fu Zhou red wine. The braised chicken is a bit disappointment or maybe I’m more to stronger flavor guy. Frankly, the chicken was a bit tasteless but the meat deserved a praise, it’s tenderly soft.
The stir-fried potato leaves is just another stir-fried potato leaf. Fu Zhou style, maybe? No comment. Our total damage was below MYR 60, still a bargain though.
After the dinner, we decided to drive around the small town until we stumbled across Sitiawan Big Cinema. Since that is the only entertainment place Sitiawan has to offer at this hour, we decide to go in for a 3D movie. That is the first time I go for 3D movie and by the way, 3D movie is only MYR 15 in Big Cinema, screw you TGV Ipoh! And screw you GSC Ipoh for not upgrading!
The movie ended at 11.30PM, I had a great time watching the bullet flying out from the screen. It was time to head back to our hotel but it would take us another 30 minutes trip to get back to our hotel. Somewhere in between, I had a nature call. Perhaps the fish maw determined to fight back in my stomach. I was shivering with cold sweat and my mind went blank, that time I knew I have to stop somewhere to toss the load. Hereby, I want to thank KFC Sitiawan for their clean washroom and best of all, 24 hours operating restaurant. Without them, I won’t make it and most probably forced to untie the knots in my car. Heartily appreciate your help. That’s the best moment I had in KFC.
That should be all for Day 1 – Sitiawan and Lumut. Tune in for more next time, thank you.
To be continued…
