A Road Trip Story – Day Three

Few words: MLMB will have a major makeover in layout starting from today post because Bagger Blogger decided to upgrade their posting style and the user, mostly ME, lose all my usual blog style from font colour to photo size and orientation (and yes I can't upload vertical photo anymore). Damn you Thank you blogger.

 

The part three was delayed long enough that I have actually revisited Sitiawan for a few more times and have the same foods dozens of times. Okay enough of light comedy, time for serious stuff. Let’s carry on from where I drop off in day two.

 

The next morning, as usual we stayed in our room till the last check-out call. Don’t you realize that we seldom check-out early? In every Malaysian’s eye, nothing should be wasted if you have paid for it. The same applied to hotel room, ‘die die’ also maximize our stay. Talking about typical Malaysian, I couldn't deny that I’ll always aim for the shower cap, the tiny cute bottles of shampoo and even the tea sachet the first moment I stepped into the hotel room. What? We have paid for that already, not? As I said, typical Malaysian – and you included as well so put away that disgusting smirk face. And for the non-Malaysian, you know better. Remark: Don't proceed further if you can take my JOKE. You may be affected by TOO SERIOUS flu.

One of the must try food recommended by most of the Muslim friend is Mastan Ghani’s mee rebus. We in fact paid Mastan Ghani a visit late evening the day before but alas they only open till 6 pm – I was expecting typical 24 hours operating Mamak stall but it appear not. Despite that, we are even more determined to try this halal food, so we pay Mastan Ghani another visit first thing in the next morning – literally though but it was already lunch time when we checked out.

Anyhow, we reached Mastan Ghani just past lunch hour. Don’t be surprised or confused when you saw two Mastan Ghani stalls just opposite of each other, in fact both belong to the same owners. According to the owners, there was no shop next to their current shop available when they planned to expand their business. But they never gave up and coincidentally the opposite shop is available, so they expanded their business just opposite of their current shop. I got to admit I’d admire their business mind, but I think their franchise is too near. From the latest information, there are actually 4 stalls in Teluk Intan but the best stall is the one opposite The Store.

The two killer dishes served here are mee rebus and mee rojak. The direct translation for the former is steamed noodle while the latter just don’t make any sense – a fusion between two different foods of very contrary category. Let’s skip mee rojak, I will explain later. Mee rebus is traditional Indian-Muslims dishes served with thick sweet and sour prawn gravy. Often it is served with prawn biscuit, fried tofu, boiled egg, plentiful of green salad and a finishing touch – a perfect dash of lime juice right on top of everything else. Voila! That is the Mastan Ghani's killer mee rebus. The noodle blend in so well with the thick gravy which make it totally irresistible, even for a prawn allergy guy like me.

Then here come mee rebus strange sibling, mee rojak which in my opinion is nothing differ from mee rebus. The appearance and everything else is just the same except for the extra fruity rojak taste in their gravy. However, no fruits were found in that plate of mee rojak, I think they mixed the fruits during gravy preparation. Indeed, another ‘mouth opening’ for me.

It was time to head back Ipoh and by looking at our GPS, we must or we could pass by Bidor and what else can we find in Bidor if not that yellow building that serve duck noodle wan ton mee and yam puff. The Pun Chun. I’m not bragging, almost all that travel from Ipoh to KL, back or forth or somehow using that road will stop by to have their lunch there. Don’t believe me, watch 8tv Ho Chak. Speaking of Ho Chak, they aired this a few weeks ago and I was jumping around excitedly telling my friend I went there before but none believed me. Friends, here are some picture to prove you guys wrong.

One of the reason, they are so famous is their location – right in the middle of Ipoh-KL express way. It was just like Singapore in the old days and of course another reason is their foods are worth to stop by too.

Let’s start with Pun Chun's duck noodle wan ton mee – a typical wan ton mee in duck herbal broth. By the way, wan ton mee is a type of thinner noodle usually self-made that give you a crunchy or crispy mouth feel. From their noodle texture, it doesn’t look like self-made noodle; it was way too commercial and rough. The dish is served in a hot herbal broth with duck meat, garnished with leafy vegetable and handful of green onion and scallions. The secret in every wan ton mee is to retain the al dente feel and yet free of plastic smell. In order to do that, the noodle is often blanched in hot water for 10 seconds and immediately rinsed under cold water and placed in serving bowl. Then only the hot broth comes in. The noodle that they are serving still able to retain the crunchy mouth feel but it is not the best I ever tasted. Their broth was ordinary, the same with the duck meat. Overall, okay only.

If you’re looking for yam puff, look for the old man by the small counter inside Pun Chun. Whenever you try to order yam puff from the waitress, they just point toward the old man “Order there, we don’t sell any”. I guess they are having a healthy competition over there, just that next time I would appreciate more if the waitress could lower down her volume. Back to the yam puff, the spider web texture on it does amaze me – a very interesting piece of art. But taste wise is more or less as good as Ipoh Ming Court’s yam puff. Just that I feel the one in Pun Chun is a bit drier. Reflexively, I choked down a few sips of tea to let it go down; no offense though.

After all the good foods, it was time to go home and continue with life aka more work after holidays. That is how my three days road trip (which took more than three months to update) ended. God bless!