Pangkor Makan Trip, Seafood Overwhelm: Part 2
Con't from Part 1 (read below first)... Part 2: I then have to do my chores as Jack and Kc term it and dragged everyone along with me, hehe... basically just delivering a box of mandarin oranges to my Aunt and Uncle in Sitiawan. This is basically my mum's younger sister and they are also the one who is arranging for our lunch. A quick stop to dropped off the oranges end up being a long queue of toilet break for everyone as the one storey house only have 1 toilet.
From there, my Uncle whom have helped me to reserve our lunch have been very kind to offer to lead us to the restaurant. Instead of the regular Kg. Cina, we will be driving further up north (about 30km) to the fishing town of Pantai Remis. This is usually a 20 minutes drive but we have to take much longer with so many cars and a number of heavy vehicles to overtake. But the view is quite good along the way especially when we were crossing the Dinding River leading out the sea.
I remember I was telling my wild boar story along the way, hehe... I will save that for another time here ;). Anyway, we soon reached Pantai Remis, small little town with shops on your left and right. From here, there is a small turning into our lunch destination, Restaurant Ma Ga Ka!
Its actually Hokkien for jackfruit tree leg, this is because this little restaurant which is also a house have a jackfruit tree right outside.
Ma Ga Ka is a very laid back place, doing more of local and regular's business and it only opens at 2pm! Its basically the porch next to the house turned into a restaurant, the most you can fit is probably 4-5 tables. When we reached there, so is only our lunch. Live mantis prawns and crabs which just came in from the sea in the morning are just brought back to the restaurant. Immediately these live seafood fresh from the sea are being cooked and prepared for us.
We first have a local speciality, glazed yam, basically yam pieces fried and glazed with a sugar coating. Next are Kembong fish, usually a cheap fish in KL and the only way to eat them is to fried it. But because the Kembong are just freshly bought in from the sea in the morning, its actually steamed and served with light soya sauce and ginger. The flesh are sweet and superbly tender. Next up are oysters fried in egg, the local style is slightly different from KL, where here its more starchy and served with good old Kg Koh chili sauce. We then had another dish of kembong fishes in spicy assam sauce. The portion are so big that almost all of us could have 2 fishes or more! I am not sure about the other table, but sitting with the families table have its advantages :P.
The next dish are prawns flesh which are being shredded and fried churncy which you then wrap them in a vege, which is marvellous. One of the power thing they serve here are prawns cake or har peng, in KL its usually starch made into a cake with 2-3 prawns in the middle and fried, up here, the whole thing is prawns and you hardly find starch, hmmm... just wonder if prawns are cheaper than flour here, hehe. Next up are crabs simply cook in simple chili sauce, which is crab are tender and sweet because of the freshness.
The long awaited mantis prawn is then served steamed, the owner told us that its not just fresh but being that its just being caught, it will have more flesh compared to those shipped to KL as it will not be eating for 2-3 days. My uncle showed us the way to peeled the mantis prawn to get the flesh out in 1 piece which is quite interesting. There are so many mantis prawns that I think I ate like 5-6 myself alone!
At this point of time, everyone is already filled up to the neck with seafood but next came coming a mountain of prawns each table fried with assam sauce. One of the shell fish which up north here have and not available in KL is this shellfish which have sharp little things that come out... you see pix, don't know how to describe :). The trick with this is to use a toothpick and pick the inner flesh out, not easy ok!
I can't remember if we had anything else served, but the total damage with drinks, rice and noodles is RM360 for 2 tables of so many of us. Some say so-so, some say cheap, but I think its definately cheap, try ordering so much in KL and see how much it will cost you :).
Anyhow this is by far, my most power seafood experience (not how expensive it is, but how much you can eat) and the style of the local cooking is really different from those in KL. For the unique taste and experience, Pantai Remis is definately worth my trip! (*v*) With our belly filled up to our neck, its time to move on and catch the next ferry to our destination, Pangkor Island aka my mum's hometown.
My aunt and uncle was nice enough to lead us to the jetty and even show me (which his hand pointing out of his car) their friend's shop which I can buy local produces on my way back. My aunt even helped us buy the local ferry tickets, usual cost RM10 2 way but we got ours at RM6 only, that's a lot of saving for so many people :D. The old shell petrol station is lumut have been converted into a parking lot and it cost RM10 for an overnite park. We quickly get ourselves ready and rush for the next ferry and with so many people plus kids around, its not easy man! Jack and his family is of course the last as usual and we finally got onboard the ferry.
As usual the scene to look out for is our Naval base in lumut but this time there are many big warship or our latest controversial submarine around to see. I was too tired to time but within 20-25 mins we are already dropping passengers off at Sg. Pinang Kecil and within the next 5 mins, we are already at Pangkor jetty.
Just as we are docking, I hear someone coughing and choking, a quick turn and I saw Jack's maid vomitting from sea sick and OMG, its all over the floor. So I gave her plastic bag and tissue but I think, ermmm... its too late, hehehe... so the next best thing to do is to get out of there, quick! It feels good to be back to Pangkor again, so many memories flash in my mind of this island as I spent much of my school holidays monkey-ing here :D. Anyway, we hurried to our cabs, which can fit 10 each and the journey to our hotel at Pantai Pasir Bogak is RM10.
Finally, we arrived at Sea View Hotel, I checked all of us in and its swimming time. The hotel is still the same old place, I got a Family Chalet, it have 2 beds that sleeps 3 and cost about RM140 after discount but of course my good friend KC gave me further special personal sponsorship, thanks ya KC (he so nice guy have to mention his name la).
The place haven't change too much but now I can see houses, apartments on the island and the beach is still the same, but I remember it used to be cleaner, hope they do something soon! The hotel also attracts some hornbills by feeding papaya morning and evening, its quite cool seeing how they glide in to get their food.
After a good evening swim in the sea and the hotel pool, we venture out to makan again. At this point of time, everyone is experiencing seafood overwhelm and we decided to order ordinary dinner dishes with the exception of a big plate of fried sotong... yummy. We ended the night with a surprise supermarket cake for Micol's b'day and some chor di by the pool.
Next morning, me and my room mate Ken Wei rent a motorbike and ride to town for breakfast. In an ordinary coffeeshop, it cost RM2.50 for a bowl of noodles and RM1.00 for iced coffee, not as much as KL but not cheap also! Its a cold morning and the motorbike ride was freezing. We then spent sometime beach walking and finally meet this local chap whom have just fish in some live sotong just by the beach where we stayed.
Our kiasu friend who brought his fishing rod but didn't use quickly borrow the rod and sotong for a photo ops, not good to say name, so you see photo la ehehehe :). After a short climb at my favourite rocks there, most of them decided to rent more motorbikes and round the island while I stayed back with the family for more swim time and some baby sitting time on the pool too unfortunately.
As quick as we came, it time to leave again, as we checked out and wait for our taxis, a yo yo ais motorbike came along we quickly snap up a cup each. My sarsi flavour is so so but they say the cendol flavour is good, I guess I fail to understand that sarsi is a drink and cendol is naturally a ice blended thing, hehe... what to do, I never learnt :P.
We then had a quick lunch at Sg. Pinang Besar town, where this other shop seems to charge more for food and drinks, not sure its because we all look so touristsy. After lunch we head to the jetty into the next ferry and as usual Jack is the last family to board and we head back to Lumut. At Lumut, again you know who is last and this time I got conned into helping our friend carry his pull on luggage which weights like a tonne of rocks, no joke, I almost tripped coming off the ferry, hehe.
At Lumut, we quickly picked up our cars and head to Ping Gi, which is my uncle friend's shop, I identify myself (as instructed by my aunt) and pointed out of my friends so that we get some discounts. So we all went crazy shopping for local produces like satay fishes, anchovies, dried shrimps, etc. One thing I couldn't find is a wet version of the satay fish, its black in colour, and its not dry and its sweet and gingery in taste. I love that version of the satay fish, I asked the owner and was told that they only produce that in small quantity because you can't keep them long :(. Anyhow, after fulfulling my instructed shopping list and stuff I need, I turned out to be the top shopper *pai seh* (*O*). Its time to head back and we all want to stop at the famous cendol in Sitiawan but I of course, have to drop by my aunt place to pick up stuff back to KL. So they went ahead and I met them at the cendol place later.
The cendol place is easy to find, just look out for the Indian Temple next to Fajar. Go to the stall where the owners both are dressed in chef liked uniform and have newspaper cutting displayed. I was told that even his majesty, the Sultan ate there before. After a quick round of cendol, we also stopped for some of the gang to buy local Sitiawan Mangoes. I think Sitiawan now is also growing very good dragon fruits but I didn't manage to see any at the road side stalls. From here, we head straight to Bidor for a coffee break.
Along the way, the weather got hot and we got sleepy. So nonsense talk started over the air and Jack is complaining of his sun burnt because he just refused to fuel up at any other station other than Caltex! So he had to wind down the window to conserve fuel and the sun was getting into him, ehehe. He finally gave up and fuelled at Shell in Teluk Intan and we only passed Caltex in Bidor where he filled to the max.
At Bidor we had a quick break and the families decided to move as the kids were sleeping. Just as we were leaving Bidor town, our grey Wira got lost and we had to call to get him back on track.
Soon we manage to get him back and we headed back to home. I dropped my passengers off in PJ and head home praying that my dog did not destroy my house ;).
Overall a good trip for me, not sure about the rest, will be interesting if one of the first timer blog his or her experience :). Anyway, it was good to go back to Pangkor again and I was fortunate to have great aunt and uncle whom took so much trouble to shown us around. It was a very nice get away and I am glad that everyone is already talking about our next Makan Trip, Batu Gajah *hint hint to Jack* {{{(>.<)}}}
