Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip - Update 7 - Gua Musang>Cameron Highlands

We are way behind schedule because of the road detours, but finally we are here in Gua Musang at 6pm, hungry and tired... determined to find the fish head that Micol talked about, we search around Gua Musang town. As we approach the old parts of the town, we found it, but its closed! Gahhh... what luck, first landslide now shop is close!

Luckily, the restaurant a few shops away is opened, so without much hesitant, we got ourselves sat down at Restoran 166 for dinner. Maybe we are early but we are the only customers there! The famous thing to try here is "Nim" fish head or according to my dad, known as Ikan Tapah. Unfortunately don't know what went wrong, we got the a big cut of the fish instead of the head steamed for us, but being as hungry as we are, not time to question!

Since we will be heading to vegetables land soon, we ordered a Tung Poh Yok (a kind of braise pork) to help Calvin beef up on his protein level, hehehe... its tasty and nice but as usual, a little fatty and unhealthy! We then goes for some lighter dishes like mix vege tofu, some vege and soup.

The dinner is a bit costly because of the fish, about RM60 for the fish alone but if you have it in KL, its a lot more than that! Fish head would be cheaper but its still cheaper to eat it here. In face, in Gerik, we should have seek for Pak Soh Kung fish to eat as a lot of them comes from Temenggor lake.

The break was good to refresh everyone and we then head on to Cameron Highlands. The highway to Cameron Highlands from Gua Musang was just fantastic, nice view and a very pleasant drive. It took almost 2 hours to reach our hotel in Brinchang.

As we reach Brichang, the pasar malam outside the police station is filled with hustle and bustle of tourists finding for food and bargains. We hurried to our hotel, the Country Lodge to check in and unload our stuff. Being as kiasu as we are, we quickly got ourselves to the pasar malam for some local snacks, mainly fried mushrooms, sweet potato, sweet corns, etc.

The vegetables here are, well, of course fresh and big, but price wise, not everything is cheap, in fact, some are about the same as KL, just that its fresh and being tourist, we like to shop! We got ourselves a whole lot of vegetables for our steamboat the next morning!

The night ended with us doing crazy things like small kids again in the apartment. Not letting others sleep, running around, carrying people around... hehehe... its really like everyone is back to their childhood. So its not just about makan or travel but also a great time for all of us to really forgot our work and reality for that moment and really let choose, burn bright and live the few days like a small kid, what an experience ;).

GPS - Gua Musang Restoran 166 - N4 53.015 E101 57.932

Klang - Lok-Lok Steamboat

Lok-lok actually means boiling, its a way to describe boiling food on a satay stick in hot boiling water similar to steamboat. My favourite lok-lok place in Klang is situated at a lane behind Jalan Nenas to Jalan Melayu. Its a row of make shift eateries.

The unique thing about the place is the lok-lok comes in a low price of 40 cents per stick but of course the portion are smaller, but still cheap to me. It used to be 30 cents when I first discover this place many years ago. The shop only have 6 tables equipped with the lok-lok pot, so there is usually a queue to wait.

Outside the shop, there are a row of 4-5 small waiting tables, you can sit on these tables and wait for the next table to be available and someone will direct you in the "queue process". While waiting, they will take your drink order and you can order some other food from stalls around. The popular waiting food would be satay (pork or chicken) or some very yummy and unique lobak.

Unfortunately during my last visit on a Friday night, the lobak is closed, I hope they are just resting and still continue selling because their lobak is quite unique and different from the norm. So, we had some pork satay to wait and only a minimum order of 10 will be served, par pai betul :P. The pork satays are very lean served with a light peanut sauce, definately cannot compare to those in Malacca, but can do la at RM0.50 per stick.



At the lok-lok table, all the food available will be placed on the table, so there is not much space for other stuff. Whenever you finish a certain food type, you can ask the boss to replenish or he will usually do his round and fill up for you.

They provide 4 different types of sauce, the usual peanut sauce, a sweet sauce, the light orange chili sauce and a green bird chili type of sauce. Instead of the usual plate, you get a small sauce plate here for your sauce.

The lok-lok is still good here and I really hope the lobak is still around, will check it out on my next visit :D

GPS: N3 03.004 E101 26.814

Jalan Peel, KL - Yong Tau Foo

If you search around the blogs, most makan blogs will feature Wah Kiow which is a very famous Yong Tau Foo place in Lorong Peel next to Taman Maluri Jusco and IPD Cheras. That reminds me of my working days in Cheras where we used to eat at the chicken shop opposite Wah Kiow and would order some yong tau foo, but the chicken place is no longer around but Wah Kiow is still there.

It was after our mountain bike hashing (see http://wildgeeks.org) and I had like 4 bikes at the back of my truck and I found a parking at Jalan Peel instead of turning into the lorong. I saw a yong tau foo stall just at the corner of Jalan Peel to Lorong Peel and thought that Wah Kiow have move out. So without thinking too much and wanting to be able to watch my truck and all the bikes behind, we just sat and waited for the rest. A phone call later, I realised I am in the wrong shop! Hahaha... anyway, we decided to makan separately because all of us wanted to be able to see our vehicles and bikes.












So anyway, I didn't managed to catch the name of this makan place but its pretty crowded, 5 of us ordered 1 assam fish, 1 char chee yok and lots of yong tau foo (ytf). Instead of making your own ytf, this place you just pick the pieces you want. I let the Rooster do the ordering because I am just too lazy after the hash.

The ytf are alright, I wouldn't say fantastic but its on standard and is not bad. The sui kau however cannot fight with Wah Kiow and the bittergound just cannot fight with the fish paste place in Oldtown.

Assam fish is kembong, that is not too bad while the hakka stew pork (char chee yok) is average, still cannot fight with my dad's :P












Overall is ok, about RM7.50 per person for a lot of food plus drinks ;)

GPS: N3 07.604 E101 43.549

PJ Oldtown - Fish Paste Noodles

This is probably the best kept secret of PJ Oldtown when it comes to food. I have at first wanted to take details photograph on locating this place, but decided not to... why... simply because its already quite crowded and the wait is already long. Plus, it wouldn't be a secret after that right? Hahaha... so if you want to know where is it exactly, I will take you there and you pay my bill ok ;)

This place, does not have signboard, its just table and chairs laid in at the corridor of a house in PJ oldtown, passing the front of the place, you won't even know it exist! At the back is a small kitchen where the owner cook the noodles bowl by bowl, no shortcut, that's what makes it good. There are also additional place to sit inside the house, but you have to go in from the back.

The wait here average 30-40 mins, so if you can't wait, don't come. This is because there are loads of people who come, willing sit down and wait for their take away orders of like 10 packets, the lady boss cooks them one by one. Hehe... also, for drinks, they only have loh han gou and barli, nothing else. They opened 8am to 2.30pm, close on Thursday and Sunday.

They are famous for their fish paste (yee wat) noodles here, but I saw a lot of people ordering minced pork (yok sui) noodles too. The fish paste noodles are soup based, I saw the owner taking the stock from what looks like a big pot of chicken stock from my observation, not exactly sure. Anyway, the noodles are serve in soup with a very generous amount of vegetables, some seaweed, a piece of fried foo chuk and 3 big chunks of fish paste. First thing to try is the soup and its excellent, filled with taste but yet very clear (ching) and natural. The chunky fish paste fills your mouth with a bite full and its soft, no fishy smells and tasty. I can now understand why the crowds keeps coming!

Greedy me (as usual) topped up with 2 side dishes, dumpling (sui kau) and stuffed bittergound (yong foo kua). The dumpling are excellent with 1 huge big prawn in it and the paste have a good mixture of veges inside too. But I fancy the bittergound more, its hardly bitter, soft and the fish paste stuffing are very very generous.

Worth waiting, definately, just need to come earlier next time, can get a bit hot but lucky they have plenty of stand fans around ;). 3 fish paste noodles, 2 siu kau and 4 bittergound, 2 drinks cost RM18.90.

GPS: N3 05.110 E101 38.767

Batu Dam Hashing - Appetite Building! PJ - Home Recipe Seafood

Finally it's Wild Geek's 2nd hashing and we are off to Batu Dam to trash our MTBs and drain ourselves! I would say that its a demanding track running through roads, trails by the dam, stream crossings, orchards, estates and secondary jungle. Halfway in there, you ask yourself why are you doing this to torture yourself and you wish that you can immediately zap out of there back home. But at the end of the hash, filled with mud, wounds from leeches and not to mention the heat, it was all worth it. The scenery is amazing in this place, still very much not polluted, the down hill adrenalin was great (even when I fell and "tar kuan tau" at the end, hehe) and everyone had great fun. Will definately be back again! Pix tells it all, here are some of them:

















































































To see more on this hash, go to http://wildgeeks.org

After the tortures hash, our appetite are all built up, the journey back was bad as we were stuck in a long queue of traffics because motorists are slowing to look at the accident on the other side of the road, arghh... dumb malaysians attitude! Anyhow, we wanted to go to the Segambut Seafood Noodles but took a long turn and after coming out of the traffic jam, we decided to eat in PJ on the way back. Its a simple place near Sect 17 PJ, Restoran Home Recipe Seafood. We ordered 4 dishes, pork belly with salted fish, fried vege, steam salted chicken & bittergound fried with salted egg.

The chicken is good, a bit salty but that's the idea right? Steamed with some herbs like kei chi (small red dates herbs), it's nice to go with rice. The bittergound is not bad either and the rest are so-so, normal. Everything plus drinks comes to RM58, quite standard PJ/KL price.